Spring Cleaning is the fantastic art of rejuvenating your home after winter! It is designed to be the annual ultimate clean to freshen up, prepare for Summer entertaining, and do those once-a-year jobs that we avoid but must do!
First place to start is the declutter of the year! It is time to get everything out, reconsider it’s purpose in your home, and start afresh.
The Whole House Declutter – let’s start afresh!
It has taken me two weeks to declutter most of our home – it will not happen overnight unless you are minimalist!!! Allow yourself several days to dedicate, or a good number of evenings.
Make sure you have supplies – rubbish bags, boxes, a pen to label.
You will be creating three piles as you move around your home:
*Move elsewhere – a box you will fill as you rejuvenate each area of your home and decide that areas in your house have a different purpose. In this pile will be a box of ‘odd pieces’ – all those puzzle pieces and game bits that need to be put where they belong.
*Donate – boxes you will fill with items you no longer need and use but will be appreciated by someone else
*Rubbish – boxes or bags of items that no longer have any life in them
Now it’s time to start. Do a room at a time. Before starting, look at the room and think about whether it is meeting all your needs. Do you need to rearrange furniture? Do you need to repurpose the room?
*Start at the wall further est from the door, and pull everything away from it.
*Vaccum the floor.
*Put furniture back
*Refill cupboards/drawers/shelves with your items. As you go through clothing, is it the right size? Does it still fit? Does it look good? Is it in good condition?
As you go through books, are they in good condition? Are they still loved and used?
As you go through toys, are they still played with? Are they complete?
As you go through sheets and towels – do you have too many? Are they in great condition?
Basically, as you handle everything, you are thinking: is this still needed in our home? Is this still wanted in our home?
This is the opportunity to identify storage options, reallocate the functions of each room, and reassign where items in your home go. It is the time to reevaluate if you are changing rooms around.
Then you revacuum around the furniture, and move to the next room.
One room at a time – this may take you several days to do a room, or just an afternoon.
*If it is very overwhelming, Box everything. (I use this technique in extreme times of decluttering). This is useful when you look at a room and dont know where to start. You simply grab boxes, and fill them with everything in the room, so that you are left with the bare minimum in the room. It is the easiest way to start again and the simplest way to get moving if you are feeling very overwhelmed and dont know where to start. Now go through each box at a time and decide if it is worth keeping, donating or chucking. Work slowly and do it properly. Avoid creating too many piles as you sort, and make sure EVERYTHING from the box has a home or has been chucked before you move to the next box.
*If you are in doubt about items, box them. Label and date, then store. If in 6 months/12 months you still have not been in that box, then it is time to bin/donate the contents.
*Vision your rooms. Before you start, have a think on how you want your room to look. Then work towards achieving that goal.
Good luck with your decluttering!! It can be very very overwhelming but remind yourself of the ultimate goal!!!!
The Motherhood Project 