Spring cleaning used to be backbreaking work. For many, this is still the case.

It's a cold day in northeastern New Jersey, and Jessica Holoka is carefully taking inventory of the home she's shared with her husband of 11 years. She is not planning to move, nor is she preparing for the apocalypse. She's getting ready for her annual spring cleaning marathon, in about three months.

Ms. Holoka, 41, doesn't take spring cleaning lightly. It involves about a week of grueling work. Blinds, windows and moldings should be washed, carpets shampooed, ceiling fans cleaned, bathroom - including tile and grout - scrubbed to perfection, refrigerator cleaned and smoke detectors checked. To top it off, the paint throughout the house needs to be touched up. In a good year, her car could also use a deep cleaning.

Mrs. Holoka said her husband, Mike Holoka, usually hangs out in the garage or assigns himself yard work that week as she spends a few hours a day tackling various chores.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"> Chances are she has plenty of company. Spring cleaning has its roots in dirtier times, when people heated their homes by burning wood and, later, coal, and late winter meant scrubbing surfaces covered in soot and grime. The tradition lives on today as an annual ritual of purification and renewal - a time to purge old clothes, shred junk mail, donate unwanted food and clean gutters.

"I am a self-proclaimed clean freak, a Danny Tanner woman," Ms. Holoka said, referring to the character Bob Saget from the sitcom "Full House." “I prefer to do it alone. I feel like everyone has a certain way of cleaning."

Ms. Holoka, a lifestyle blogger, shares recipes and DIY projects on her website, livinglavidaholoka.com She said she never feels overwhelmed by the amount of work that awaits her each spring because she's prepared for it and keeps a clean-up kit trimmed.

The idea of ​​an annual deep cleaning is not new, but it is not possible to assign a date to the beginning of the tradition, said Susan Strasser, historian and author of "Never Done: A History of American Housework".

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