Get Your Home Ready and Styled for Spring!

A reader of mine offered to do a guest post for me on Spring Cleaning! Thanks Christina! XOXO

Spring has nearly sprung! With spring comes warmer weather, spring cleaning, and

more opportunities for visitors to stop by for an afternoon get-together.

Is your house ready for spring?

Walls Don't Talk, but They Reveal A Lot!

Ever notice that, no matter how much you clean your house, dirty, dingy walls just

ruin it? If this is the case, it may be time to repaint; however, try cleaning the walls,

baseboards, molding, and doors first. If they still look dirty, aren't as bright as you'd

like, or you're ready to experiment with new colors and designs, repainting the

walls can make all the different to the overall look and feel of your home.

Scrape away flaking paint and sand it down. Prime the walls and then apply a base

coat with a roller.

After your base coat, feel free to get creative with different colors, brushes, such as

sponges, and designs (painting tape is great for making a lined design on the walls).

Don't forget to remove face plates of the electrical outlets and light switches, and

use a drop cloth for the floors; cover door knobs with plastic bags and the molding

with painter's tape to prevent accidental drips and brushing.

Walk Lightly and Fix the Floors

If your walls were bad, your floors are worse.

Whether it's carpeting or hardwood, winter was tough on them. The winter snow,

mud, and sand came into your house, leaving behind a dingy, lifeless carpet or

scratched, unsightly wood.

The carpets may be salvaged if the damage isn't too serious. Try using a special

carpet shampooer or steam cleaner to really get down into it and clean away all of

the dirt and damage. If that doesn't work, or you can see that the carpet is worse

than that, it may be time to replace the carpeting.

To repair hardwood floors, assess the damage first, as light scratches require

different repairs than deep ones.

For light scratches, rub steal wool to sand down the scratches, making sure to go

with the grain of the wood. For deeper scratches, lightweight sandpaper is better.

Next, rub mineral spirits over the sanded area using a cloth and fill the scratches

with premixed wood filler using a plastic puffy knife. Sand down the filler, wipe

away the dust, and finish by applying varnish to the floors using a lambs wool roller

for a flawless finish.

Christina Johnson works remotely for Elliman Prudential in the New York City

Apartments and Rentals market. She is using her journalism major to combine what

she loves most, writing and her career. Her specialties include home decor design and

DIY home improvement projects.

New York City Apartments