5 Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Atlantic Builders Home

As spring unfolds before us, our minds naturally gravitate towards many things.

For some, it’s spending more time outside enjoying the warmer temperatures.

For others, it’s spotting migrating birds returning from their winter lodgings.

And for many of us, spring is a time synonymous with cleaning.

But spring cleaning doesn’t always have to be a chore. It can be a fun way to work as a family to refresh your living space, put away the cold of winter, and celebrate the rebirth of the seasons.

Here are 5 of our favorite spring cleaning tips for your Atlantic Builders home.

1. Clean and Reverse Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans are a great way to keep the air moving throughout your home. Our new townhomes in Southwood in Charlottesville, for example, have rough-ins for ceiling fans in the family room and owner’s bedroom (which are perfect complements to the Southwood’s 17 SEER HVAC system, considered an excellent rating for a new home). But ceiling fans do need a little TLC every so often. Ceiling fans can spin in two different directions, and the direction is actually very important to your comfort. In the colder months, you want the fan to travel clockwise. This pulls the warm air up and helps it to better circulate through the room. But in the warmer months, you want your ceiling fan to go counterclockwise, pushing air directly down on you for extra cooling. The other thing you should make sure to do it dust the blades of your ceiling fans. Which is the perfect segue to…

2. Dust with Used Dryer Sheets

Dryer sheets help clothes stay fluffy and remove static. That’s great, but what they can do after you’ve used them is just as impressive. Dryer sheets do their magic in your laundry with special chemicals imbued in them, and those same chemicals can work wonders when you dust! When you rub a used dryer sheet over, say, ceiling fan blades, not only do they attract dust, but they also impart a little of their chemicals to continue to remove static electricity and thus repel dust for quite some time. Of course, if you have a lot of dust, vacuum it up first to make sure the dryer sheets get maximum contact with each surface. Since chemicals are involved, you should wear gloves to prevent the chemicals from getting on your hands. If you lived in our Finley home type at Liberty Hall Estates in Stafford, your laundry room would be on the upper floor near your owner’s bedroom making it easy to keep that special space dust free!

3. Refresh Your Carpets

Carpets are great during the colder months, keeping your feet warm as you walk around your home. But carpets do take their fair share of abuse and spills. And being underfoot means any dirt that falls gets sucked up by your carpets. Vacuuming regularly is great, but spring is a great time to super clean your carpets. Not only will it help them look and smell better, but it will make them last longer. Sure, you can hire a professional. You can also buy or rent a carpet cleaning machine. But if you want an easy way to refresh your carpets yourself, just look to your pantry. Baking soda is the ideal carpet cleaner. Just sprinkle it into your carpet, let it sit for a bit to absorb oily buildup and smells, and then just vacuum it all away!

4. Check Your Smoke & CO2 Detectors

Smoke & CO2 detectors are two of the most important safety features in your home, but they will only work if they are in good working order. Now, a brand-new home means brand-new equipment and systems, but it also means now is the time to start good homeowner habits. Experts say to check your smoke & CO2 detectors and fire extinguishers once a year to make sure they are functional or fully charged, respectively. Those same experts say battery-powered smoke & CO2 detector batteries should be replaced twice a year (spring and fall are normally picked for using daylight saving time to help you remember), while wired detectors should have their backup batteries changed once a year.

5. Switch Up Your Wardrobe

Of course spring is a time where you’ll move lighter clothes and jackets to the forefront of your closets, as sweaters, sweatshirts, and heavy coats get a well-needed rest. But that’s not all you can do to free up closet space with the changing of seasons. Try this: turn all your clothes hangers in one direction. After you wear your clothes and put them back, turn the hanger around. Pretty soon, it will be easy to see which clothes you are wearing and which might be good candidates for donating to charity, selling at a yard sale, or passing on as hand-me-downs. Then, you’ll have room for new spring clothes, which is always fun. Of course, if a Mitchell home style was your new home in Evershire North in Waynesboro, you wouldn’t have to worry about space in your owner’s bedroom’s large walk-in closet, but keeping your wardrobe fresh is never a bad thing.

Spring Cleaning In Your Atlantic Builders Home

Refreshing your carpets and wardrobe, checking the health of your smoke & CO2 detectors, switching your ceiling fan to spin in the proper direction, and dusting with used dryer sheets will bring the joy of spring into your home. And even if you’ve just moved into your new Atlantic Builders home, these 5 spring cleaning tips will get you in the habit of keeping your home amazing for years to come.