Spring Cleaning in the World of the Rich!

"Housekeeping ain't no joke!" - Louisa May Alcott

After a long and harsh winter it's that happy time of year again when the weather starts to warm up, birds begin their welcome migration north, and spring flowers start to push up through a thawing earth. While it's a cultural commandment that now is the time to start our spring cleaning, it's also a kind of innate awakening that makes us want to throw open the windows, let in the fresh air, and to clean up the mess from our winter hibernation.

I don't know about you, but for me this mixed blessing comes across mostly as a dreaded chore. When it's freezing cold outside all I want to do is snuggle up and watch Netflix - to heck with cleaning the house, right? So it just builds up and up until it becomes like this huge monumental task. And while you may begin your spring cleaning with a broom and a mop, it's like I need to start with a rake. Lordy lord!

For the rich and super rich, with their enormous mansions and multiple homes all over the world, you might imagine this is a gigantic, labor-intensive event as well.

But no, not so!

In these homes with a full year-round staff of housekeepers and groundskeepers, we do what's called Zone Cleaning on a continuing basis. This simply means that in addition to the daily task of tidying up throughout the entire house, one room is selected each week for deep cleaning, on a rotating basis.

Let's say a guest bedroom with a full marble bath is the zone for the week. Here's a list of what all we do, which might give some tips in your own spring cleaning.

- Open the windows and balcony doors to air out the room.

- Clean the inside of the windows. (The groundskeepers clean the outside.)

- Strip the bed and flip the mattress, including sprinkling both sides with Arm & Hammer Baking Soda to absorb any odors, then vacuum off. Wash or send out the bed clothes for dry cleaning.

- Vacuum underneath the bed with a flat vacuum.

- Vacuum the walls, the ceiling, the drapes, and the furniture.

- Vacuum or carefully brush all the lampshades (depending on the delicacy of the fabric), and wash or polish the finals.

- Dust the artwork on the walls with a female ostrich feather duster.

- Dust the chandelier or light fixture. (There are outside services to polish the crystals, when needed.)

- Sterilize the door nobs, the light switches and the bathroom handles with an alcohol wipe.

- Move bedroom furniture and vacuum underneath. (The groundskeepers assist with this.)

- Polish all the marble in the bathroom. (We use products from Stone Care International.)

- Replace all towels (even if they haven't been used) with fresh ones.

With all hands on board, this task only takes a couple of hours, and every room in the house gets deep cleaned on a regular basis. So you see, there's no real need for panic come spring. The entire house is thoroughly deep cleaned all throughout the year.

Having said that, you'll likely want to have all the chimneys swept in the spring, but you'd engage an outside service to do that. In addition, some homes have both winter and summer furniture. So we might find ourselves lugging the dark heavy winter furniture up to the attic and bringing down the lighter floral-print furniture for the spring and summer.

And not forgetting that rich people are always toying with their homes; endless and whimsical  re- decorations, perhaps complete renovations, or maybe even additions added to the house. Spring seems to be the time of year when they want to do this, so be on the alert whenever this disruptive madness comes your way.

On this first day of spring, and as always, thanks for dropping by this evening!

I hope this has been helpful in some small way and that your spring cleaning goes smoothly. Martha Stewart has some tips on her website, in case you get stuck. But fair warning: it may give you a bigger headache than I have!

HAPPY SPRINGTIME!

Andrew