With the sun shining, days getting longer, and the snow finally melting under warmer weather, we can’t deny it any longer. Spring cleaning time is here.

You’ve been reading all the latest blog posts:

• Spring Cleaning Tips: A blog to get you excited about spring cleaning. From organizing your garage to throwing things away, we got you covered.
• Spring Cleaning Tips for the Lunatic: A blog filled with various spring cleaning tips and tricks.
• Spring Cleaning Infographic: A blog around spring cleaning tips and tricks, how to declutter your house along with an infographic.
• 10 Ways To Throw An Awesome Spring Cleaning Party: A blog about throwing a spring cleaning party.
• Dumpster Rental Tips: A blog about renting dumpsters for spring cleaning.

Of course, our favorite is throwing a spring cleaning party! Who wouldn’t want to come over for that formal, jacket and tie affair! Ok, maybe not. However, here are some tips for keeping everyone you love safe and healthy during the spring cleaning bonanza.

Think about your pets before you spring clean

We don’t want you to forget these health and safety issues before you start cleaning. Because spring cleaning often means working with hazardous cleaning chemicals including ammonia and bleach, and it often means adding a fresh coat of paint, you’ll want to take special precautions to keep your beloved four legged companions safe.

Dogs

Dogs have especially sensitive snouts. Exposure to strong smells like bleach and ammonia can be irritating to them and can cause problems for days later. If at all possible, you should keep your dog outside and away from the work until the smell is essentially gone from the space. Then let your dog re-enter at his own speed, when he feels up to it. Some dogs might happily barge right back into a cleaned up space. Others might tentatively reenter a space and leave it multiple times, searching for remembered smells, and wondering why the place just is not the same as it was before.

Either way, it is important that you not force your dog back into a small space with a strong chemical odor. It may irritate or even harm your best friend.

Cats

Sure, it seems like your cat knows just how and when to get lost, and spring cleaning time seems like a time they’ll spend in the closet upstairs.You know your feline friend the best of all, but you might consider these concerns during spring cleaning.

Cleaning often means one or more people coming in and out of the house multiple times. If you’re laughing and talking or carrying things, your indoor cat might find this a great time to make a break for the outdoors.

Consider a cage or intentionally locking the cat in a comfortable room while the heavy work is going on. A little uncomfortable meowing is better than searching all evening for a lost companion. Or, worse yet, the guilt associated with stepping on a pet and potentially dropping a piece of heavy furniture or equipment.

Birds

You know the term “canary in a coalmine” but have you ever considered its origins? Miners used canaries to indicate when oxygen levels got too low for people. The canaries, ever more sensitive than us, died first.

Don’t let that happen to your birds during spring cleaning. If possible, remove them to a draftless spot in a trusted neighbor’s house, or in a room as far from the cleaning as possible. You don’t want to find out the hard way that the chemicals you were using were too harsh for your beloved and beautiful pets.

Caged and tanked pets

Again, our caged and tanked pets, being much smaller than us, are also more sensitive to changes in temperature and breathing in harsh chemicals.

Consider removing them to another location or, if that is not possible, cover the cage or tank and open the windows to make sure there is abundant air circulation.

With a little planning you can keep everyone safe during spring cleaning.

Need a dumpster for a major project? Consider renting from Big Daddy Dumpsters!