Spring Cleaning and Decluttering Your Home

After making it through the winter solstice, spring is just around the corner. The sun is warm against our skin and leaving your home is more enjoyable without the blistering cold. After hermit-ing inside for the winter, it’s time to put away our hibernation jackets and prepare for spring cleaning.

Done are the days of procrastination and pushing chores off to another day. The year is still new and there is no set time for making sure your home is clean and clutter free. It’s time to get to business and get out of the winter funk.

Decluttering Made Easy:

Take it One Room at a Time: When faced with a big task such as cleaning and decluttering your home, it is easy to feel overwhelmed thinking about all the things you want to get done. There is no need to rush this task. When you start your spring cleaning, take it one room at a time. Pick whichever room you believe will be the easiest for you to start so you can build steadily into more time-consuming ones. If your bedroom is a mess, but your bathroom is usually relatively kept clean, start there!

Make a Plan: Even if your bathroom is one of the cleaner parts of your home, jumping into the deep end of cleaning without a plan can be overwhelming and often deter you from achieving your goal of a clean home. Decide what is priority and start there. Such as throwing away products that you don’t use anymore or giving your tub a good scrub. Having an idea of what you want to get done before starting your cleaning will help you stay on track and ensure that you don’t miss those priority items.

Keep, Trash, Donate: When faced with decluttering, a good tip is to separate items into three piles. One designated for items that you will be keeping, donating, or throwing away. When going through items and deciding what pile they belong in take a moment to think about how often you use this item, how easy it is to get a replacement or if it is a want or need item. When going through your closet, think about the last time you wore that shirt. If your kitchen drawers are starting to look a little haphazard, think about how often you use that item, how easy it is to get a replacement or if it just needs a little organizing.

Maintaining Your Clean Home:

Once you have completed your spring cleaning, celebrate your accomplishments! Now it is time to figure out how to keep your home clean. Find a routine cleaning system that will help you relish your clean home for longer. It can be as simple as taking 15 minutes out of your day to put things where they belong, make your bed in the morning, or wash your dishes so they don’t get piled up. Designate days to do more thorough cleaning each week. Schedule an hour every Sunday to give your home a good cleaning for the things you don’t do daily such as vacuuming, mopping, or dusting. You can even set up a room system to follow throughout the week. Mondays you can tackle the bathrooms, Tuesday the bedroom, Wednesday the kitchen and so forth. Breaking up chores throughout the week gives you a steady routine if you’re not a fan of doing it all one day. Doing things in small doses will help you maintain your clean space without being so time consuming.

Remember, nothing is one-size-fits-all. Experiment and find systems and routines that work for you and your daily life. If you are too busy to clean often, maybe focus more on decluttering so that you will have less to clean as often. If you thrive in stability and routine, then planning your cleaning into your day may be beneficial to you.

Now, it’s time to get to work and start cleaning! After you are finished you can celebrate your accomplishment with whatever reward that you want! Treat yourself for your hard work!