Four Easy Steps to Get You Motivated for Spring Cleaning
We’ve all gotten very familiar with our houses in the past year, but that does not necessarily mean that you’ve been paying any attention to how it looks. What’s the point if you’re the only one who sees it? At least, that’s been my excuse for avoiding all cleaning responsibilities. But with things opening up again and the possibility of spending more time with loved ones, it’s time to evict all the dust bunnies and make everything fresh and clean again!
Step One: Open Up Your House
With nicer weather approaching, opening every window and door in your home while the sun is shining can do wonders to air out your living space while also giving you a good dose of Vitamin D. Especially if you live in a colder climate, your windows have likely been closed for a good three or four months and that can do a number on making the air in your house stale and uncomfortable.
Spring is one of my favorite times of the year, getting to open my window and hear the birds singing and feel a breeze on my face while I work — it’s so incredibly rejuvenating. So throw open those windows and doors, take a deep breath, and get ready for the next step!
Step Two: Get Comfortable
No, this isn’t a paragraph about how to get all your cleaning done from the comfort of your favorite chair. What I mean by “get comfortable” is this: pour a glass of your favorite drink (wine — obviously), throw on some headphones and blast your favorite music (Lady Gaga), and get cleaning in your favorite sweatpants.
If you have to be up and about doing things, you might as well be comfortable while doing it to make it a tad more enjoyable. When I get into a cleaning mode, I love to blast some “Telephone” and jam around singing at the top of my lungs while I vacuum up all that dog hair. I am a big believer in music to get me through anything, but especially cleaning!
Step Three: Go Room by Room
I generally avoid cleaning for the sheer fact that I let things build up and then get horribly overwhelmed… so I just don’t do any of it. However, I am slowly learning to focus on one thing at a time. When it comes to spring cleaning the whole house, the best way I’ve found to do this is going room by room.
Do your best to start with one room and forget about all the others until that one is just the way you want it. I usually start with my bedroom because that’s my happy place, and if my happy place is nice and clean it motivates me to move on to the office, the living room, the bathroom (wash the towels too), and the kitchen (don’t forget to clean out that fridge). Sometimes, I will even reward myself by getting to do something fun in between rooms to motivate me to keep going. Also, I love a good list — checking things off is so satisfying — so, if that’s something you’re into, I highly encourage it!
Step Four: Get Rid of Clutter
Anyone else out there a bit of a hoarder? I mean, it’s never enough to make it onto the show Hoarders, but sometimes I worry about myself! I am just very sentimental and have a ridiculously difficult time throwing things away. You never know if you might need it in the future, after all. And that was a really nice box.
Every once in a while though, I go on a rampage through my house throwing stuff out and clearing the clutter from all the surfaces and I always feel so much better afterwards. I then wonder why in the world I let it get so bad, but that’s probably a topic for my therapist and not this blog. Even organizing your clutter can help, either with organization tools or simply just stacking them in a nice pile. Either way, goodbye clutter, hello room for more stuff that I will have to declutter next spring!
Ready, set… okay, go get to cleaning!