The March equinox heralded the arrival of spring. As daylight grows longer, and flowers begin to bloom, take advantage of the burst of energy that comes from the end of winter and the beginning of spring to tend to your home the same way you do your garden—with a spring cleanup. 

Spring Is a Great Time to Give Your Bedroom, Bathroom, and Guest Rooms a Thorough Cleaning 

After years of working closely with head housekeepers in some of the most luxurious hotels around the world, we are sharing their tried-and-true tips for getting your bedroom and guest rooms completely refreshed for spring. You’ll be ready for the new season, as well as any guests that might arrive. 

1.      Clean the Bedroom from Top to Bottom 

The best way to begin spring cleaning is with a top-to-bottom (of the room) checklist. Here is an example: 

• Dust away cobwebs in corners of the ceiling
• Dust or wipe off light fixtures and ceiling fan blades. Be sure the switches are off, and the light fixtures are cool.
• Change batteries in smoke detectors
• Vacuum drapes and blinds or remove them for professional cleaning
• Clean windows and windowsills
• Clean mirrors and television screens
• Dust shelves, tables, picture frames, and curios
• Clean the headboard, bed rails, and area underneath the bed
• Wipe down baseboards to remove any dust or scuffmarks
• Vacuum the floor, moving out furniture to get to every corner
• Vacuum and spot clean your bedskirt. If it is beyond spot cleaning, remove for laundering or drycleaning, according to the care label.

The goal is to remove any dust, dander, and other allergens from the rooms in which you and your guests sleep. Of course, the same checklist can be applied to other rooms in your house. Be sure to vacuum and dust before stripping the bed so the dust does not fall on your bare mattress or fresh bedding. Once the room is clean, you can remove all the bedding, down to the mattress.

2. Give Your Mattress Some Attention

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably never cleaned your mattress, or even considered it, except in the case of an accident or spill. The benchmark for mattress replacement is about 8-10 years. You have probably heard that flipping the mattress annually (provided it is not a pillow-top or other product that cannot be flipped), is recommended for even wearing. What you may not know is that there is more you can do to maintain the condition of your mattress.

• Vacuum your mattress
• After vacuuming, you can spot clean with appropriate products and sprinkle a bit of baking soda on the mattress to absorb oils, odors, and any wetness from spot cleaning. Let the baking soda sit for an hour or so while your linens are washing and then vacuum it up before you remake your bed. This should keep your mattress clean and fresh.
• Take stock of your mattress. If it looks fine, no stains or unwanted smells, give it a good vacuum to remove any dust or pet hair that might have made it past the mattress pad. Flipping mattresses is not necessary for mattresses that are single sided but can help those that are double sided. You can certainly rotate most beds to avoid uneven wear and to extend their lifespan. You won’t want to do that if your mattresses are designed with zoned support.
• Protect the mattress with a waterproof mattress pad from the moment you bring the mattress into your home. This is particularly critical if you have children or pets in your bed. Our lilypads^® mattress pads are waterproof, motionless, and silky soft, providing a perfect base for your bottom sheet. The mattress pad should be laundered at least seasonally or more often if it becomes soiled.

3. Launder Your Pillows (Including Your Decorative Pillows)

If your pillows appear to be in good condition—they’ve not lost their shape and there are no permanent stains—and don’t need to be replaced, it’s time to wash them. Even if they have no visible stains or smells, pillows should be laundered periodically to remove invisible contaminants.

• Our feather and down pillows and aquaplush® down alternative pillows can be washed in a top-loading machine and dried thoroughly with dryer balls for maximum fluffing.
• If your pillow has some other fill, follow the care directions on its tag.
• When it comes to decorative pillows, we recommend only those with removable covers so they can be removed and laundered regularly. Like your pillow protectors, you should be sure to close the zippers completely before laundering. If you have decorative pillows you love without removable covers, give them a vacuum, spot clean any stains, and use a little baking soda or an odor-removing spray to freshen them.

4. Wash Your Sheets

Even though you may wash your sheets weekly, you don’t want to put dirty sheets on a clean bed, so give them a wash as part of your spring cleaning. For more details on caring for your sheets, read our article on choosing and caring for your sheets linked below.

5. Launder and Store Your Winter-Weight Comforter

Spring is the perfect time to go one step further with cleaning your bedroom so you can sleep healthy at night and open the drapes in the morning to let in the light without fear. That means cleaning and refreshing the bedding you might not regularly wash as often as you wash your sheets such as your comforter. 

