I am proud to be a 3M-sponsored blogger. Opinions are my own and additional products used in the project were selected by me.
It’s hard to believe that in a matter of weeks we’ll be packing away the shorts and t-shirts and pulling out the pull-overs and scarves. It may be gorgeous, sun-shiny, late summer weather today, but cold, nippy Fall weather is just around the corner. Before we know it, we’ll be flipping the switch from air conditioner to heater and wearing boots instead of flip-flops.
This is the perfect time of year to add a few things to your honey-do list to help make (and maintain) a healthier home environment. Forget Spring Cleaning. It’s time for Fall Organizing.
Fall Cleaning “Honey-Do” Lists
- Clean the furniture. I don’t know about you, but once I’ve put a piece of furniture into place, I tend to leave it there…and forget it. Move furniture to vacuum underneath and behind, pull up cushions…and discover all of the hidden – lost – treasures within! Just last weekend, we deep cleaned the couches in the basement and found lost glasses, a long-lost remote control, spoons, toys, and lots of garbage. Behind the couch was a wealth of dust – and I spent the rest of the night sneezing. I felt so much better knowing that that dust and trash was gone!
- Dust walls and baseboards. There’s something about the summer that simply leaves a mess behind. Tackle everything from the cobwebs to the dust bunnies and get a hold on all of the dust that has settled along walls with the long-handled brush attachment of your vacuum cleaner.
- Rotate bedding. Flip your mattress (from end-to-end and front-to-back) for optimal wear. Grab a book and all of your bedding (quilts, pillows, mattress pads, etc) and head to the laundromat for a heavy duty machine wash.
- Clean all windows, window treatments, and doors and get them ready for colder weather. If you have storm windows or doors, install them now. Check weather stripping and replace or install as needed.
- Move the refrigerator away from the wall and vacuum the coils…and then before you put everything back in place, take all of the food off the shelves and throw out foods that are out of date or of unknown date. Clean all shelves thoroughly before replacing the foods that you’re keeping. While you’re at it, check the pantry shelves for foods that are past their prime, and toss spices that are older than 6 months.
- Change your air filter. Changing your Filtrete Healthy Living Ultra Allergen Reduction Filter MPR 1500 at least every three months is important (I recommend adding it to your calendar!), but it’s especially critical to change filters before turning on the air conditioner (in summer months) or the heat (in fall months). Remember: when you pull out the sweaters, pull out that old filter and exchange it for a new one. New filters not only capture allergens from the air passing through the filter, but doing so may also help reduce the amount of energy needed to cool or heat the home. Bonus benefit!
The Filtrete Healthy Living Ultra Allergen Reduction Filter (MPR 1500) is just one of the ways you can help create a healthier home by capturing airborne particles like dust, pollen and mold spores from the air passing through the filter (in fact, it captures 90% of large airborne particles!). It also attracts and captures particles that can carry bacteria and viruses.
Connect with Filtrete
• Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/Filtrete
• Twitter: @Filtrete
• Register to receive seasonal e-newsletters featuring special offers, filter change reminders, better home living tips and more at www.Filtrete.com.
Enter to win a Fall Cleaning giveaway from Filtrete!
We’re giving away a year’s supply of Filtrete Filters along with a $50 gift card to put towards creating a healthier home. Enter on the Rafflecopter form below before midnight on September 30, 2014 and let me know how you prepare your home for fall. A winner will be chosen at random and notified via email. This giveaway is limited to US-based winners only and you must have a heating/cooling system that uses one-inch filters.
© 2014, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
Fall cleaning means changing the batteries in the fire alarms, checking air filter, dusting off the ceiling fan blades and putting away all the summer things.
Fall is a great time to organize your garage and yard tools, so when springtime rolls around again next year, you’ll be able to find your stuff easier and quicker!
Get rid of what you don’t wear, clean fans, change filters.
I take a weekend to organize the garage and put away all the water guns, sprinkler toys and bubbles that the kids play with over the summer but won’t use in the winter and get out all the volleyball, soccer, and fall sports equipment that has been shelved for most of the spring and summer.
Fall time is definitely time to replace the furnace filter. I also clean out all the fans of dirt and dust they collect all summer so they are clean and ready to go for the next spring/summer season. I also clean my vacuum filters too.
I clean up, donate clothes, change air filters.
We clean the windows and all the ceiling fans every Fall and Spring.
When Fall comes around I clean my windows, wash my curtains, and clean my carpet. I also have one last yard sale and get rid of stuff in closets and stuff.
When fall comes, I always take an afternoon to clean my ceiling fans. They super dusty after being used all spring and especially summer.