Spring Cleaning Tips for a Fresh Home

There’s something about the spring season that calls us to reset after the long hibernation of winter. Daylight lasts a little longer, animals come out of their restful slumber, and suddenly the urge to dust and declutter motivates us to get some spring cleaning done.

But before you spring into deep cleaning your home, check out these home organization and cleaning tips to avoid being overwhelmed (and potentially create an even bigger mess).

Here’s how to approach it in a way that’s practical, simple, and sustainable.

Start with a Plan

It’s tempting to dive in all at once, but having everything sprawled out across your living room floor can quickly become overwhelming. Avoid feeling like your spring cleaning ambition is out of reach by having a game plan.

Before you can jump into it, you do need to do a quick tidy up around the place. Trust us, the blank slate will help guide you by removing distractions like out-of-place clutter or diary dishes.

Afterwards, walk through your home, room by room, and make a simple list of priorities. What hasn’t had your attention in the last few weeks, months, or year? Is the space in need of a deep clean? Do items need to be donated or discarded?

Here’s a sample checklist for the kitchen to inspire you with ideas:

• Wipe down cabinet doors
• Deep clean refrigerator and throw out spoiled food
• Rotate the pantry to use up any leftover food or items close to expiration
• Take inventory of your food and beverage storage containers (do you really need 10 different water bottles…?)

Break everything into manageable sections, room by room or even drawer by drawer. You’ll save yourself the headache and feel like you’re actually getting things done when you know what your goals are.

Declutter Before the Deep Clean

In our first tip, we mentioned a quick tidy up around your home. Sometimes that can also mean a declutter, if you intend on doing a thorough deep cleaning. So before you go through your closet to dust off drawers and shelves, consider decluttering anything you don’t reach for. Channel your inner Marie Kondo here!

Set aside items that are:

• Broken, worn beyond use, or can not be repaired.
• Return misplaced items to their usual home (like those Christmas decorations you finally took down last week).
• Items you forgot existed or haven’t reached for in the last year. (No, seriously. If you haven’t worn that one shirt in a full year, do you actually wear it?)

A good rule of thumb: If it hasn’t served you in any way, or doesn’t offer a clear purpose to your daily life or wellbeing, it’s probably time to let it go.

Work Top to Bottom

Always clean from the highest point in the room down to the lowest. This prevents you from having to redo certain areas and keeps things quick and efficient. Here’s an example of how to move about a room with your cleaning supplies:

Top: Dust shelves and light fixtures.

Middle: Wipe down surfaces and furniture. Anything you wipe off onto the floor can be cleaned up in the next step.

Bottom: Finish with floors last by vacuuming or mopping. Be sure to clean them appropriately (we love steam cleaners for deep cleaning, but they can damage certain surfaces!)

The Small Details

Dust will collect on every surface imaginable, you would be surprised where dust will settle over time. While you might wipe down everyday surfaces like countertops or coffee tables, check on those odd places in your home. Cleaning them up makes a world of a difference in refreshing the air in your home, especially if it’s still too cold where you live to open the windows.

Check out these places:

• Baseboards and trim
• Window tracks
• Behind and under furniture (if you have little ones, they might have a secret stash of crumbs somewhere!)
• Inside cabinets and drawers
• Light switches and door handles (especially if anyone in your household just recovered from any winter sickness).

Freshen Up Fabrics

After a long winter, fabrics tend to hold onto dust and odors, especially if windows weren’t opened to help circulate stagnant air. Consider deep cleaning any fabrics or upholstery around the home:

• Wash curtains
• Rotate or air out mattresses (using a mattress protector tremendously helps keep them clean)
• Vacuum upholstery thoroughly
• Shampoo carpets
• Clean smaller rugs or entry mats (some of them are machine washable!)

Even just one or two of these steps can noticeably freshen up your home.

One Mess at a Time

You don’t need to finish everything in a weekend. Even 10 minutes a day adds up quickly over a couple weeks. Try involving the kids and let them help out with age-appropriate tasks. They’ll stay busy and entertained, all while helping you check off your spring cleaning to-do list.

Consider pairing tasks with certain events this time of year. For example, little league baseball starts up March through April. With this in mind, go through your child's gear and check if anything needs to be replaced, or if uniforms need to be the next size up.

Bonus Tip!

This tip works no matter how you store your clothes, whether that’s on hangers, or folded in a dresser or bin. Go through your clothing and linens (or over several laundry days), and store them backwards.

If you use hangers, place the hanger backwards. If you fold instead, place things upside down, backwards, or consider neatly rolling them instead. As you go about the year until next spring, store things just as you normally would.

Next spring, you’ll have a visual indicator of what clothes you’ve never worn over a full year. Any items you never reached for, regardless of season or occasion, will remain the way it was when you stored it. Set these aside and consider donating them.

You can even use this tip after New Year’s as an easy reminder to declutter your closet!

Spring Into Action

Start small, stay consistent, and let the season of spring drive your home organizing. Happy cleaning!