Experts Offer Several Spring Cleaning Tips

Spring cleaning. You’ve heard of it?

Not spring training. Spring training is when pudgy rich men don jerseys and loll around an outfield. Men know spring training.

Unfortunately, statistics show, it remains to the women to know spring cleaning. Well, sort of. I mean, they remember it. As in, what their grandmothers knew - top-to-bottom, throw-open-the-windows, scrub-the-hearth kind of cleaning.

But hey, they had to. Winters of oil furnaces and wood stoves required an annual purging.

These days, we have the right to choose. I choose to open the windows, crank The Pretenders, pull out my Day-Timer and call The Maids. I will help, of course. I’m taking down the Christmas decorations.

Hey, that’s life in these United States. Nearly 22 million U.S. households paid for professional cleaning in 1998 and that figure is expected to rise 10 percent by 2006, studies show.

Many families just don’t spring-clean anymore.

However, if you step up to the plate, here is some basic advice from the experts:

Have a plan. Jot down the things that bug you the most. Window grime. Cobwebs in the closet. Focus on those spots rather than an entire front-porch-to-back-porch effort. Some folks tackle one room at a time to better gauge their progress.

Make an appointment with yourself. Get the whole family involved. “Ask any man when was the last time he saw the top of his workbench,” Campbell said.

Groove on gadgets. If a new vacuum will motivate you, there are some handy ones on the market. Campbell recommends a canister because it’s easy to roll up stairs, among other things. His Web site (http://www.thecleanteam.com) carries an A-to-Z catalog of cleaning tools from his own Big Vac (with a foot switch, a handle for lifting and an air filter) to the Double-Header Broom. Or your very own Squeegee.

Which brings us to the No. 1 universal spring cleaning task: windows.

If you don’t really know how to wash windows and are still smearing your hands with wet newspapers and vinegar, this note’s for you: GET A SQUEEGEE.

You don’t see those guys on scaffolds messing with newspapers do you? Get a good squeegee, one that pivots, with a replaceable blade. That way you can clean windows by standing to one side. Be done in a third of the time. And that’s it for innovation. Your soap you can grab off the kitchen sink - as in Ivory Liquid.

Other spring cleaning basics include:

The Mambo vacuum. As in blinds, curtains, upholstery. Bookcases, tops of books, baseboards and windowsills. Behind the stove, under the refrigerator. And yes, move the couch.

It’s not just for dishes anymore. Don’t waste time dusting individual knickknacks. Scoop them up and wash them together - in the dishwasher. Next load, stack filthy vent covers here for a big group clean.

Closets. First, remove everything. Then clean from the top down, including dusty corners. Air those linens.

Declutter. Now is a good time to weed out extra plastic bags, bottles and cans. Use the Big Four: Boxes or bags labeled “recycle,” “pitch,” “donate,” or “sell.”

Seasonal tasks. It’s also a good time to check smoke detector batteries, flip the mattress, cleanse drip coffee pots with white vinegar, scrub the trash can and replace that mildewed shower curtain liner.

If you’re buzzed on coffee, you can also check the roof and make repairs, clean the gutters, clear the yard, polish jewelry and the silver and clean light fixtures.

You’ll love this one. If it isn’t dirty, don’t clean it.