Spring Cleaning
Checklist

Updated October 2026 • By Jesse Casillas Jr., Owner, My Pristine Home, Draper, Utah

Spring cleaning is a once-a-year, do-it-yourself clean of the spots weekly cleaning skips

Spring cleaning is a top-to-bottom pass over the jobs a regular weekly clean does not reach: window tracks, walls, inside appliances, behind furniture, closets and grout. It is a do-it-yourself job, done once a year when the weather turns. A home that is kept up every week never needs a big reset. This list just covers the few spots a weekly routine misses.

The timing makes sense. After a winter with the windows shut, a house has been breathing the same air for months. The EPA estimates people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors. EPA studies found about a dozen common organic pollutants at levels 2 to 5 times higher inside homes than outside. Opening the windows while you clean lets that air out instead of moving the dust around.

Utah homes start spring cleaning in March

In Utah, interest in spring cleaning jumps in March. Google searches in Utah for "spring cleaning checklist" reached about 260 in March 2026 and about 170 in April 2026, against about 10 a month from September to December 2025. Start on the first run of days warm enough to open the windows. Plan a weekend for it, or one room a night for a week. Spring is also a good time to set up a simple house cleaning schedule so next year is a smaller job. A few warm days are enough. You do not need to wait for the whole season to turn.

Declutter and gather supplies before you clean

Decluttering comes first because every item that leaves the house is one less thing to dust, lift and put back. The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) suggests sorting everything into four piles: keep, donate, recycle or discard. Work one room at a time and put the donate pile straight in the car.

Then gather your supplies so you are not stopping halfway. ACI lists an all-purpose cleaner, a glass cleaner, microfiber cloths, sponges, a mop, a vacuum, trash bags and storage bins. Add a step stool for high fixtures and a crevice tool for tracks and edges. Keep everything in one bucket or caddy that moves with you from room to room.

The whole-house list works from the ceiling down

Start high and finish with the floors. Dust falls, so this order means you clean each surface once.

• Ceiling fans and light fixtures dusted first. Switch fans to counter-clockwise so they push cool air down for summer.
• Tops of cabinets, door frames and the fridge dusted.
• Walls wiped around switches, handles and doorways.
• Windows washed inside, with the sills and tracks cleaned.
• Blinds dusted slat by slat and curtains washed.
• Baseboards and door frames wiped in every room.
• Air filter changed. ENERGY STAR advises checking it once a month.
• Smoke alarms tested. The U.S. Fire Administration says to test monthly and replace each alarm every 10 years.
• Carpets and rugs deep cleaned last, with edges done by crevice tool.

The kitchen list starts inside the appliances

The kitchen takes the longest, so do it on a day with the most time. Start with the refrigerator: empty it into a cooler, clean it, and refill it before anything warms up. Then work the room top to bottom, from the range hood and the cabinet tops down to the toe kicks and the floor. Unplug an appliance before you clean inside it or behind it.

• Refrigerator emptied, shelves and drawers washed, expired food thrown out.
• Refrigerator coils vacuumed and the floor underneath swept.
• Oven and microwave cleaned inside.
• Pantry cleared and the shelves wiped.
• Cabinets and drawers wiped inside and out, toe kicks included.
• Range hood and filter degreased, and the backsplash wiped.
• Dishwasher filter cleaned and a cleaning cycle run.

The bathroom list focuses on grout, fixtures and expired products

A bathroom spring clean is mostly about the build-up a weekly wipe leaves behind: dark grout lines, mineral spots on fixtures and a dusty fan. Open the window or run the fan while you work. Never mix bleach with ammonia or with acid cleaners such as vinegar, because the mix gives off toxic gas. Let each cleaner sit for a few minutes before you scrub, so it does the work.

• Grout scrubbed in the shower and on the floor.
• Shower curtain and liner washed or replaced.
• Showerheads and faucets descaled to remove white mineral build-up.
• Exhaust fan cover washed and the housing vacuumed.
• Cabinet under the sink emptied, wiped, and expired cosmetics and medicines thrown out.
• Bath mats and towels washed on hot.

