There’s more snow in the woods right now than there’s been all season.

But it sure feels like spring. The birds are singing, the days are longer, and even though we’ve had our share of bleak and dreary days, when the sun does come out you can actually feel its warmth.

Still, I know we’ll get more snow before we really get to spring. March is just more ornery up here than in other places. In like a lion and out like a lamb? No way. Up here, March always comes in smiling, calm like a little lamb. Then around, say, the 23rd, bam! A blizzard. And out goes March, roaring like a lion.

When the roaring’s all over, the breezes will be here, and we’ll be happy to open the doors and windows and blow out the stale winter air — nature’s own way of spring cleaning.

After the stale air is out, I know I’ll find a lot of other stale areas in the house that need a good spring cleaning. Some people have started their annual cleaning ritual already — I overheard a couple of people talking about it over February school break, sharing tips. “We’ve got knotty pine, so I just use a damp mop on the ceilings, a little vinegar in the water,” one said. “Me too,” the other replied. “I like to get the walls and ceilings done now so that I don’t have so much to do when spring really comes.”

I am possibly the world’s worst housekeeper. (Ceilings and walls? Really? Every year?) But even I get ambitious in spring.

The kitchen I can manage. And I am ever hopeful that one day I will clear the piles of family detritus that accumulate in the corners of every room — boxes of clothing the kids have outgrown, baskets of things that wish they were mended, books and toys we meant to send the little nieces in Florida. The sack of wheat near the front hall, right next to the rabbit feed, the basket of former pumpkins. Does everyone keep two ox yokes in the living room or is it just us?

Spring cleaning? I’ve got to do the floors first.

Maybe you’re in better shape than we are. Once we do locate the floors, we will clean them. Sweep, mop and scrub. And we’ll be careful about what we clean with. My husband has asthma, and my daughter is sensitive to smelly products, so we always watch what products come into the house, and generally stick to what’s already in the cupboard. Vinegar disinfects and gets rid of mold, baking soda is good for scouring and whitening, borax in water cuts through grease, which makes it a good wall cleaner, especially in the kitchen. Hot, soapy water does wonders.

Most of common cleaning products you can buy at the store are smelly — some you can even smell through the closed bottle, which is a bad sign. It means VOCs, or volatile organic chemicals. The federal Environmental Protection Agency says the VOCs — from cleaning products, furniture, paints and varnishes, and waxes — makes indoor air two to five times more polluted than outside air. During certain activities, like spring cleaning, VOCs can be up to 1,000 times higher inside than out.

Ammonia is an eye and lung irritant; solvents like butoxyethanol and ethylene glycol butyl ether (found in carpet cleaners and toilet and room “fresheners”) are also lung irritants, and have suspected links to kidney and blood disorders. You can find lists online of 500, or 8,000, toxic chemicals found in common household products. It’s a little scary, especially if you have a tendency to breathe.

“If you find that it has ingredients . . . a chemical you can’t even pronounce, you don’t know what it is, you don’t know how it can affect you. I think it’s about time you think, should I be using this?” Dr. Virginia Salares, an indoor air quality expert, told the CBC in a report about toxic household cleaners.

You can look for safer, more environmentally friendly products. Read the label. Look for plant-based oils instead of petroleum, and grain alcohol instead of butyl anything.

Or avoid them all. Most of your cleaning can be done with basic ingredients — baking soda, vinegar or lemon, borax and plain soap. And lots of water.

Your eyes won’t be running, you won’t start wheezing.

And you’ll save enough money to buy yourself some flowers and pretend it really is spring.

Margaret Hartley is the Gazette’s Sunday and features editor. Greenpoint appears in the Gazette’s print edition Sundays on the Environment page.

Have a question or a topic you’d like addressed on Greenpoint? Email greenpoint@dailygazette.net.