Ah, it’s that time of year again – the refreshing spring clean!
Deep cleaning and decluttering helps to open up space in our homes, making them airy and light. It’s the perfect chance to remove unwanted and unnecessary possessions from our houses, transforming them into relaxing safe havens.
The task of tidying our homes from top to bottom can feel incredibly daunting but it doesn’t have to be. Equipped with these 5 ways to ace your spring cleaning, it’ll be plain sailing!
Segment it
Like we said, it can feel overwhelming thinking of every task you have set ahead of you with your deep cleaning spring declutter.
If you spend the whole process stressing about how much work you need to do, you won’t be effective. You’ll be uptight and anxious, rushing through tasks to get everything done as soon as possible.
Shake up your approach. Split all your tasks into neat segments. Categorising your tasks makes it easier to estimate how long it’ll take you to do everything, allowing you to set yourself a loose timeline.
Instead of speeding through your kitchen, bathroom, and garage in quick succession in one day, break it up so you have one main priority per day, squeezing in extra tasks when you can.
Take inspiration from KonMari
Marie Kondo has become an icon for the decluttering movement, and her KonMari method is incredibly popular. Her method is unique in that she doesn’t tackle decluttering in the home by location but rather, by category.
Forget your usual method of tackling your bedroom. Forget emptying your drawers of clothes and papers and your shelves of books and DVDs, leaving yourself to declutter the mess in that room alone.
She suggests approaching your home more holistically. Instead of only decluttering clothes from your bedroom closet for example, take all your clothes from your bedroom, hall cupboard, shoe closet, and anywhere else they might be hiding, and pile them into one area.
The resulting pile can come as a bit of a shock to some people, but that’s exactly what it’s designed to do. The giant stack of possessions allows you to see exactly how much you have of something in a category, helping you pick out duplicates or things you have neglected.
Build a capsule
Visualise your current wardrobe. Is there a mix of denim jeans and shorts, summer dresses, and heavy woollen jumpers? When your closet and drawers are filled with every item of clothing you own, it can be easy to forget about certain pieces, and it makes it so much harder to pick out an outfit in the morning.
One of the best storage tips to combat this is to create a capsule. Separate your clothes (and this can apply to other categories, like kitchenware or decorations!) into seasons. Shorts and skirts for summer, scarves and gloves for winter. Place them all in separate boxes – each box is a capsule for that season.
Organising your possessions into capsules will allow you to pick out items you didn’t wear in a season, signalling that you should part ways with it.
The process of creating a capsule places you a mindset of being thoughtful and picky about what items earn a place in your capsule, encouraging you to get rid of useless items.
Battle the basics
Categories of items you use everyday should be high on your list of things to purge. You can amass far more bath towels, duvet sets, mugs, and glasses than you’ll ever be able to use, but these items are easily overlooked.
Simply take stock of how many items you have in each category and compare this to how many you actually need. Will you ever have an occasion where you use all 30 of your dinner plates? Are you going to use 20 bath towels before you put on a wash?
Your answer is probably no, so this is a basic but effective way to free up space with barely any thought!
Check the expiration date
Another incredibly easy but super impactful way to streamline your spring decluttering is to go through your bathroom and kitchen cabinets for items that are past their expiration date.
It can feel liberating actually being able to see the back of your cupboards. Before, they were filled to the brim with items 6 months out of date (or perhaps even more…) but after scanning package dates, you’re left only with useful items.
From medicines to makeup, spices to flours, clear out anything that isn’t safe to use or consume and place it straight into the bin, compost, or recycling, freeing up some valuable room.
Happy spring cleaning!
Forget the fatigue and frustration that many people associate with spring cleaning. View it as an opportunity to simplify your life and tailor your house to meet your needs and wants!
These 5 tips will support you through the process, giving you a flexible structure to work with.
In no time, you’ll have aced your spring cleaning!
