It’s that time of year again – when the sun stays out longer, the weather is more generous, and spring activities take place outside. But when the temperature rises, it’s also time to do something we never look forward to doing: spring cleaning.
But this year, instead of dreading re-organizing and cleaning the house, think of it as an opportunity to re-organize your life and be able to come home and relax instead of weaving in and out of disorganization. With the help from our friends at The Breakers Resort in Denver, we’re giving you 10 easy ways to spring clean without losing your mind.
Spring Cleaning in 10 Easy Steps
1. Room by room: Spring cleaning can be overwhelming when you’re doing it all at once. Do it the right way by going room by room so that you can effectively get through every room of your house. We suggest starting in the kitchen.
2. Clean that fridge! No one hates their refrigerator until it’s time to clean it. But after you organize it, you can see what you actually need and find what you’re looking for. Start by clearing it out shelf by shelf. (You’ll want to do this quickly so you don’t waste energy.) Once the food is off of the individual shelf, wipe it down with antibacterial spray. Then close the fridge and let the shelf dry. Go through the food and items you cleared off the shelf and throw away the expired items, food you know you won’t eat, etc. Repeat for each shelf until it’s clean, clear of old food, and smelling good for once. Tip: open a box of baking soda and hide it away in the back of the fridge. It’ll keep it smelling fresh.
3. Clear the cupboard. You know when you’re hungry and you can’t find anything in your cupboards that sounds appetizing? Either you haven’t gone grocery shopping in a while, or you can’t find anything in there because it’s unorganized and too stocked full. Throw away expired food, then sort through and set out a donation pile for your local food donation center. If you don’t know the food’s in there, you won’t eat it any way. Tip: Line your cupboards with lining paper that you can find at practically any grocery or superstore. It’ll keep your cupboards from getting damaged and will keep them looking clean and tidy.
4. Self-clean that oven. While you’re working away around the house, set the oven to “self clean.” Make sure there aren’t any pans in there first. Note: The self-cleaning oven process can tend to smell. Just make sure it’s not smoking up a storm and it’ll be fine until it completes.
5. The dreaded closet: The thought of cleaning and organizing your closet might stress you out, but the good thing is that you only have to do it once…every few months. Now that it’s spring and it’s getting hotter outside, you can stow away your winter clothing (or at least jackets) to open up space in your closet. If you don’t have too many winter clothes, just organize your closet so that the spring/summer clothing and shoes are up front and ready to grab and go. None of us need a full-on fashion show before work in the morning, so make it easier on yourself by making your work and/or play clothing easily accessible. Tip: It’s ok to get rid of clothes you know you don’t wear. If you haven’t worn it in over a few months, donate it to someone who could.
6. Make use of your under-bed. Unless you use it to push dirty clothes in there when guests come over, the underside of your bed probably isn’t in use. But some under bed storage containers at a place like Target and stow away either clothing/shoes you won’t wear this season, or even important papers and office supplies that you don’t want laying around.
7. De-clutter the walls. Since you’re probably no longer in your boy band or rock band phase where you hang up cheap posters on the wall with push pins, you don’t need every inch of the walls in your home to be covered with photos. For a normal-sized living room, you can have one wall that’s a collection of small photos and artifacts, but limit the photo space to two-three areas. That could be two or three large frames or one collection of photos and a big frame on the other side of the room. Your house probably isn’t a museum, so don’t feel like you have to plan for a guided tour.
8. Do you really need all of those beauty products? The bathroom can be the worst place for clutter. You need new toothpaste, but you never end up throwing the old one away. And there shouldn’t be a limit on how many moisturizers you have, right? Wrong, because you’ll only actually use one if that. Go through your bathroom cabinets and clear out any products you don’t use. Trust us – you’ll feel liberated. And so will your partner.
9. Don’t ‘hide’ things in your home. We all do it: hide away stuff that clutters the house when guests come over. But guess what? You’re cluttering your house even more, you just can’t see it. If you have to hide crap when people come over, get rid of it. Do you really need two brooms, a chair with a broken leg that you’ll never fix, and moving boxes that you haven’t unpacked yet?
10. Feel good and unstressed about your living space. The point of spring cleaning is to liberate yourself from having a messy, unorganized house. We know you’ll feel better with a little extra room and a clean space, but you also have to feel like your at home. Do a little a time, and see where that takes you.