An almost inordinate number of people on my hometown’s Facebook page advertise spring cleaning yard sales every year. Honestly, though, I can’t blame them. There’s something about springtime that just begs us to fish socks out from behind dryers and break out the Endust; maybe it’s the rebirth of nature, or the late onset of New Year’s resolutions, or the fact that the dusty bookshelf in the living room is really aggravating allergies. If you’d like to hop on the bandwagon and get cleaning, but don’t know where to start, here are a few tips from someone who genuinely loves consolidating.
When cleaning…
Spruce up in snippets
It’s easy to step into your bedroom and have no clue how to kick of your cleaning frenzy. The best advice I have is to pick a corner and get started. Personally, the first thing I check is my clothing. I dump every shirt, sweater, and sock onto my bed and spend an afternoon trying them on. If it doesn’t fit, or if I haven’t worn it in forever, I toss it onto the “to go” pile. It’s a time-consuming process, but your closet will feel so much cleaner when all it has are a select number of your favorite outfits. From there, I go shelf-by-shelf and room-by-room to dust and reorganize.
Break out the boxes
As you start navigating your piles upon piles upon piles of belongings, get at least three containers and start organizing things. The easiest labels to use are “TO KEEP,” “TO TOSS” and “TO DONATE.” If you’re unsure about what to do with an item, you can use a fourth container to temporarily hold it. Not only do these boxes make it easier to transport items around the house, but there’s some finality to placing an old sweater in the “TO DONATE” box or dropping old algebra assignments in the “TO TOSS” one. Just don’t go digging through a box because you change your mind! Stick with your gut instinct about whether to keep or discard one of your belongings.
Create a checklist
I’m a huge fan of checklists. Whether it’s a series of sticky notes or a site like Todoist, checklists are so satisfying to work through. They help encourage cleaning, too! Before you start cleaning, it’s a good idea to list out everything you need to sort through. It can be as broad as bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen, or as specific as bookshelf, cabinets, closet, filing cabinet. I like to get specific so I don’t gloss over anything, but no matter what you choose, it’s worth it to check of that last item and feel complete!
Study up on sterilizing
This is kind of a weird one, but I’ve found a lot of value in articles and books about cleaning. One of my favorite books for this subject is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Though the author goes to extreme measures to declutter, some of which I just don’t want to do, I picked up lots of useful tips.
When organizing…
Store your stuff
When I was in middle school, I was extremely disorganized. Loose pages of creative writing were scattered across my bedroom, books were dumped haphazardly on shelves, and don’t get me started on the state of affairs of my closet. That’s where boxes, bags and binders come in handy. Binders and folders are great for storing old documents that you aren’t willing or able to let go of, and can be labelled and re-labelled often. Meanwhile, boxes and bags can fit under beds or on shelves. Shoeboxes, cigar boxes, and small Amazon boxes are my favorites. I also like to use loose lids to store undergarments or small items in drawers.
Make a method
Follow a system that makes you comfortable. If you want to organize your closet by color, go for it! Or, if you’re more of a shape-person, put your longest articles on one side and create a diagonal line of bottom hems. Turn to Pinterest if you want organizing ideas and inspiration—sometimes, looking at a picture of a cool closet gets me in the mood to tidy.
Pace your person
Most importantly, you should never overexert yourself. Spring cleaning, if you decide to go all-in, can be a very time-consuming process. It’s important to work bit-by-bit, instead of trying to get it out of the way all at once. Remember the story about the tortoise and the hare? Be like the tortoise—slow and steady wins the race. Take that, Easter Bunny.