Your One-Stop Fall Cleaning Checklist

It’s like spring cleaning, only cooler. (Hehe)

If you love cleaning while drinking pumpkin spice lattes, it’s your time to shine. It’s autumn! Everyone loves autumn. Sweater weather, crunchy leaves, Halloween decorations, oh my!

• Clean your kitchen blinds. They’re probably greasier than you think they are.
• Wash the windows.
• Wash the trash and recycling receptacles.

Bedroom fall cleaning

• Dust everything from top to bottom, including your dressers, lamps and bedside tables.
• Vacuum your curtains and/or wash the blinds.
• Sweep, dry mop and/or vacuum the floors.
• Clean the floors.
• Wash windows, window sills and ledges.
• Vacuum curtains with upholstery attachment.
• Clean out your closet and donate any clothes that no longer fit, are unfashionable or fail to “spark joy.”
• Wash and properly store your summer clothes. Rotate out your winter clothes, too.
• Wash all of your bedding, including sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers and shams (if they’re washable). Read and follow the care and cleaning instructions on the labels. Properly store any summer-weight linens you won’t be using for a while.
• Make your bed real pretty with all of those clean sheets (now’s a good time to swap in your softest flannel sheets and add a quilt or two).
• Rotate your mattress to extend its life (and to help out your back!)
• Clean out and organize bedside table drawers. Trash any old receipts, dead batteries, etc.
• Shampoo any rugs or carpets. It’ll be annoying, but totally worth it.

Living spaces fall cleaning

• Dust everything from top to bottom. Swiffer Dusters are awesome for reaching all those hard-to-get ceiling fan blades and tops of bookshelves, plus the dust pads actually trap and lock dust particles instead of spreading them around.
• Wash the windows, window sills and ledges. The room will feel instantly cleaner.
• Wash the walls. You don’t even notice it happening, but walls actually absorb and trap all sorts of smells.
• Do all the floor stuff. Sweep, vacuum or dry mop. Then run a wet mop across the hard floors. We suggest the Swiffer Sweeper Floor Mop Starter Kit, which takes care of the dry and wet mopping—no mop bucket required.
• Vacuum everything. Couches, chairs and curtains. Anything that’s upholstered.
• Shampoo rugs or carpets with a steam cleaner. If that seems like too much, try this quick fix: sprinkle baking soda all over your carpet, let it sit overnight to neutralize any smells and vacuum it up in the morning.
• Wash cushions and throw pillow covers, just be sure to read the care instructions first. If you can’t wash them, hit them with some Febreze Fabric to banish undesirable odors and replace them with a fresher scent.
• Disinfect all your remotes and other high-touch items such as doorknobs and light switches.
• Clean your TV screen. Do your laptop, too, while you’re at it.
• Dust your plants. Seriously. And water them, while you’re at it.
• Organize your stuff! This includes clutter or items on your coffee table, end tables, those piles of cords in the corner, records, books, pens, empty cups and miscellaneous paraphernalia.
• Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Replace batteries, if necessary.

Outside fall cleaning

• Clean out gutters and downspouts.
• Check weather strips and caulking around doors and windows.
• Clean, cover and store grill for the winter.
• Clean patio furniture and store outdoor pillows.
• Drain and disconnect hoses.
• Rake leaves and mow the lawn (just one more time before the snow!).
• Organize the garage, and put away any gear or toys you won’t need ’til spring.
• Replace furnace filter. This should be done every three months.
• Sweep out the chimney to make room for cozy autumn fires.
• Remove, clean and properly store window screens.

Kid areas fall cleaning

• Move furniture and vacuum beneath it, especially those playpens, beds, kiddie tables and any sort of crafting stations. Lord knows what you’ll find under there.
• Use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to remove your tiny artist’s crayon marks from any and everything (including your walls!).
• Sanitize plastic toys. Especially bath toys. (And if they're bath toys that squirt water, it’s best to trash them and buy new ones every few months—because mold.) Dawn Dish Soap and warm water work great for cleaning kid’s toys. Or you can add a couple drops of bleach to a gallon of water, soak them overnight and let them air dry.
• Hand wash or launder soft plushies. You can use a hair dryer to fluff their fur back up afterward! Your kid will never know the difference.
• Donate the clothes, books and toys your kids have outgrown.
• Organize clothes, books and toys in your kids’ play areas. Savor this one moment, while everything is in its place.

Pet zone fall cleaning

• Vacuum all of that pet hair off of the carpet, couches and their bed.
• Run a dry mop, like the Swiffer Heavy Duty Pet Dry Sweeper, on your hard floors to collect and trap loose hair and dander.
• Wet mop the floor, especially those suspicious corners where the dog lingers and/or around the litter box and food bowls. We like the Swiffer Heavy Duty Pet Wet Mop because you don’t have to fill a mop bucket, and you can just trash the mop pad when you’re done.
• Launder the pet beds. If they’re super haggard, toss them and buy new ones.
• Clean and sanitize hard plastic pet toys the same way you’d clean your kid’s toys.
• Throw out any especially gross toys, and replace them with fresh ones.
• Neutralize potent pet smells by sprinkling baking soda on everything, letting it sit overnight and vacuuming it up in the morning. It works great on upholstery, pet beds, soft toys, etc.
• Better yet, just spray some Febreze Fabric Pet Odor Eliminator around the pet zones for a burst of freshness.

Bonus: fall cleaning your car

• Clean out your dang car. Everything from coffee cups and cigarette butts to food wrappers, cords from cell phones past, receipts, broken sunglasses and parking garage slips. Doesn’t that feel better already?
• Pop in a Febreze CAR to eliminate any tough odors and keep your car smelling fresh.
• Wipe out the center console, cup holders, steering wheel and dashboard with a rag soaked in Dawn Dish Soap and warm water. Rinse soap residue with a clean, damp rag.
• Vacuum the seats, beneath the seats and the trunk with the upholstery attachment.
• Clean your car windows inside and out.
• Replace your windshield wipers.
• Check all the fluids, especially the coolant and windshield wiper fluid (especially if snow is in the forecast!).
• Get an oil change if you’re due for one.
• Wash the exterior of your car.
• Put on snow tires if you live in a cold climate—a general rule of thumb is to swap out the tires once the temperature is consistently below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure the window scraper is in the glove compartment, too.

If you find yourself completely overwhelmed by this list, we’ve got a few more varietals for you, including one with a realistic chore schedule to help you crush your cleaning goals and a more comprehensive version that organizes cleaning tasks by level of effort (or lack thereof).

*Effective against Aspergillus niger.

Click to download your fall cleaning checklist!