Getting a Jump on Spring Cleaning BY the time spring arrives, the last thing most of us want to do is spend a weekend cleaning the place where we've been cooped up for several months. Some years, I ignore the spring-cleaning ritual until we have visitors (which, if I'm lucky, gets me to November). Other years, I get it done before April passes. But this year seems different. The endless autumn has yielded plenty of 50-degree days to roam outside, so it feels easier to sacrifice a day of decent weather to the gods of sanitation. Jeff Davidson, the author of "Breathing Space," a manual on keeping house, said that early March is the best time for spring cleaning. "You should do it when you really don't want to go outside anyway," he said. It should be called pre-spring cleaning. That's fine, maybe, if you don't mind the stench caused by cleaning solutions and random janitorial catastrophes. I'll get to those later. But with temperatures continuing to hover in the springtime range, I thought I'd throw open the windows and try to get the big chore done. Before starting, I sought advice from people who know how to do the job properly, and as fast as humanly possible. In addition to Mr. Davidson, I called on Debra Johnson, the training manager for Merry Maids, a national housecleaning service, and Debbie Sardone, vice president of the Clean Team, a publisher of cleaning books and online retailer of nontoxic cleaning products. Their advice: spend an hour on shopping and strategy before you start, and you'll save hours of wasted time. Also, check your cabinets, where alternative cleaning tools and agents may lurk. Like coffee filters, for instance, which Ms. Johnson's employees often use for washing windows. "You'll go through a lot of them, but they do a great job," she said. Newspaper, she said, leaves ink on your hands; paper towels shed lint on windows. Rubbing alcohol and vinegar are also useful. For a home-brewed window cleaner, mix one cup of alcohol with one cup of water and add a tablespoon of white wine vinegar. For an all-purpose cleaning solution, add one-quarter cup of vinegar to a gallon of water. The scent falls short of store-bought products, but the price is right, and a slight breeze eliminates the smell. Bootleg solutions are also great if you run out of the branded products. They work just as well as anything you can buy at the store, and some people like the fact that they're less toxic than many mainstream products. Other important items include a scraper (Scrape & Kleen, $1.50); two sets of microfiber cloths (Total-Reach, $10 for six), with one designated for the bathroom; cotton rags (Painters Choice , $3.29 for a one-pound bag); a duster with an extendable handle (Bona microfiber floor mop with dusting pad, $24); scrub pads (S.O.S. heavy-duty and all-surface scrubber sponges, $1.80 each); two buckets (Sterilite 10-quart bucket, $4.80); a two-sided squeegee (Quickie Home-Pro extending window washer and squeegee, $15); and a toothbrush (CareOne Surf toothbrush, $1.50). Next, lower your expectations. Spring cleaning is ambitious enough, Ms. Sardone said. Don't make it harder. "Give yourself permission to only do spring cleaning tasks, and leave out things you clean every week or two," she said. This isn't your tidying day. If the house is cluttered, spend a day or two on an earlier weekend to clear the mess, she said. Toss unwanted items, sell them on Craigslist or donate them to an organization like Goodwill. Then clear a day on the calendar, do your shopping and, on the big day, take aim at all the places you routinely ignore. "Clean all the super high, super low and super tight spots," she said. If you need to move furniture, or it requires a ladder or special tools you don't normally use when you're cleaning, it's for your spring cleaning list.