5 Spring Cleaning Chores for Your Living Room

Our chore checklist can make your living room look a little less lived in

The living room was made for living, and if you’re using it right, it’s probably thoroughly dusty, cluttered, and scuffed up. Bonus points if a child has taken crayons to the wall. But as fun as living is, sometimes you just want a clean space to come home to.

We’ve got five quick and easy ways to clean up your living room—each in 20 minutes or less—no matter what you’re using it for, from chilling out to working out.

Gently wipe your TV with a soft, dry anti-static microcloth to avoid scratching the screen. Avoid window cleaners—or any chemicals, for that matter—because they can damage the screen. Even paper towels and tissues can do damage. If there are hard-to-remove stains, dampen the cloth slightly with water and gently clean the screen.

Remove the remote batteries, then turn the remote upside down and shake out any debris hanging out between the buttons. If you have a compressed air canister, you can give the remote a blast to dislodge dirt.

Use a cleaning wipe or cloth sprayed with a cleaning solution to gently clean the outer shell. Use a cotton swab dampened with an all-purpose cleaning solution to clean around the buttons. Scrape out debris lodged in crevices with a dry toothpick.

Prep your window air conditioner for the warmer season by cleaning the filter behind the front grille in case it’s accumulated dirt and dust. Pop off the grille, take out the filter, vacuum it, then wash it in warm, soapy water. Let the filter dry before reinstalling it. If the filter is badly worn, it’s time for a replacement.

Even if you vacuum regularly in high-traffic areas, dust bunnies can lurk underneath and behind your sofa. Get these hard-to-reach areas at least once a year (every six months if possible) by moving the sofa. Vacuum the carpet or flooring and use special attachments to reach into the sofa’s crevices. Pet hair can be notoriously difficult to remove from some upholstery, so you might need to employ a lint roller or packing tape for these areas.

If you share workout equipment with others in your household, it’s best to clean the handles and other high-touch surfaces with a disinfectant wipe between uses. But once in a while, you’ll want a more thorough cleaning. Get rid of dust buildup around the motors and other mechanical parts of treadmills and exercise bikes by unplugging the machine, removing the motor cover (your owner’s manual can help you find it), and vacuuming the visible debris. Then clean the machine’s surface with a damp, soft cloth and mild soapy water. Do not use window cleaners or any harsh chemicals on the screen, which may damage the display’s coating and touchscreen responsiveness.

Give your dumbbells and yoga mat the same treatment with a damp cloth and mild soapy water. We also have more brand-specific instructions from various yoga mat manufacturers.

Depending on where you live, spring may mean more sunlight, which makes all those random streaks and smudges on your walls even more noticeable. Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser can remove crayon, marker, fingerprints, and many mysterious scuff marks from painted walls.

Get a Magic Eraser wet, wring it out, and glide it along black marks on the walls until they disappear.

Perry Santanachote

Perry Santanachote is a multimedia content creator at Consumer Reports. She has been with CR since 2019, covering nothing in particular. Not having a beat allows her to work on whatever’s trending—from parasite cleanses to pickleball paddles. Perry is a main producer of Outside the Lab content at CR, where she evaluates products in her tiny Manhattan apartment.