Your choice of comforter can depend on how warm you sleep, the climate in which you live, and the season of the year. Many of our customers switch from winter-weight comforters to lighter weight comforters in spring. If you’re not sure how you sleep, you and your bed partner sleep at different temperatures, or you don’t want to invest in more than one comforter, we recommend you consider one of our all-seasons weight comforters. They are the choice of many hotels as they offer a comfortable sleep experience to a wide range of guests. 

You won’t be washing your comforter as often as you wash your sheets; however, they do need to be cleaned regularly, particularly before being placed into storage. The change of season is the perfect time to launder your comforter, whether you intend to store it for next winter or return it to your bed. 

• Before laundering your comforter, read the care label to make sure you’re following the manufacturer’s guidelines.
• Check all seams, and the comforter in general, for any damage before you clean it. This way you can make any necessary repairs (reinforcing seams, adding patches, etc.) before washing them. By doing your due diligence, you will avoid a catastrophic mess in your laundry room.
• Our down comforters and aquaplush® down alternative comforters can be dry cleaned or machine washed, if you have a machine large enough to handle the bulk.
• To avoid damaging your comforter, make sure to choose a gentle cycle and select an extra rinse and spin to get all the suds out before you dry. If you’re nervous about taking proper care of your down (or down alternative) comforter or your washing machine isn't large enough to handle the load, consider taking it in for dry cleaning.
• The fastest way to damage your down comforter is to allow moisture to take root, leading to mildew that can be smelly and potentially harmful to your health. Down must be dried in a low heat setting, so it could take several hours to completely dry. We suggest adding dryer balls to the dryer to help fluff the down.
• The down in your comforter is best able to fulfill its function of keeping you warm when it is properly fluffed, so make fluffing it part of your care routine. If you keep your comforter on your bed, it is easy enough to fluff by giving it a simple shake. If you store it in a linen closet during warmer months, be sure to store your down comforter in a breathable bag rather than an airtight one. This will lessen the chance that any residual moisture in your comforter could lead to mildew.

6. Deep Clean Your Bathrooms

Give the guest bathroom a similar deep clean. Products you have at home, such as white vinegar and baking soda, come in handy for many of the bathroom cleaning jobs. Again, start from the top and work your way down. 

• Dust away cobwebs in corners of the ceiling
• Dust or wipe off light fixtures and ceiling fan blades. Be sure the switches are off, and the light fixtures are cool.
• Clean windows and windowsills
• Clean mirrors and shower doors
• Check out your sink and tub drain to be sure they’re clean and gunk-free.
• Clean the showerhead with white vinegar
• Scrub the grout with a toothbrush you’ll replace when you’re done cleaning.
• Clean the toilet and toilet bowl. Don’t forget the toilet handle. After you’re done, clean the toilet brush with bleach after you’re done.
• Launder or replace the shower curtain and liner
• Wipe down the countertops. This is the perfect time to purge your countertops and drawers of the products you’ve purchased on a whim but thought too beautiful to simply throw away.
• Wipe or clean the remaining accessories. Don’t forget to clean the toothbrush holder in the dishwasher or with a mixture of water and baking soda. Put out a fresh toothbrush.
• Wipe down all handles and doorknobs, which you typically touch before washing your hands.
• Launder the bathmat.
• Launder towels and refold on cupboard shelves. Move any tattered towels to the rag bin.

After the bathroom is clean, we suggest stocking it with some of our luxuriously soft bath towels and one of our Turkish bath rugs.  

7. Bring the Spring Blooms Inside

As a final touch, bring some of the outside into your home. Flowers have a positive effect on our emotional well-being, triggering feelings of life satisfaction. 

Head outside to enjoy the spring season knowing your home is fresh and ready for your return.

-Team at down etc 

Read more:

Everything You Need to Know About Choosing and Caring for Your Sheets

Do You Need to Cleanup Your Bed for Better Sleep?

Everything You Need to Know About Caring for Your Pillows

Flower Power: The Positive Effect of Flowers on Our Emotional Well-being

About down etc

For over twenty years, down etc has worked with hoteliers and professional housekeepers in hotels around the world to manufacture and provide the pillows and the bedding that will offer hotel guests memorably great sleep. Through our retail website, we seek to provide products that will result in the same quality sleep for our customers at home. We believe in the restorative power of a great night’s sleep, whether at home or away. That’s the reason down etc wrote the book on it, Roll Into a Perfectly Made Bed: All You Need to Know About the Art of Bedmaking.

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