photo credit: lusi
Ah, Spring is here! The weather is nice, the birds are chirping and the grass is beginning to turn green. You know what this means…it’s time to get the house in order and get Spring cleaning out of the way. Many of us try to do this every year, and sometimes we’re successful and sometimes we aren’t. It’s just hard to stay focused on the task at hand when the weather is so beautiful out and you’ve got little ones who want to go outside and play. Or, you have teenagers who are beginning to have Spring sporting events. Below are a few organizational tips to help you with your Spring cleaning.
1. Make a Plan. There are many people who try to start their Spring cleaning without a clear-cut plan. Don’t make this mistake. About a week before you begin your cleaning, make a list of everything you want to accomplish this year as you deep clean the home before summer arrives.
Once you have a list of everything you want to get done, review it and make reasonable goals for yourself. Basically, don’t look at your long list of to-do’s and make a goal to have it all done in one day. It may help to take your original list and make another one consisting of days of the week and add specific items to specific days. This will make your to-do list a little shorter and much more realistic. You will be more likely to accomplish a series of shorter lists than one big list as you won’t get discouraged.
2. Double Check Your Supplies. You can’t deep clean your house if you don’t have the right equipment, or cleaning supplies. Therefore, after your list is made, it’s time to go and take inventory of the cleaning supplies you have and the ones you need to get. Don’t forget small things such as rubber gloves, scrubbing pads and rags.
3. Have a Day for Decluttering. There is a misconception that Spring cleaning is when you declutter your home. However, this is not the case – Spring cleaning is when you thoroughly clean your house. So, you need to set a day aside when you will actually declutter your house. This needs to be done before you begin cleaning it. All that it consists of is you going from room to room and looking for any items that you don’t want any longer. They may be knick knacks, old clothes or home décor objects. You’ll find that the actual cleaning process will go much faster if the house has been decluttered first.
4. Give the Children Jobs. Spring cleaning is not something that is just for adults. It’s something that should involve the entire family…including the children. You need to give each of your children jobs to do to help with the spring cleaning. One of the things you can have them do is take a trash bag and declutter their rooms on the “decluttering” day. This will help you tremendously. Then, when it’s time to begin Spring cleaning, you can also put them each in charge of their rooms, and depending on their age, maybe the guest bathroom too.
5. Take It a Room at a Time. When Spring cleaning, it’s easiest to clean one room at a time. You can put all of your cleaning supplies in a bucket and carry from room to room. You will find that this will save you tons of time!
We started working on the basement last week. I always thought of the decluttering as the cleaning. It is good to get a woman’s prespective on this. Perhaps that is why my wife always seems to be pushing for more than I do.
She wants to do an actual cleaning of the basement. I think in terms of clearing paths and making new space. Perhaps now, I can better help her reach her goals. Guess if I stopped and listened like I should, I would have already know these things.
Well. I’m learning. Jesus doesn’t make all the changes in one sitting.
Thanks for the tips and the lesson in a different way of thinking.
rmharrington