Spring Cleaning Does More Than Refresh Your Home

What makes spring cleaning so different from your everyday, typical cleaning routine? In a nutshell, spring cleaning is synonymous with performing a deep clean of your home (and then some). But why is spring cleaning such a big deal? This article isn’t about breaking down a chore list (for that, use this complete spring cleaning checklist). Instead, it’s about why you should make spring cleaning a priority in the first place.

Spring cleaning is an excellent time to freshen up your home from top to bottom and create a sense of positive energy throughout your living space. Many people associate spring with a time for renewal and a fresh start. When you clean your house thoroughly, reduce clutter, and prioritize the things in your life, it sets you up for success.

If you’re someone who despises cleaning, doesn’t see the point of organizing, and holds onto everything, spring cleaning can seem more painful than a root canal. It’s hard to find the motivation to do something you consider to be such a hassle. However, it’s worth it, for your physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

Spring Cleaning Refreshes Your Home And Your Spirit

Think about how you feel when your house is a mess or cluttered. Now, think about how you feel when things are tidy, clean, and fresh. Which one do you prefer? Most likely, you enjoy how you feel when your house is somewhat in order (it doesn't have to be perfect).

The Benefits Of Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning provides a safer, healthier place for you to live and host guests. Creating a tidier home also contributes to being more productive and efficient. As you freshen your home and take on larger projects, you get a wonderful sense of accomplishment when you finish each task.

This sense of accomplishment is a great confidence booster and mood lifter. When you’re able to accomplish more, sharpen your focus, and feel better, you’re less stressed. Additionally, you feel better about your home, which makes you feel better about yourself.

A clean house is also more likely to encourage you to have people over or host a movie night or game night. It opens the door to more opportunities for socializing, which also reduces stress and makes you feel more relaxed.

But Why Is It Spring Cleaning?

Throughout the year, things collect in corners, deep inside cupboards and closets, and under the bed. We shove, hide, and stuff extra clothes, books, toys, makeup, and all sorts of other odds and ends into every available cranny to maintain a tidy house.

However, this is certainly not an effective way to handle clutter. Plus, when you end up with all of these things piling up, even if they’re cleverly out-of-sight, it weighs on you. You know it’s there, and it’s also more challenging to clean around extra stuff.

At some point, you need to address the mess to keep it from mounting, so you roll up your sleeves and get to work. But why in the spring?

Why isn’t it winter wash-up or fall freshening? The truth is, a lot of it has to do with how we associate spring with a fresh start. There’s also the business of summer vacations and kids home from school moving straight into the chaos of the winter holidays. Spring seems to be a natural time to hit the reset button.

But many people do what’s considered a spring cleaning a couple of times a year, therefore, technically doing a spring clean in the fall and the spring. At the end of the day, when and how you spring clean your house is up to you.

What Does Spring Cleaning Look Like To You

Spring cleaning looks a bit different for everyone, depending on how you keep your house the rest of the year. For example, if you regularly purge unwanted items and have a regular cleaning routine, spring cleaning might be more subtle.

Perhaps you only need to remove minimal clutter and plan to implement more organization in select areas of your home. You might streamline your command center or make your pantry more efficient for the kids to pack their own lunches. You focus more on creating systems that help your household and life run more smoothly.

Instead of spending hours deep cleaning every inch of your home, you might concentrate on the areas you don’t usually check during regular cleanings. For example, you wash curtains, clean the drains with baking soda and vinegar, and test your home’s safety features.

However, if your idea of regular cleaning and decluttering is the bare minimum, then spring cleaning becomes a bigger deal. You spend a few days or weeks decluttering the house. Then, perhaps you deep clean the kitchen and bathrooms, freshen up fading paint jobs, and replant your garden.

The main thing is to recognize that while there are many tasks most people will do during spring cleaning, there are also some unique ones. You need to decide what your personalized spring cleaning checklist includes beyond the basics. Primarily, make sure to focus on what will make the most difference in how you feel and function in your home.

The Motivation You Need For Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning is an entirely separate task from your ordinary cleaning routine. It’s not just another laundry day or time to mop the floors. Therefore, you need to approach it a little differently. Use these tips to stay motivated and keep spring cleaning from overwhelming you.

1. Schedule Your Spring Cleaning

Since spring cleaning isn’t the same as your weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly cleaning schedule, you need a solid plan. You’re talking about refreshing your home and creating a new, clean slate for the seasons to come. It’s a plan that could involve some major tasks, like organizing the garage, emptying the attic, or painting the front porch.

Look at your calendar and decide when you want to tackle your spring cleaning. If others are involved, consult with them to ensure your schedules are in sync. Decide on how many days or weeks you need for the job at hand and pencil it onto your calendar. Allow extra time for things that pop up, and take breaks to avoid becoming burnt out and stopping before you finish.

2. Make Clear, Measurable Goals For Your Home Refresh

When scheduling your spring cleaning, make your goals specific. List out every single thing you want to accomplish and by when. Be clear with expectations.

Imagine that you want to empty all of your kitchen cabinets and drawers, wipe everything down, and reorganize the kitchen into zones. Set a realistic timeline for each step, so you know when you’ve achieved the goal. For example, day one might be taking everything out of the cabinets and drawers and sorting them by category.

Day two is wiping the interiors of all the cabinets and drawers. Day three is paring down the kitchen inventory by 50%. Day four is setting up a baking station on your kitchen island, making one drawer for prep utensils, one drawer for serving utensils, and so on.

Basically, write everything down and be clear about exactly what you want to do. Once you accomplish the first goal on your list, move to the next one.

3. Stay Motivated With Pictures

Before you start spring cleaning, snap some photos of the rooms in your house. As you schlepp your way through your chore list, it can sometimes feel like you’re not making a dent. However, having the picture to reflect on is a good way to see how far you’ve come.

Likewise, before you begin, visualize what you want your home to look like when you’re done. Create a picture in your mind, and be specific.

Do this for each room, the outside of your house, the inside of the closet, the interior of each drawer, etc. Act like a designer, envisioning the finished space and drawing it up in your mind before diving in and making your vision a reality.

4. Set Up Accountability

Worried you won’t stick to your spring cleaning plan? Get yourself some accountability. It’s amazing what we accomplish when we know others are watching and expecting certain results. Accountability comes in many forms.

You could ask a friend to hold you accountable by coming over for a visit on a particular day. Post your goals on social media expressing when and what you plan to do to your home. Host a party and send out the invites, setting the date for the day after you plan to finish all of your spring cleaning goals.

A Fresh Home Gives You A Fresh Outlook

Don’t let someone else’s idea of spring cleaning stress you out and make you call it quits. Instead, look at the process as an opportunity to create a happier, healthier home that enhances your life.

Focus on cleaning the things you normally skip, reducing clutter, and deciding how you can make certain aspects of your home function more efficiently. Above all, shift your mindset from spring cleaning being something you do to your house to something you do for yourself.

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