It’s Spring and Time to Clean
Everyone loves spring when the flowers are blooming, and the temperature is climbing. It’s now time to enjoy your favorite outdoor activities until someone says those two words that no one wants to hear, “spring cleaning.”
The key is to take it step by step, room by room, or project by project. A true spring cleaning doesn’t happen overnight, or even over a weekend. You don’t have to get to every nook and cranny by June, and one completed project is better than none. Once you get the ball rolling, you might be motivated to complete more of your spring-cleaning wish list!
Whether you keep it simple or go for the entire house, spring cleaning ideally involves more than simply cleaning. It helps to start by thinking through your home layout!
Getting Started on Your Spring-Cleaning
A healthy and whole diet involves foods that are rich in nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber, while limiting foods that are processed. Consuming different foods that are packed with the nutrients you need can cause major health benefits for seniors. Here are some examples of nutrient-packed foods to keep in mind:
Create a Spring-Cleaning Checklist
What you can do is design a plan of attack and get your organizational ideas on paper in the form of a daily checklist. Make a list of all your chores. When one is finished, check it off and move on to the next. This will give you more insight into whether your home decluttering will take a week or a bit longer.
In addition, you’ll be able to break down your cleaning into more manageable tasks. Meeting each small goal will keep your momentum going and you’ll be able to see the progress you’re making.
Do a Little Home Decluttering Each Day
It’s hard to work home and room organization into your weekday routine. You’ll find tackling a task or two on weekdays is well worth it in the long run. Save massive projects like closet organization or installing extra shelves in kitchen cabinets for the weekends. Set reasonable expectations for yourself.
Get Organized
If you want to take on home decluttering the right way, you can’t simply pick up items and put them back where they were. You need to spend some time on room organization.
However, you shouldn’t try to organize the entire house in one day. Take your time and map out your organization ideas on a room-by-room basis. Start with smaller storage areas, like closets, kitchen cabinets and bathrooms. Get these out of the way so you’ve tackled the hardest spots first. Then work your way to bigger spaces, which tend to be less cluttered.
To make the most out of your organization, declutter by donating old clothes, and shoes that you don’t need or use anymore. Invest in storage options like under-the-bed containers, clothes organizers, and bins to hold cleaning products. You’ll soon find the more organized a room is, the less time it takes to keep tidy.
Know When to Ask for Help
If you have a really big home or a crazy schedule, you may want to bring in help to complete your home decluttering. Cleaning services are a great option to help you finish your spring cleaning. You can have a cleaning service come in and start the initial scrub down so you only have to focus on organization, decluttering, and maintaining your home afterwards.
Consider the Four-Step Approach for Your Spring-cleaning Project
1.) Remove or move as many items as you can from the space you’re cleaning (including furniture).
Remove items that don’t belong in the space in the first place, then clear off surfaces and move furniture pieces out of the way. This step makes it easier to access the parts of the room that really need cleaning, and they help you declutter in the process!
As you move things out, return misplaced items to their proper location and make a pile for items that need to be donated or thrown out. You’ll have a better shot at staying organized all year long if you remove the clutter now.
2.) Move onto cleaning
After decluttering and moving items away from the space, you’ll have a blank canvas. Before you begin, gather your cleaning supplies so you’re prepared.
3.) Consider the function of each room or area
By now, you’ve decluttered the space, moved the furniture, and deep cleaned. Take advantage of this moment to consider how space works for you. Would a new arrangement work better for you and make your room feel new again? This is the perfect time to make those changes!
Think about the room’s purpose. Small changes like a new furniture placement can be exactly what you need.
4.) Create “homes” for each of your belongings.
After all the cleaning is finished, it’s time to return your belongings to their “homes.” Each item you place back into your space should have a designated place. When everything has a home, it’s much easier to clean up at the end of the day. If you are bringing something new into the space, determine a permanent home for the item.
More Helpful Tips
Break Out the Warm Weather Décor
If you’re doing spring cleaning on the traditional spring schedule, that means summer is right around the corner. Chances are, most of your warm-weather items are hidden away. Now is the perfect time to pull them out!
Consider outdoor items like grills, lawnmowers, sports equipment, and patio furniture. Hose everything off to ensure that it’s extra clean and make a note of any related supplies you’ll need for the summer months.
If you have smaller selections of summer items, like swim goggles or beach towels, pull those items out, too. Now that you’ve pulled out your warm weather equipment, you’ve made room to stow away cold weather items.
Switch Out Linens with Lighter Fabrics and Colors
Put away the heavy bedding, fuzzy throws, and velvet pillows to help rid your home of the winter feel. If you want to go one step further, change up your curtains. Lighter, sheer materials let in more light—perfect for spring and summer. You can also add plants, mirrors, and lighter wall décor to give the overall impression of a light, airy space.
