Actually it was much advised in the past to space Spring Cleaning out the whole year through. Many a housewife knew how disruptive it could be to the household so there were many tips on how to avoid that.
I did, however, find a few choice gems on giving your rooms a good old fashioned Spring Cleaning.
This one is from the the title Housekeeping in old Virginia circa 1879 and was mostly full of recipes from Virginia housewives.
“Do not clean but one room at a time, as it is a bad plan to have the whole house in confusion at once.
Before beginning on your spring cleaning, remove the curtains, all the movable furniture, and the carpets. With a broom and dust-pan remove all dust from the floor. Then with a wall-brush thoroughly sweep and dust the ceiling and side-walls, window and door frames, pictures and chandeliers. Then go over the floor again, removing the dust that has fallen from the ceiling and walls. Then proceed to wash all the paint in the room. If it be white paint, use whiting or such other preparations as are recommended for the purpose in the subsequent pages. If it be varnished, or in imitation of oak or walnut, wipe with a cloth dipped in milk-warm water. If the wood work in the room be of unvarnished walnut or oak, wipe it off first, and then oil it, rubbing in the oil well.
Then with a soft flannel rag and a cake of sapolio clean every piece of marble in the room. Next wipe the mirrors carefully with a flannel rag, wrung out
of warm water and dipped in a little whiting, or you may rub a little silver soap on the rag. The gilding must be merely dusted, as the least dampness or a drop of water will injure it.
The windows (sash and all) must then be washed in soap and water, with a common brush such as is used for washing paint. A little soda dissolved in the water will improve the appearance of the windows. It is unnecessary to use such a quantity of soap and water as to splash everything around. After being washed, the windows should be polished with newspapers. Except in a general house-cleaning, windows may be cleaned by the directions given above for mirrors.
The metal about the door knobs, tongs, etc., may be cleaned by electro-silicon, and the grates may be varnished with the black varnish kept for the purpose by dealers in grates, stoves, etc. Every chair and article of furniture should be carefully cleaned before being brought back into the room, and linen covers should be put on the chairs. If you are going to put down matting, do so before bringing back the first article of furniture. Some housekeepers, however, allow their matting to remain during the winter under their carpets. Spots on matting may be removed by being scoured with a cloth, dipped first in hot water and then in salt. This, however, will cause wet spots to appear on it in damp weather. After the spots are removed, scrub the matting with dry corn-meal and a coarse cloth. Sweep it over several times, till all the meal is removed.
For persons who do not use matting in summer, a recipe is given later for beautifully coloring the floor with boiled linseed oil and burnt sienna. Where different woods are used alternately in the floor, this oil answers better than revarnishing the floor every spring.
As soon as the carpets are taken up, have them nicely shaken, swept, and brushed on both sides. Every spot should be carefully washed and wiped dry. The carpets should then be rolled up smoothly, with tobacco sprinkled between the folds, sewed up in coarse linen cloths, and put away till autumn. A cedar closet is an excellent place to keep carpets as well as other woollens. If you have no cedar closet, however, a cedar chest will serve to protect your woollen clothes against moths, and it is better to preserve them in this way than to sprinkle them with tobacco, which imparts an unpleasant scent to them.“
~ Housekeeping in old Virginia
