It’s Spring Cleaning Time But First: 5 Things to Do Before Cleaning

Spring is here. Warm weather and sunny days – what better motivation for giving your home a clean, clutter-free makeover. In other words, it’s time for spring cleaning!

My best spring cleaning tip: Plan, prepare and declutter before you ever begin to clean.

All successful projects take a bit of planning and preparation on the front end. So, before you put on your gloves and dig in, here are 5 things to do before you begin to spring clean:

1. Grab a bin or basket, take a pass through the house, gather everything out of place and put it away. I know, not that simple! This will likely be the most time-consuming (and possibly the most overwhelming) step to take before beginning to clean. But please don’t skip this step. Why? Spring cleaning is meant to be a deep, thorough, once-a-year overhaul and not a quick, surface, everyday-dust-off. It should be no surprise that it will be difficult to do a deep and thorough job with all your “stuff” in the way.

More tips on decluttering

2. Put up seasonal items. This is a perfect time to move seasonal items out of everyday space. Heavy winter jackets and clothing, holiday décor still lingering in corners, etc. can be binned and moved to harder to reach storage areas.
3. Handle Returns. Gather everything you’ve been intending to return (either to a store, family member or friend) and put near the door, or preferably straight into the car. Then, follow through and make the returns. Simple as that!
4. Handle Repairs. Gather (or make a list, if necessary) of the items in your home that need repair. Set aside an afternoon/weekend, or schedule a handyman to get it done. After all, who wants to take time to clean and polish anything broken?
5. Check Your Cleaning Supplies. If you’re truly going to make your home sparkle, you don’t want to use old products and ratty rags. Why not take this opportunity to enjoy the process of cleaning and gift yourself the experience of using fresh, clean tools and products. Why not go even further and try out some natural, chemical-free, great smelling You’ll love the end result.

You’re now ready for Spring Cleaning. Congratulations!

At this point, there are a few options on how to approach cleaning. Depending on the size of your home, time-frame, energy and what “finished” looks like to you – you can either:

1. Go through your entire home completing one step at a time. This option will allow you deal with each category once and be done with it.
2. Choose a single room (or space) and go through each step before moving on to the next space. This option will allow you to see immediate results – one room (or space) at a time.

What are your spring cleaning strategies? Leave me a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.

Happy Organizing,