How to Clean your Baseboards

One of the best ways to keep yourself busy in the hottest part of the year here in Arizona is to be home during the day – chances are , you spend more time at home during the summer than in the winter.  That is a result of the weather being warmer than usual here than anywhere else.

And while some people may dislike staying at home, I actually don’t mind, because there is always something to do, and a way to keep myself busy – and my kids busy. They might not like being at home for the most part, but making sure there are things to do is the goal instead of seeing them resort to a screen of some type.

I’m not sure what others do, but I spend hours cleaning – with 6 of us in the house (soon to be 7) there isn’t a day that goes by that’s not an opportunity to clean. It’s almost constant – laundry, vacuuming, mopping, dishes, making food – the cycle starts over, every day. And just when you think you have it all done, it begins again.

You can spend HOURS mopping, dusting furniture, cleaning sofas and vacuuming rooms, but one thing that always seems to be overlooked are baseboards.

Baseboards attract so much dust, and are one of my biggest pet peeves … is dirty baseboards.  They are the first thing I notice when I go to someone else’s house .. and the FIRST thing I notice in mine when I walk in. It’s like my eyes focus on the baseboards… I’m not quite sure why.

I know I must sound crazy but our baseboards get cleaned in our house once a month – and it’s really fairly easy to find the time to do it.   You don’t need any special expensive cleaners, in fact, Vinegar and a tiny bit of dish soap or castile soap works just fine.

The trick to cleaning and keeping them cleaning is overcoming your unwillingness TO clean.

Materials

• Vacuum with brush or duster attachment
• Sponge/Magic Eraser
• Dish or Castile Soap & Vinegar, or Non-Toxic Cleaner (we use THIS)

Because you could literally be cleaning for hours if you opt to do your entire house, you assign yourself a room or two a week – and start there. It really goes very quickly and you will be amazed at how simple the process is IF you just commit to getting it done.

1. Fill up the sink or a few pails with a solution of dish soap & vinegar (we use Young Living Thieves Cleaner because it cleans everything, instead of having multiple bottles of different things).
2. Vacuum the tops of the baseboards first, to remove all the dust and dirt on the baseboards. 
3. Once you have removed all the dust and dirt, work on the stuck on grime that’s on the boards – splatters, and stains.  Make sure you give it some elbow grease to get those difficult stains removed.

You will want to make sure you are careful with the type of sponge/towel you opt to use – if you scrub too hard, you will end up with scratched baseboards – and you usually won’t be able to tell until you are one & they are dry.

We try to stay away from commercial cleaners – instead, we use Thieves Cleaner  (plant-based, concentrated) or vinegar for cleaning around the house.  One bottle usually lasts us 5-6 months, and while we don’t believe that eradicating “germs” is the way to go or is that our goal, keeping the house tidy IS our goal. 

Many of the products in store from Clorox, to Lysol, are rated as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being unsafe) in terms of toxicity. I’m not sure about you but toxic cleaners are not our goal.

That is the same reason we avoid dryer sheets – although if you visit many sites they will recommend them as being helpful (but at what cost?)  

If you do wish to use Bleach, you can make your own bleach at home without having to succumb to the dangerous bleach varieties sold in store.