Spring is my absolute favorite season. You come out of a gloomy – at least gloomy where I am – winter, and it feels fresh and clean. Everything starts to come alive, and summer’s right around the corner. More sun, more warmth. Is there a better season than that!
My body starts to crave it. Green making its way through the dead of winter, blooms, sunshine. Sigh….
It always makes me want to clean. Well, more like have a clean house. Windows get opened and I start to realize everything is dusty and dirty!
You’re busy, I’m busy, how the heck do we add Spring cleaning to the million other things we have going on? Easy. Kinda.
A little bit at a time. I broke down how I tackle the season, so we can get ‘er done, and enjoy the weather outdoors, after we spend a little time indoors. We’re gonna clean the mess winter made, or maybe it was the kids, but we’ll just blame it on the season for now.
- Keep it simple and break it up. Cleaning can get overwhelming when you look at the big picture. I talked about this in my February post about decluttering here. Take one theme or room at a time, and don’t feel like you have to get things done in a day. It’s called Spring Cleaning, not Done in a Day Cleaning, for a reason. You’re looking for a fresh, clean season, but you’re not running down your mental health trying to take on too much. I have a list below that you can refer to. Choose a theme or choose a room. You do you!
- Get your supplies in order. What do you have, what do you need? Look at your list, and then look at your supplies. What are you missing? There’s nothing more annoying than going to tackle something and realizing that you don’t have what you need. You have to make a decision to shift to something else, or put the entire project on hold until you have what you’re missing. Ugh, who wants to do that!?
- Enlist some help. You are not on an island, stranded, alone. I imagine you have at least one other person living with you that can help! If you’re anything like me, you easily forget this. Don’t run circles around them while they add to the mess. Get some help, and make it fun. Figure out what you want them to do that will actually be helpful, give them notice, tell them they can do it when they want to, and have them get to work! Will it be to your standard, meh, maybe not, but it’s better than you doing everything yourself.
- Make it fun. Where do I start with the fun we can have! Put on some music you love, and jam out. Put on a podcast or something else you can listen to, to entertain yourself, that you’ll look forward to. Make a game, especially if you have kiddos that are helping out. Who doesn’t love a list of to do items that you get to satisfyingly cross off.
- Take breaks. I love to reward myself with a little breaks in between. This is your day, and you make the rules. Commit to 30 minutes, and then take a 15 minute walk, or read a book outside, and then get back to it. Trust me, you’re way more likely to keep yourself motivated, and productive if you’re feeding yourself with breaks.
Not sure where to start? Figure out if you want to theme it up, or break it out – room style.
Here’s some ideas for each:
Theme:
- Clean all windows; dust all blinds
- Dust all furniture
- Dust light fixtures and fans
- Vacuum all chairs and couches
- Go through closets and dressers and make donations
- Clean baseboards, and door handles
- Wipe down walls
- Clean all rugs
- Sweep and spray down the front porch – get rid of cobwebs
- Deep clean appliances: dishwasher, washer & dryer, oven, and refrigerator
- Clean floors by hand to get into the corners and edges
- Clean brooms, vacuum, and trash cans
- Sanitize electronics and toys
- Clean drains, grout, and shower fixtures
Room:
- Bedrooms
- Bathrooms
- Kitchen/Dining
- Living areas
- Closets
- Laundry
- Storage
- Outdoors/Garage
- Other
You got this!
