End Of Daylight Savings Home Refresh Checklist

*This post was sponsored by Filtrete™

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved to clean and straighten things. In fact, I remember one Christmas when a bucket and a mop were at the tippy-top of my wish list. I was probably about 6 or 7 years old at the time!

So, it makes perfect sense that when my parents gifted me a Miele vacuum for my college graduation, I was over-the-moon excited. It’s a pretty expensive piece of equipment, so, of course, I was really grateful that Mom and Dad had made the investment in my honor, but I’m also sort of (read: totally) a neat freak, making this my dream graduation gift.

My point is that cleaning is something I’ve always really enjoyed. I consider it a stress reliever, and I’m happy to report that my Miele vacuum is still going strong. It may sport some scuffs and dings after almost 10 years of use, but it’s still our main floor cleaner—and it does a darn good job at it, too.

Speaking of cleaning, John and I love to treat the end of Daylight Savings Time as a good reminder to cross off a bunch of bi-annual home to-do’s—things like replacing smoke detector batteries, cleaning out the gutters, etc. To help motivate you guys to do the same, I teamed up with Filtrete™ and put together a printable checklist of home refresh steps. Scroll on for the download and find out how to give your vacuum, in particular, a tune up this time of year.

You might already know this, but in case you don’t, even the fanciest of vacuums can start to lose suction if you wait too long to replace the bag or filter. With four pets in our own household, it’s absolutely vital that we keep on top of this task.

We actually change out our Filtrete™ Vacuum Bags and Filters monthly, but if you aim to put in a new bag every 2 months and replace the filters every 3-6 months, you should be good to go. This HEPA filter helps trap particles 75 times smaller than a human hair, including 99.97% of dust mite debris, animal dander, mold, and pollen. Another thing to replace on your vacuum? The belt! Do this once a year for better, cleaner results.

The good news is that replacing vacuum bags and filters takes less than five minutes, so you don’t need to muster up any kind of energy or motivation to cross this first item off your home refresh checklist. The process will be a little different for everyone based on your particular brand and model of vacuum, but as these photos show of our own vacuum, just open your device, remove the old bag and filter, and reverse the process to install the new ones.

Now to tackle those other bi-annual tasks around your house! The printable checklist that we created for you features a couple more involved projects, but many of those line items can be tackled in 10 minutes or less. Things like tossing old medications, flipping your mattress, cleaning the dryer exhaust duct, and replacing old smoke alarm batteries are quick to do, but can make a huge impact on the cleanliness and functionality of your home. Heck, a few tasks could even save your home or your life. Not kidding!

Here’s that checklist download one more time, and consider this your challenge to start crossing off lingering home to-do’s now before we enter the mad holiday rush to come. You can grab your own set of Filtrete™ Vacuum Bags, Belts and Filters at places like Ace Hardware, Best Buy, Meijer, True Value and Do It Best. They have versions to fit nearly all brands and models of vacuum cleaners online at www.filtretevac.com, too.

Now, tell me below—when was the last time you changed your vacuum bag or filter? Don’t be shy!

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