It might be winter now, but you know how fast the seasons slip away without you even noticing: one minute it’s autumn and the leaves are falling, then soon it’s bitterly cold winter, before finally hitting the resurgence of spring.
This is the time to use some of that renewed energy to deep clean your house. After all, there’s a reason it’s called spring cleaning. Considering most of us have spent the past few months in a state close to hibernation, holed up inside with little to do, it makes sense that you might be thinking about cleaning to-dos earlier than usual.
In that case, it makes sense to take advantage of the excess energy you currently feel and translate it into a clear and concise plan that will help you develop a great cleaning process.
Core to this process is two key things. One ensures that you have enough cleaning supplies, whether this means wipes, new vacuum cleaners or otherwise, to do a thorough job and make the place sparkle. The second is to find a space – could be a storage room, could be a large closet – where you can clear things out and leave enough room for all the things you don’t use as often to be kept out of sight and out of mind.
But while these basic steps seem rather easy, the truth is there’s a lot involved in upgrading your spring cleaning to the highest level and making sure that your house is as spick and span as it can be.
Prepare Yourselves for Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning is a daunting task, one that demands preparation and understanding if you want to do it well, particularly if your home is on the bigger side or if you have kids leaving things strewn all over the place.
But aside from how hard it can be, there is a very tangible reward for doing it. That is, by undergoing this process of deep cleaning your home, you’ll have the chance to clear things out and organize everything to be as convenient and well-designed for your use as possible.
Essentially, it’s your opportunity to hit the reset button on your house and get back to a fresh, memory-cleared state.
But even beyond that, there are many reasons why spring cleaning is important and is something that you ignore at your peril.
One of the obvious benefits is how much it relieves you of your dirty living space. A messy home can lead to a messy mind or subconscious distress, whereas in contrast, a neat and comfortable living space inspires positive thoughts and feelings of comfort.
It also is a benefit to the systemic thinkers who want to organize and develop a system for item access.
Just make sure to grab all the supplies and equipment you need before you start and that the items you grab are exactly what you need as well as functioning properly.
It can also help to schedule Gorilla Bins for junk removal, as they can save you all that time you would otherwise spend disposing of the stuff you no longer want.
Make a Spring Cleaning List of What You Want to Tackle
While it may seem like you can just do spring cleaning off the cuff without too much thought, a lack of clear direction can be problematic.
This is mainly because you might get caught up in one chore and end up missing or skipping others. As a result, you’ll be subject to an overall delay in cleaning, or even worse, uneven cleaning that misses key areas and which will come back to be a pain in your life when you least want it to be.
To combat this issue, make a list of everything you want to do and check it twice. If it’s good, you’ll be in cleaning paradise.
When you’re working on this list, it’s important to include absolutely everything you can think of doing. Imagine it as a master document for you to return to, and you’ll also get to reap the joy of checking things off and crossing them out as you do more and more.
Here are things that might be on the list:
- Dusting bookshelves
- Throwing out old furnishings
- Giving your bedroom extra attention
- House deep cleaning
- Bathtub deep cleaning
- Mopping your floors
- Cleaning your household appliances
It can also be worthwhile to mark down how long you imagine each task will take so you can budget your time accordingly.
Tackle the Outside Areas
Don’t forget to also clean the outside of your house. After all, it’s what all your neighbours see, and you want to make a good impression on them. Plus, it’s just aesthetically pleasing for you to look at, and who doesn’t want a house that shines?
In this vein, you’ll want to take the time to clean your lawn and roof, as well as to mow down rampant grass and weeds. Cleaning the garage may also be a worthwhile use of your time, though it’s not strictly outdoors.
You may need professional services in these key areas:
- Tree pruning
- Window repairs
- Garage works
- Yard repair
Staying Safe and Healthy
Though cleaning is important, even more, important than that is making sure your health is as well-preserved and protected as you can make it. Given the pandemic that has ravaged the world this year, everyone is now more than ever focused on guarding against germs, wearing masks, and avoiding illness.
That protection should extend to your house too. Make sure to keep things clean, disinfected and as sanitized as you possibly make it, either through the use of Lysol wipes or alcohol sprays.
This is the thing to do after you’ve already cleaned the rest of your house and once all your junk and excess clutter is removed. After all, everything that’s left you’ll interact with regularly and thus want to be as clean as possible.
Clean surroundings are particularly important given that you’ve just finished spending extended periods in your home and will likely carry on doing so in the months to come.
Start Spring 2021 with the Right Cleaning Plans
It’s always better to be safe than sorry. And to be prepared in this way for spring cleaning, you need to get all your plans and ideas in order. Don’t tackle this job in a messy way, as that’s counterproductive to the whole purpose of doing it.
Spring cleaning can be a time when you set an entirely new tone for your home, one that is sparkling clean, well-organized and planned for the forward-facing future.
Even before the big cleaning session, you can work on establishing new cleaning habits. For instance, some small cleaning tasks that you can do daily for a few minutes at a time are a great way to keep your home clean and tidy all year long while reducing the amount of effort you’ll need to clean it all up in the spring.
If you keep all these things in mind, you may find that you come to enjoy cleaning, so much so that you barely need external motivation to get started. And as Marie Kondo says, you’ll eventually be able to clear out everything that does not spark joy, leaving you with a beautiful, well-lived-in house.
