Spring is here, which means it’s time to organize, de-clutter, clean and toss out. Use these hints, courtesy of HGTV, to help jump start your spring cleaning. Before the Scrubbing: 

• Remove any clutter around the house. 


• Tackle the junk drawer. Throw out old pens and markers, broken rubber bands and paper clips, old candy, and any random scraps of paper. 


• Donate books you don’t wish to keep and clothes that you don’t wear. Many churches, schools, libraries, shelters and hospitals accept such donations. 


• Put everything that you can’t quite part with in a box. After six months, throw away or donate any of the items you haven’t used. 


• Clean out your medicine cabinet, dumping any prescriptions, lotions, makeup or other products that have expired. 


• Pitch old magazines. Keep a binder for your favorite articles or recipes. 


• Deep Down Clean Vacuum your mattress and wash your mattress pad in hot water. 


• Rub shaving cream into dirty upholstery and vacuum once it’s dry. 


• Run drapes through the air-fluff cycle in the dryer, along with a wet cloth to attract dust, for 15 minutes. 


• Rub screens on both sides with kerosene, then wash them clean with soap and water. 


• Use a dry sponge to clean lamp shades, upholstery, computer screens, suede and leather. 


• Make sure to clean the coils underneath the refrigerator and the screen in your stove’s exhaust hood.