Bedrooms and closets get the winter swap

Bedrooms change the most between seasons. Heavy bedding comes off, winter clothes go into storage, and the closet floor finally gets cleared. Wash everything before it goes into storage, so it comes out clean next fall. The EPA notes that dust mite levels are higher indoors than outside, and bedding is where mites collect, so wash it on the hottest setting the care label allows.

• All bedding washed, including the mattress protector, pillows and the winter duvet before it goes into storage.
• Mattress vacuumed and rotated.
• Winter clothes washed and stored, summer clothes brought forward.
• Closet floors emptied and vacuumed, and the top shelf dusted.
• Under the bed vacuumed.

Living areas, laundry and the entry finish the house

These rooms took the most winter traffic: wet boots at the door, blankets on the sofa, and a dryer running more loads than usual. Do them last, because cleaning the rest of the house sends more dust and dirt their way. Finish with the entry floor, since it is the way out with the trash and the donate pile.

• Upholstery vacuumed, under the cushions too.
• Throw blankets and cushion covers washed.
• TV, electronics and remotes dusted and wiped.
• Fireplace glass and hearth cleaned after the last fire of the season.
• Washing machine run on a cleaning cycle, gasket and detergent drawer wiped.
• Dryer lint cleared from the screen and the duct.
• Entry cleared of winter boots and coats, mats washed, floor mopped.

Spring cleaning, fall cleaning and weekly cleaning do different jobs

All three matter, and they do not replace each other. Weekly cleaning keeps the surfaces you touch every day clean. The two seasonal cleans reach what weekly cleaning never touches. Spring opens the house up, and fall closes it down for winter.

The full fall list is in our fall cleaning checklist.

Five jobs get skipped most often

If you only do five things on this list, do these. They are the jobs no weekly clean touches.

1. Window tracks. The tracks, not the glass. They collect grit, dead insects and a gray film from winter condensation.
2. Walls at hand height around switches and doors, where hands leave a layer you stop seeing.
3. Closet floors. The dust in a bedroom collects here, under shoes and bags.
4. The bathroom exhaust fan. A dusty cover moves less air, so the room stays damp longer.
5. The air filter and the smoke alarm test. Both take five minutes and both are easy to forget.

Most homes finish in one weekend or six evenings

ACI notes that most households spread spring cleaning across six days. Two plans work well.

One room a day, Monday to Saturday

Mon kitchen · Tue bathrooms · Wed bedrooms · Thu closets · Fri living areas and entry · Sat whole-house jobs. About 45 minutes a night.

Two half-days over a weekend

Saturday morning: declutter, then everything overhead, walls and windows. Sunday morning: inside the appliances, closets and floors. Then stop.

Whichever plan you pick, finish each room before you start the next one. A half-done house feels worse than one finished room, and it is harder to pick up again. Keep a short list of anything that needs a repair, such as a loose cabinet hinge or a cracked tile, and deal with it after the cleaning is done.

Recurring cleaning keeps your home at its spring-clean level all year

This checklist is built for doing it yourself. If you would rather have the house stay this clean all year, without saving it up for one big weekend, that is where we help. Our recurring cleaning service sends the same background-checked team every week, every two weeks or every month, with no long-term contract. If your home is far from that level today, we start with one deep clean. After that, regular visits keep it there, so you never need another reset. Not sure which you need? Read deep clean vs. regular cleaning. We serve Draper, Sandy, Herriman and the rest of our Salt Lake and Utah County service area.

Our service covers the inside of the house only. Yard work, gutters, outside windows on upper floors and sprinkler start-up are outdoor and trade work, and My Pristine Home does not do them. Hire a landscaper or a handyman for those.

Sources

Time indoors and indoor pollutant levels: U.S. EPA, The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality

Air filter once a month: ENERGY STAR, Maintenance Checklist

Smoke alarm testing and replacement: U.S. Fire Administration, Smoke Alarms

Decluttering, supplies and the six-day plan: American Cleaning Institute, Spring Cleaning Plan

Utah search volumes: Google Ads data via DataForSEO, pulled October 4, 2026.

Jesse Casillas Jr.

Owner & Founder, My Pristine Home · Draper, UT

Jesse started My Pristine Home to give busy Utah families their weekends back. He personally oversees every client relationship and responds to every quote request — you reach the owner, not a call center. Background-checked, insured, and built on trust.