Switch Out Your Wardrobe
Did you know the average person only wears 20% of the clothes in their closet on a regular basis? If you come across clothing that you haven’t worn in the last 6–12 months, it’s time to get rid of them. Consider donating these clothes or handing them down to loved ones or relatives.
While organizing, hang all your clothes with the hangers flipped backward. The open side of the hook will face you instead of facing the back of the closet. Then, when you put something back in your closet after it’s been worn, switch the hanger back to its regular orientation. In six months, any hangers that are still backward are likely items you should get rid of.
Besides downsizing your wardrobe to make outfit decisions easier, you can also take this time to pack up your fuzzy sweaters and bring out the shorts.
Add Closet Storage
As you take out the old, make room for the new. If you need some extra closet space for your spring clothes and accessories, shelving can help expand your existing space. Salvage your closet’s hidden space by adding double-decker closet rods and wire shelving units. You can also use bins or shoe racks to make the most of the floor area underneath hanging items.
Skip Anything Sentimental for Now
If you want an efficient home spring cleaning process, consider leaving sentimental items alone until you can dedicate time to really go through them. If you’ve ever found an old photo album or a box of mementos while cleaning, you know how they can derail the process.
Dust before Vacuuming
When you try to remove dust, you’ll inevitably stir some up into the air. It’ll settle on the ground, so you should sweep or vacuum after you dust. Baseboards and ceiling fans are two areas that often get neglected when dusting. They are also areas that collect large amounts of dust.
Use Salt and Grapefruit to Remove Grime from Showers and Tubs
Cleaning showers and tubs can feel especially grueling. A mixture of salt and grapefruit cuts down on the work you’ll need for this task. The grit of the salt mixed with the acid of the grapefruit makes the perfect cleaning solution. It’ll also give your bathroom extra freshness that you might like.
Even Furniture Needs Spring-Cleaning
Just because you don’t see stains doesn’t mean your furniture is free of dust, crumbs, dirt, animal fur, or allergens. Many hardware stores, including major chains, rent upholstery cleaning machines by the day. At the very least, make sure to vacuum upholstered surfaces.
Clean and Flip Your Mattress
Your mattress should be refreshed twice a year, so add it to your spring-cleaning checklist and revisit it again in the fall. Once your bedding is removed, vacuum over both sides of your mattress to remove any dust or debris. If it’s nice enough outside, the best remedy for your mattress is some fresh air.
Spray any stained area and let it sit for 30-60 minutes before drying it off with a clean towel. After you’ve cleaned the underside of your mattress, leave it on that side. Over time, pressure from sitting and lying down in the same spots leads to irregular wear. Flipping your mattress twice a year is the best remedy.
Wipe Down Lightbulbs
This step may seem like overkill, but, dirty light bulbs give off 20% less light than clean ones. Brighten up your home by giving your lightbulbs a wipe with a damp microfiber cloth. It should only take you a few minutes to go over every bulb in your home.
Don’t Forget the Windows
Over the long winter months, debris like pollen, dirt, and dust can build up along your windowsills. Regular window cleaning focuses more on the inside of the panes than the outside. Cleaning the interior and exterior on a routine basis is important. It’ll let more light into your home and ensure that your windows open and close easily.
Empty Your Refrigerator
For the most thorough clean, empty and unplug the refrigerator and freezer altogether. As you take things out, throw away anything expired. Pay special attention to condiments and sauces that most of us don’t check very often.
With everything out, you’ll have a clean slate to reorganize. Take advantage of adjustable shelving and shelf liners, which will make the cleanup process ten times easier next time around. Then, put all your unexpired food back inside.
Wash Floors Last
After dusting, sweeping and vacuuming, and general reorganizing, your floors will probably need one final clean.
Spend an Afternoon in the Garage
Since it’s one of the largest storage spaces in most homes, it’s easy to start feeling like a “junk room.” Plus, there are so many oddly shaped objects like lawn mowers and gardening tools. Adjustable shelves can display an assortment of containers, including wooden boxes and glass jars containing small hardware.
Consider Self-storage
For seasonal belongings, oversized items, or accessories that just haven’t found a home, renting a storage unit is a space-saving and accessible solution. For fragile items like wood, antiques, or furniture, climate-controlled storage offers protection from humidity, temperature, and the elements.
Embracing a Cleaner Space
Now that your spring-cleaning checklist is complete, plan how best to keep your space clean over time.
Think about the chores that tend to become overdue in your home. Is there a reason that’s making them more difficult? Would a different schedule be helpful? Could you delegate those chores altogether?
Don’t let all your hard work go to waste. The more often you tackle chores like laundry, dusting, and vacuuming, the less time it will take you to do a thorough, spring cleaning in future years!
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