Sometimes the state of a home can get even the most stalwartly messy person down in the dumps. A good spring clean is in order when it all gets too much to bear. Here are some spring cleaning tips to help you painlessly and efficiently make your home a more pleasant place to live.
Make A Schedule (And Keep To It)
When looking to spring clean your house, don’t try and go in blind. Making (and sticking to) a relatively conservative schedule will help you feel like you have actually achieved something. Create modest, achievable goals for each day of cleaning: you don’t need to rush around like a headless chicken. Scheduling daily tasks enables you to tick off completed elements of your spring clean. If you can’t consider them complete using a predetermined metric, you might never stop.
Go Room By Room
Some people take on spring cleans task by task: they do all the flooring or all the windows in every room before moving on. From experience, this can be a thankless task. Instead, work on each room individually in order to efficiently clean your home in a tangible way.
Don’t Chase Perfection
No home is perfectly clean. Homes exist to be lived in. They display the experiences of those that live in them and reflect the way in which occupants share space. Don’t try and chase complete showroom perfection during your spring clean. Instead, think about the things that you want to clean that will actually improve your standard of life.
Use The Four Step Clutter Cleaning Plan
Decluttering your home can be good for your health. It can, however, be a rather daunting task. Abiding by a four step clutter cleaning plan can make the process a bit less painful. Identify the problem areas of each room. Analyze the reasons behind the clutter in those areas. Determine solutions and then begin the cleaning! Sort cluttered objects into four boxes: rubbish, items to give away, items to keep and items to relocate.
Don’t Go Wild With Cleaning Products
You might be tempted to start spraying and bleaching everything you can get your hands on – but this really isn’t necessary. In any situation where water and elbow grease will do just as much as astringent cleaning products, you should choose the water option. Cleaning products can damage certain surfaces, are terrible for the environment and can end up making your house smell like a car showroom. The smell of cleaning products is not exactly a great thing to introduce to the space you are trying to make more livable.
Establish New Habits
A spring clean is only a temporary fix. New habits can help you to keep your house clean continuously. You might have to force yourself into following a weekly schedule for a while before regular cleaning becomes natural.
Recycle What You Don’t Need
Don’t just throw things away. Recycle, sell or give away all of the objects that you are removing from your home during your spring clean.