Cleaning Up For Summer

Cleaning up for summer is a little different to spring cleaning. Spring cleaning focuses on changing the seasons inside the house and letting the air into a home that has, for the most part, been shut up for the winter. Preparing for summer has more focus on outside and the coming months where your garden will become your extra room. Who can’t wait for those long summer nights in the garden?

But you can’t sit on chairs covered in a green lichen, and who would want to eat anything cooked on the BBQ that hasn’t been cleaned in months.

Let’s open up your summer rooms.

First off, give all of your windows a good clean, inside and out. Dust away all the cobwebs both inside and outside and clean months of dusty rain off the outside windowsill, frame and glass. As it’s often pretty grimy, use soap and water on the first pass, then clean off with a squeegee and finally either use a window cleaner or a water and vinegar solution and opened out coffee filters (which leave much fewer smears and lint than newspaper or kitchen towel).

With more guests likely to appear over the coming months, your front door should be welcoming and clean. If your paths, driveway and decking need more than just a sweep, use a little shop-bought cleaning solution and scrub in with a stiff broom, then rinse with a hose. To protect your, don’t use a high-pressure washer; instead sweep down the driveway and paths, and trim any trees, bushes or shrubs back a little. Why not plant a seasonal trough to add a little early-season colour to welcome to season in?

Spend some time with your garden furniture. Most metal and plastic furniture just needs soapy water and some elbow-grease to clean, though wooden furniture, if it’s been left out all winter, is going to need more work – including treatments, weather protection and oils. Wooden furniture should be stored indoors over the winter to keep it in peak condition, but metal and plastic can be left out all year, which gives you a chance to kick back outside on those rare sunny winter days as well.

Give your BBQ a good once over. Burn off the left-overs from last summer’s last BBQ and scrape anything left. Change the coals and scrubs down the bricks, or the casing.

Getting your ‘outside room’ cleaned and all set up to go will prepare you for a wonderfully relaxed summer.

If you are looking for a spring cleaning in Bristol contact us.