Spring is finally here! The sun is shining, the cherry blossoms are in bloom, and homeowners across Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia are ready to tackle spring cleaning.

Unfortunately — just like New Year’s resolutions — many people have trouble following through on spring cleaning. The to-do lists can get long and overwhelming, and with the weather getting warmer by the day, it's understandable why homeowners would rather spend their weekends out and about instead of cooped up all day cleaning.

However, spring cleaning plays an important role in home maintenance. This deep-dive style of cleaning allows homeowners to detect potential problems before they get out of control.

Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t pass on spring cleaning this year:

1. Improve indoor air quality

Dry eyes, runny noses and itchy throats are classic symptoms of a minor allergic reaction. These can be triggered by outdoor allergens like pollen, or indoor allergens like dust, mold, and pet dander.

Indoor allergens are easily dispersed throughout your home, spread by way of your air ducts. When the air conditioning or heat is on, forced air allows allergens to spread to different areas of your home.

Over time, allergens can build up in your air ducts, making it harder to avoid allergy symptoms regardless of how well you clean your house. If you can’t seem to shake your allergy symptoms, or you’ve noticed dust building up faster than usual, you might need to have your air ducts cleaned.

Read more: Will Air Duct Cleaning Help With My Allergies?

A professional duct cleaning improves air quality by clearing away years of dust and debris buildup in your home’s ducts and vents, keeping the air that you and your family breathe each day free of pesky allergens.

2. Detect mold growth

Let’s face it — most of us don’t dedicate each weekend to scrubbing baseboards, reorganizing the cabinets under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, or vacuuming crawl spaces. Spring cleaning provides homeowners with the opportunity to do a deep dive into areas of the home that don’t get regular attention throughout the year.

Getting a closer look at infrequently inspected nooks and crannies can help you spot early signs of mold growth, which can be dangerous to you and your loved ones’ health. Breathing in airborne mold spores can cause a variety of health issues, so it’s important to immediately take care of any mold growth you find.

Since mold requires moisture to grow, you’ll often find it in damp places like around bathroom vents and plumbing fixtures, as well as in basements and crawl spaces.

If you spot any mold growth near plumbing fixtures, you may want to call a professional for an inspection. Mold growth is a common sign of serious plumbing problems like leaky pipes, so it’s important to have a plumber diagnose the source of the mold growth as soon as possible.

Read more: 5 of the Most Common Signs of Leaky Pipes

3. Prevent water damage

Unless you waited until after the last leaf fell from the nearest tree to clean out your gutters, odds are some leaves and small branches have collected in your gutters over the winter season. One of our top spring cleaning tips is to remove any remaining debris in order to prevent potential water damage to your home’s interior.

Gutters are designed to direct water away from your home. However, when your gutters get clogged, water can back up into your home. Water that makes its way into your attic or behind your walls can destroy insulation, wooden beams, drywall, and other important structural components.

Make sure your gutters are equipped to handle the upcoming April showers by removing any built-up dirt and debris. As always, take the proper safety precautions when working on your gutters or roof.

4. Eliminate pest infestations

One major issue spring cleaning reveals to homeowners is the presence of pests in the home.

During the cold winter months, pests will try to make their way into your home by any means, regardless of how clean you keep your home. This is a common problem for older homes, as cracks in the home’s foundation, loose siding, or other age-attributed damage provides pests with an easy point of entry.

By cleaning out attics, basements, and crawl spaces, homeowners can determine if any pests, particularly rodents, have entered their home throughout the winter. Common signs of rodent activity include gnaw marks, nests made of cardboard and newspapers, and feces.

If you identify any rodent or other pest-related activity in your home, contact a pest control specialist. Oftentimes, DIY pest control methods aren’t strong enough to eliminate the problem on their own. Pest control professionals will be able to diagnose the severity of the infestation and implement the proper removal and prevention methods.

5. Identify safety issues

Checking your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors is one of the most important tasks to add to your spring cleaning to-do list. These devices are responsible for ensuring your family’s safety, so it’s of the utmost importance that you conduct regular testing to identify any problems before an emergency strikes.

If you can’t remember the last time you replaced the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, we recommend swapping the old batteries for new ones — it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Both smoke and carbon monoxide detectors have “test” functions that allow homeowners to make sure these devices are functioning properly. When conducting a test, make sure alarms in all rooms are working. If any of the alarms don’t sound, there’s a chance one of the devices is defective and should be replaced immediately.

Refresh your home with annual spring maintenance.

Spring cleaning and spring maintenance go hand in hand. Make sure that your home is prepared to handle the changing weather by scheduling regular HVAC and home comfort inspections.

Call 703-698-8855 or contact us online to schedule a whole house comfort check today.

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