Use this list of what to clean in August as your simple guide to what jobs need to be tackled this month around the house.
Every August I start to get a little extra motivated when it comes to cleaning and organizing around the house. August is supposed to be a very relaxing, low-key month, but I always find it’s a really high-energy time of year. The weather is still in peak-summer form, and we’re starting to get things prepared for back-to-school season around here. I just usually end up wanting to get the whole house clean and organized at that point as well, once I start thinking about all of my plans for the months ahead. This back-to-school season is going to be looking quite different for a lot of us, with home and online schooling options looking like the way to go in a lot of areas this year. If that’s something that you’ll be doing this year, all the more reason to get everything taken care of around the house ahead of time. Here’s my list of what to clean in August and the things that I’ll be tackling this month. Join me if these look like things that you could stand to get done as well!
What to Clean in August
I love to put together these lists of what to clean each month because they make the whole process of keeping on top of cleaning around the house so much less overwhelming. I pick ten items that are perfect to do at exactly this time of year, so we’re doing just the right thing at the right time and not wasting time on things that don’t need to be done yet, or that we’ll end up having to re-do in a month or two. Efficiency is the name of the game here!
Insides of Windows and Window Tracks
This is your chance to clean away not only all those finger prints and puppy nose prints, but also any spider webs that may have shown up from spiders who made their way inside, or dead flies that may have fallen into the tracks of your windows. It’s gross, but they’re probably there and it needs to be done! The outsides of the windows will be tackled next month, so don’t worry about that too much quite yet.
Sports Gear and Beach Toys
Time to purge and clean all these items while it’s still fresh in your mind what actually gets used and what doesn’t. These items will probably still be in use for awhile longer, but at least you won’t be digging through the stuff that doesn’t get used to get to the good stuff.
Backpacks, Lunch Bags, and Pencil Cases
Depending on where you live, you may or may not be using these typical pieces of school gear this year. It’s also entirely possible that your kids brought these items home when schools closed in March, threw them in a corner, and haven’t looked at them since. Now’s a great time to clean these things out, wash them, and decide if they can be reused or not whenever the time may come for them to be needed again.
Your Air Conditioner
Make sure the air flow around your unit is still good, remove any weeds growing up the side of it, and give it a quick wipe down.
Your Handbag/Purse and Wallet
Kind of like cleaning out your school bag and pencil case for grown ups. 🙂
Your Food Storage Container Area
Recycle any mismatched pieces, extra lids, or container that just aren’t convenient for your family and reorganize this area. This will get you prepared for school lunches or maybe will just inspire you to be more organized with your at-home snacks and meal prep.
Your Snack Pantry/Lunch Making Supply Cupboard
If yours looks anything like mine, you might have a few half-boxes of stale crackers in there and a few granola bars that no one wants. When your family looks in there and sees that it’s cluttered with things they’re not really interested in eating, they come to you first for help with getting a snack. 🙂 It’s really in your own best interest to purge, reorganize, and re-stock this area whether you’ll be doing school lunches, or just will be doing a few more months of at home meals and snacks all day, everyday.
Do a Quick Vacuum/Wipe Down of Your Car Interior
Summer isn’t over yet and there will still be some sand to come, but doing a quick once-over now will keep things manageable and make the job less overwhelming when we tackle the deep clean next month.
Your Doormats
If you refreshed your doormats in the early spring in preparation for the warmer weather, they’re probably getting a little tattered-looking now. If you’re in the habit of buying inexpensive doormats and replacing them every few months, now might be a great time to take care of that. Porches can start to look a little tired by the end of summer, but there’s still so much time left to get some enjoyment out of them! If you’re like me and you stick to flat-weave cotton rugs as doormats, now is a great time to wash all the doormats around your house if you’ve forgotten to do that over the last few months.
The Fireplace
Sitting around a cozy fire might be the last thing on your mind right now, but you’ll thank yourself later in the fall for thinking about this now. If you happen to have a chilly late summer night on your hands, open up all your windows and have a test fire in your fireplace. Have it professionally cleaned if necessary or even just wipe the area down. You probably haven’t paid it much attention in a few months and it’s probably getting pretty dusty. If you have a gas or an electric insert, polish up that glass front that you haven’t really looked at since it stopped snowing months ago. Definitely a good idea, even if your entire fireplace wall is still unfinished like ours is. 🙂
Click here to download the printable list for this month! Hang it on your fridge or put it in your home keeping binder and use it to check things off as you get them done!
And that’s the list for this month! Is there anything that you like to do every August that I’ve missed here?
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.