According to the American Cleaning Institute, up to 75% of Americans engage in yearly spring cleaning.
Spring cleaning is all about getting rid of the old so you can embrace the new. It gives you the opportunity to purge things that make your house feel cluttered and to go through it with a fine-tooth comb to make it feel fresh for spring.
If it sounds like a lot of work to do at once, you’re right. Spring cleaning is a growing trend for Americans, but not everyone’s schedule is conducive to a typical spring cleaning schedule.
In this post, we’re going to help those busy professionals and parents out by giving you a thorough spring cleaning guide. With a guide in hand, there’ll be no more excuses not to get your house ready for spring, so keep reading and get ready for spring.
Spread Your Time Out
When you’ve got a busy schedule, the mere thought of spring cleaning is enough to induce severe anxiety. Who really has the time to go through their entire home at any given time?
The answer to that question is nobody. If you’re going to have a successful spring cleaning, you’ve got to spread it out over the course of a month. Dedicating a few hours per week to your spring cleaning efforts will work wonders and ensure that you don’t overwork yourself in the process.
Scheduling is important, however. If you don’t actually set aside the time, your spring cleaning will turn into a mild spring tidy, which won’t actually accomplish much. Do what works for you, whether that’s 3 hours every Saturday for a month straight or an hour every evening for a couple of weeks.
Making Piles
Giving the house a thorough cleaning is going to be easier if you rid yourself of the clutter first. Everyone does this a little bit differently, but it’s beneficial to set up a pile or box for each item that you’re going to donate, throw out, or put away.
As you go through each room, you’re going to find things that fit one of these three categories. Instead of trying to deal with them as they arise, which will only slow you down, toss them in the corresponding box and deal with them later on.
Donating items is a huge part of spring cleaning. When you come across things that you can’t donate, they either need to go in the trash or to a recycling facility. As you come across things that you want to keep but need to go in storage, you’ll put them in the “put away” pile, to be dealt with at the end of spring cleaning.
Take It Room By Room
If you start your spring cleaning without a real plan in place, you’re going to get overwhelmed. The best thing to do is take your efforts on a room-by-room basis.
Start with the master bedroom, then work your way through every other bedroom until they’re all sorted. After that, you can move on to the living room, the kitchen, the bathrooms, the garage, etc. Remember, you don’t have to deal with everything at once, so there’s no need to become overwhelmed.
Enlist Helpers
Spring cleaning goes a lot faster if every resident of the house pitches in. It’s harder to work around an entire family’s schedule, but if you sit down and get everyone to agree to tackle one part of your spring cleaning checklist per week, you’ll easily be done in a month.
If you’re cleaning with your kids, make sure to remind them that spring cleaning is much easier when they keep their own space tidy all year round. The same goes for your spouse if they’re part of the problem…
Make It Fun
It’s no secret that the average person doesn’t enjoy cleaning, but it doesn’t have to be boring. Our advice is to get yourself some headphones and download a few podcasts to keep you distracted while you go about some of the more mundane cleaning tasks.
If you’re doing it with your family, you can always turn cleaning into a competition. Take frequent breaks so you don’t burn out and make sure you’re eating snacks and drinking plenty of water.
Deal With Clutter, Then Clean
To make it go quickly, get rid of the clutter first. Go through each room, putting clothes, electronics, and other random items in the piles/boxes we mentioned above.
Once the home is clear of clutter, it’s going to be a lot easier to envision how to move forward with vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, and wiping surfaces down. If it’s better for your psyche, you can go to the donation and recycling centers to get the clutter all the way out of the house before you start cleaning.
The Benefits of Hiring Professional Cleaners
There’s an easy alternative to doing all of the cleaning yourself – hire a professional cleaning company for your spring cleaning. A pro cleaner may not be able to figure out what items you want to keep versus what you want to give away, but they can do the rest.
For a small fee, you can have your house cleaned from top to bottom in a matter of a few hours. This saves you the hassle of doing it yourself and gives you a fresh start in your home.
If you need it, however, you can also opt for recurring cleanings to make sure your home stays clean. We know how tough it can be to keep the house tidy when you’re busy. Check out our one-time or recurring cleaning services at the Detail Cleaning Services website.
Taking Spring Cleaning Tips to Heart
This spring cleaning guide should set you up for success this coming spring. It doesn’t have to be the monumental task it’s made out to be, but it does require careful planning and as much help as you can get.
To take some of the burden of spring cleaning off of your shoulders, contact us at Detail Cleaning Services to get an instant quote.