Have you ever watched one of those Disney Channel originals in which all the characters get together at some point and do a big cleanup montage? They play peppy music and move quickly and try on stupid outfits and basically, everyone has a great time.
Now, have you ever actually tried to do a big cleanup and realized your chores definitely were not as fun as young Selena Gomez’s?
Most of us are in that boat, and as spring comes upon us, it seems like it’s time to bite the bullet, put on our thick yellow gloves and start sifting through the clutter and debris that’s built up over the year.
For many of us, this seems like The Worst, and we’d all rather put our big spring clean off ’til summer, or maybe fall, or hell, even winter…you see where this is going.
But wait! What if I said you could recreate that Disney Channel cleanup magic with just a few easy tricks? These are my top five favorite ways to make spring cleaning go smoothly, quickly and, hopefully, make it fun.
1. Play music
Duh. I mean, how else is this supposed to feel like a peppy Disney montage if not for some peppy montage music? I recommend your favorite bops playlist, or maybe Walking on Sunshine Radio if you’re still a Pandora listener.
2. Do it with friends
If you’re going to lock yourself up in your room for a few hours and rediscover every embarrassing purchase or unpurged sentimentality you’ve collected from the past twelve months, who better to do it with than someone who will roast you mercilessly the entire time? Plus, having twice the people theoretically makes the job take half the time.
3. Try to make money from it
Upcycling is super big right now, and you have everything to gain from thrifting your old stuff. Even if you don’t have the time or energy to mount a whole yard sale, any fancy items you own can go to second-hand boutique spaces, and you can always write off a Goodwill donation on your taxes (remember: a penny saved is a penny earned, y’all).
4. Don’t go down rabbit trails
This one’s a kicker. As fun as it seems at first to try on all those dumb hats or see what kind of an ’80s makeover you can give yourself from your hand-me-down drawers, you will quickly start losing steam and find yourself with a lot of work ahead of you and little time or desire to do it. Save that flashy outfit test-run for a day when you’ve got a lot of free time. Right now, it’s spring cleaning time, and you have a mission.
5. Don’t take long breaks
Same mentality as the rabbit trail rule. You bag a whole thing of holey old sweaters and you feel pretty good about yourself, but then you want a snack, so you go get a snack, then you remember this recipe you saw on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, so you try to recreate that with the ingredients you’ve got in your pantry, and then you want a drink, so you get a drink… You get the picture – we’ve all read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
My point is, now you’ve lost all that time and you’ve still got all this work ahead of you. Of course, that work can be fun! – you’ve got your friends with you and your music playing, after all – but you want to err on the side of efficiency.
Then, when you get finished quickly, you can go watch another Disney original with your pals and keep pretending that you and Selena Gomez are the same person.