It is already July and the beach towels are piling up. Use this mid-summer cleaning list to clean the house before it gets out of hand.
We are about halfway through summer and the little people have taken over our home – eating up all the food, crying I am bored every 10 minutes, tracking in pool water, and causing general chaos. Let’s get those imps involved this summer in the cleaning and organizing by having them work WITH us. Get those summer chore lists in their hands and crank up the tunes! Fall and back to school is just around the corner, and now is a great time to get things into shape, so this month is all about small general housekeeping tasks that are perfect for getting the kids involved.
Mid-Summer Cleaning List
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Flip all the mattresses – This one requires a couple of strong backs, give every mattress in the house a flip and/or an 180-degreee rotation. Sprinkle with baking soda mixed with a couple drops of essential oil then vacuum away to freshen.
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Get rid of unworn clothes in the closet – Remember the clothes hangers we turned backward in January? If you haven’t worn an item and turned the hanger around, it is probably time to give it away. If you didn’t do the hanger flip, just purge out anything that you don’t love.
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Grab a donation bag – Gather 20 items in 20 minutes to give away. If you can do more that’s great, but walk among all your rooms and find at least 20 things to donate. Give the kids a bag to do the same.
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Clean out your purse – Empty out change to toss into your change jar, toss out empty chapstick tubes, restock tissues, etc. Wipe down the outside with a sanitizing wipe.
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Sanitize the beach towels – Toss towels in a hot water cycle with a ½ cup of vinegar to remove odors that come from towels left too long in beach bags or piled on the floor.
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Pair up odd socks in the sock basket – You know how you are always waiting for the mate to show up for the socks in your sock basket? Summer is a great time to reunite a lot of pairs. In my house we have all been in flip flops for nearly 2 months, so the socks that are returning have either made it or are never coming back. Toss any without a mate!
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Deep clean the fridge – It is going to get messy faster with all of the kids in and out. If you don’t have time to clean the whole fridge, just clean out the door. Otherwise, go through the condiments and other items in the refrigerator and toss the ones that are outdated.
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Descale the coffee maker – If you haven’t descaled your coffee maker lately, it’s time to give it a good cleaning. Don’t forget to take all the removable pieces apart and wipe off the outside as well. I TRY to do mine monthly, but often it works out to more like bimonthly.
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Deep clean around toilets – If you have kids, especially boys, this area can get gross really fast. Make this cleaner to help get rid of that horrible smell that lingers in the bathroom. Mix together 1/2 cup of baking soda and 1 T. lemon juice spread it around the base of your toilet, allow to sit for 10 minutes. Use a scrub brush to work the mixture in and then spritz with vinegar, your mixture will bubble up, once it is done fizzing wipe it up with a very damp towel. Get in the floor bolts well and around the bolts that hold the seat to the toilet.
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Sanitize bathtub toys – Soak tub toys in a sink (or tub) full of hot water and a splash of bleach. Squeeze hollow toys like rubber duckies to draw bleach water up into the hole so that the inside is cleaned as well. Toss the ones that are beyond cleaning and full of mold.
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Wipe down baseboards – Hand a damp cloth to each kid in the house and have them give the often overlooked baseboards throughout a swipe.
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Change out the AC filters – Swap out the filter, add a drop or two of lemon essential oil to freshen and kill bacteria in your vents.
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Clean off a hotspot – Find an area in your home that is just a magnet for clutter and mess, spend 20 minutes getting it in order. For me, it’s my kitchen bar and my dresser.
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Freshen living room furniture – Use a homemade Febreze to freshen up living room furniture that has been covered in sweaty, dirty bodies, coated in crumbs, and otherwise abused.
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Polish wood furniture – Handing off a soft cloth and a safe, chemical-free wood polish to your kids is a perfect cure for summer boredom.
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Update the book basket – If you don’t have a book basket for the kids, make one. If you do rotate books for some fresh reading material. You can create a cozy reading nook to encourage summer reading while you’re at it.
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Wash area rugs – Grab the rugs by doors, in the kitchen, and in the bathrooms. Run them through a hot cycle in your washer with a cup of baking soda to sanitize then dry them outdoors to bring some of that fresh air indoors.
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Move and clean under heavy furniture – Sweep away dust bunnies and mop beneath it to keep it from getting out of hand.
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Sanitize all the trashcans – Grab kitchen and bathroom cans and take them outdoors. Fill them with water, a bit of dish soap, and a splash of bleach. Scrub if needed, then rinse and drain before bringing them back in the house. Add a couple drops of your favorite essential oil into the bottom of each!
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Scrub interior doors – Give the little hands in your house a damp cloth or a safe cleaning/sanitizing wipe and send them off to wipe down all the interior doors
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Dust light fixtures – Do this just before you sweep or vacuum so that the dust knocked down is quickly whisked away. Telescoping dusters make this a task kids can help out with, I’m just saying…
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Give all your technology a screen cleaning – Summer is a great time to clean kids tablets, TV’s, computers, and phones. You can use special electronics wipes or a paper towel dampened with window cleaner to give your screens new life.
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Unsubscribe to emails – Go into your inbox and unsubscribe from the emails you get constantly but never read ( but not the ones from Premeditated Leftovers!).
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Delete photos off cell phones – Go through your photos and purge out photos not save worthy and the 1,373 blurry selfies your kids have taken so far this summer, except for a few. This would be a great time to save your phone pictures to your computer or a flash drive to make more space.
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Gather receipts from around the house – Even if you are on top of this there is usually a receipt or two hanging out in your purse, in a junk drawer, or stuck to the fridge with a magnet. Grab them all and put them in the file where they belong; do not add them to your desk pile!
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Purge magazines and junk mail – Give the kids a couple magazines for summer collage art projects and donate or toss the rest. Shred the junk mail and get it out of there!
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Hose off patio/porches – Nothing is better on a hot summer day than cool water, give your kids the hose and send them out to wash away dirt, sand, and cobwebs off your entertaining areas. Or go out and be a kid again yourself!
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Clean out the car – As summer marches on your backseat has likely become a home for beach toys, sand, flip flops, and other hot weather gear. Enlist the kids to help in carrying it all out and rehoming it where it belongs.
Pat Schuneman says
Thank you for your wisdom!