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Every second weekend in March we will Spring Forward into Daylight Savings Time. As we do this twice a year, it is a good time to consider doing a few tasks that don’t need to be done on a daily or weekly basis but they sure make sense to catch up and do them now – call it a little SPRING CLEANING.
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I try to provide small tasks in my organizing series called 4M – Margarita’s Manic Monday Minutes which provides a chore that you can do in only 15 – 20 minutes be it organizing your freezer, spice rack or closet, these tasks will take you longer. These tasks can be just as easy, some will take a few minutes and other slightly longer but to be sure, it’s a good list to keep. The best way to keep organized and on top of cleaning and housekeeping chores is to keep on top of them. Schedule these tasks into your calendar.
Daylight Saving’s Time Check-up:
CHECKLIST FOR SPRING CLEANING–
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME CHANGE
Home
· Carbon monoxide detectors on every floor (including the basement).
· Check on fire extinguishers (one should be in the kitchen and garage).
· Clean out wood burning fireplace. Have you had a chimney sweep come to clean the soot out of the flue?
· Check gas fireplace to ensure it is dust-free and clean.
· Have Gas fireplace and gas lines checked.
· Review any plans (utilities for example) that you pay on a monthly basis and is withdrawn from your account. Are they withdrawing the correct amount?
· Review your credit card bill in the last 6 months. Have there been any unusual or duplicate charges?
· Wipe down all baseboards, window sills, door jams and mouldings.
· Wipe down all small appliances. Review what can come off the counter and stored in cupboards below.
· Clean Humidifiers, floor vents and bathroom ceiling fans.
· Clean all ceiling fans, light fixtures and light switches
· Vacuum behind furniture. Move the bed away from the wall, behind armoires or wardrobes, behind night tables and sofas.
· Deep clean carpets (rent a machine if you don’t already own one).
· Change out your bedding if you have spring/summer bedding. Air out bedding before storing or send to cleaners for cleaning and then storing. Make sure to add cedar planks if needed
· Rotate mattress and vacuum mattress, box spring and frame.
· Check your garage door is working properly. Change the battery to remote if needed
· Call to have your Air Conditioner serviced.
· Schedule your pool opening
Work
· Change all of your PASSWORDS to all of your accounts. Make it complicate!
· Go through all your apps on Google gmail, your phone or on desktop that you have allowed access to. I had 144 apps that I brought down to 90!
· Review all of your pictures from your phone and either delete, archive to cloud service like Dropbox or on external hard drive.
· Back up your computer to the ‘cloud’ or on an external hard drive.
· Review and donate any business books that you no longer refer to.
· Check all your power cords, cable cords and outlets to ensure they working properly and no circuit is overloaded.
There is always something to do in your house or home office, why not start your spring cleaning today. Maybe just tackle a few of these at a time but they are all important to get done and doing them on Daylight Savings Time Weekend is a great way of keeping track and on schedule. If you want, you can download the checklist here.
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Margarita Ibbott is a travel and lifestyle blogger. She blogs about travel in Canada, the United States and Europe giving practical advice through restaurant, hotel and attraction reviews. She writes for DownshiftingPRO.com and other online media outlets.
These are great tips, Margarita. I have a habit of checking the carbon monoxide monitors and fire extinguishers twice a year but I hadn’t thought about the gas fireplace or changing my passwords.
I know that we don’t think of these often, sometimes we will go years without change passwords but it should be done frequently. Some would argue monthly. I’m pretty sure my husband’s company does that on a weekly basis.
This is a great, complete list. One of the things I do when the clocks change (but not ONLY when the clocks change, as I do it quarterly) is change my air filters. My hot water heater died today, and when they replace it tomorrow (brrrr, one more cold shower first), they’ll be changing my air filter for me, making it easy to check off of my list! I love the idea of clearing out apps! Maybe this is a good time to catch up on upgrading all of our operating systems, too?
That is a great idea. I like to update this post almost every years so I will add that task to the list. Thank you so much for the suggestion!
Your post about changing the clocks (spring ahead) prompted me to add a note to my calendar for Saturday night, March 13th. This way, when we wake up on Sunday, we’ll be all set. Some of the clocks change on their own, which I love. But most of them, we have to change. Usually, my husband is the clock-turner. He also changes the batteries in the smoke alarms. It’s a great idea to tie certain maintenance things or habits with events, as you’ve described.
Certain tasks became habits years ago and now we do it twice a year, when the clocks change. I’m looking forward to this weekend when I KNOW what I have to do! Thanks for dropping by.
Wow, I’ve never thought about sitting down and changing all of my passwords. If it rains this weekend (or is freezing cold again!), I just might do that one. Fireplace maintenance is another one, but we still had a fire last weekend, so might hold off just a bit longer. Can’t believe we are springing forward already!
For obvious reasons, as well as different locations, I know there are adjustments but this checklist is just a way to get into the habit of doing certain tasks twice a year. I also have a similar list for the fall change back to standard time.