Customer Reviews

Spring Cleaning

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book gives specific advice for tackling major cleaning jobs around the house. The focus is not on hints and tips for tackling the details but on the approach to use and how to do it. Speed Cleaning, another book by Jeff Campbell, is for doing weekly cleaning. Spring Cleaning is for infrequent large cleaning jobs, but it also has advice for tackling the weekly cleaning the first time if you're starting out from way behind. If only I could get results just from reading the book. . .

I couldn't figure out how to clean the miniblinds effectively. Now I do. While apartment dweller won't need all the info, there is something for just about everyone who needs it. Their company sells the best and most interesting cleaning tools you've ever seen. Customer service is also five stars. They know their stuff, and this book is a good example of it. Also: Talking Dirt, the newest book.

This is a very helpful book. Not only does Jeff Campbell explain exactly what the fastest way to clean your house is, but he also gives advise on what products to use and how to use them efficiently. This was not full of unnessesary "helpful hints", but was loaded with actual technique and procedure. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to spend little time cleaning house, but would still like to live in a clean home.

I think of the chores laid out here as being either ones that never need to be done (washing ceilings- as I don't smoke & don't have popcorn ceilings, that's never going to need doing), need to be done quarterly (washing the windows, in my case) or has to be done yearly or twice a year (getting the carpets deep-cleaned through extraction or another method). They are CHORES, too, no doubt. In this day & age, a person has to consider how relevant these jobs are to your own particular life. I think cleaning my windows four times a year is plenty- but in a place where you live close to say, a coal mine, obviously once every three months wouldn't cut it on your windows.

If you looking for a book that's quick to read, yet gives you all that you need to know about certain jobs- chores that are NOT going to be done weekly or most likely even monthly- this is it. With newer homes, which is what I have, stripping & waxing floors, for example, isn't something that I have to do. But if you need to, this book is your guide of how to perform said chore. The window-washing was the one method from the book that I used consistently. I coughed up the dough to buy The Clean Team's own Clean Windows Kit, and I'm very glad I did. I got five very large, floor-to-ceiling windows & a large balcony door w/ fifteen panes of glass clean (inside & out) in 20 minutes the last time I used their method. Trust me- toss the paper towels & Windex method!

I also learned from their identification & explanation of various carpet stains & how to get rid of them. If you have nothing but hard floors, obviously this will not be of much help. But I appreciated learning about when to use enzyme cleaners & when that wouldn't work. Also discussed was the various forms of deep carpet cleaning- and I got the impression that extraction, done properly, is probably the best method. And I've found that to be true.

Ultimately, this cuts time on specific chores & also makes them more safe to perform. Granted, this may only be outlining work a great deal of the world no longer does. As the author pointed out, lifestyles & homes have changed over the years. Most of us no longer burn wood-based fires all winter, using coal ovens & such, so the need for true "spring cleaning" is much less than in previous centuries.

What the authors didn't address was things that I consider to be necessary spring cleaning/quarterly chores, but that don't require a a particular method, per se. Things such as removing slipcovers from furniture, washing them & vacuuming the upholstery they were on. Or removing curtains to get the built-up dust washed out. Stripping beds & washing the mattress pads, comforters, dust ruffles, etc., then vacuuming the beds. The author doesn't address the need for such chores. If you are coming to this guide for a checklist of these chores that every housecleaner should do, you'll have to look elsewhere. While I personally believe it is immensely important to do these things (with the goal of creating a truly clean home), the author doesn't address it. Hence, a star lost for being incomplete, IMO. A truly clueless housekeeper needs such guidance- after all, how many of us are taken aside by someone & given a checklist of when to perform what to keep your home running smoothly, like one is given when they buy a new car? Not many of us. It would've been nice for the author to approach the topic with that in mind, but you will have to look elsewhere for that. I would say the closest I've come is learning about Zone Cleaning from FlyLady, in which you focus on one or two areas of your home each week, and detail-clean in those rooms. Even so, one really has to come up with their own proper plan & timetable.

A true cleaning gem that will get your cleaning done in a jiffy, just you wait and see. No matter what kind of job you need done, whether it's moving drapes and heavy curtains out into the wings, or packing up furniture for winter wear, you'll find some useful tips from the smart team of CLEAN TEAM. They've got their own website and they're not afraid to advertise it, but don't run away in disgust, Jeff Campbell is actually a pretty relaxed pitchman.

I put on my apron to do my spring cleaning, just as Jeff has advised for the past 20 years. It's made of all scraps of muslin and cotton that were lying around the house. In its durable and roomy pockets, I can always locate the knives, cloths and sprays I need to do any particular job. Those of you who are accustomed to clean in the mude, however, will be disconcerted, that is strictly a no no with Jeff Campbell, who wants you to put on an apron, not just to cover your "block and tackle" but to hold different tools in for ease of use.

This is a good,clear, no nonsense book about cleaning. I am always looking for ways to make the cleaning process go quicker and/or do a better job at it - this book is a pretty good one. It really simplifies things, and does not go overboard on details - like some of the other books that are out there. It is really just for those jobs that need to be done once or twice a year, his other book about speed cleaning is a great one for the weekly cleaning list.

Good book, thought it would be more specific to Spring Cleaning, but it was mostly a rehash of Speed Cleaning, which is excellent btw...the last chapters were more about what to clean once a year...which is what I wanted.

Speed cleaning is great but this gets into the more complicated jobs.
Learned things I didn't know, so that is always great.