When we finally feel spring in the air after a long winter, we happily think of warmer weather, blooming flowers, and summer vacation planning. However, lurking in the back of our minds is another symbol of spring—spring cleaning.
Many people have a love-hate relationship with this daunting task, dreading the act of deep cleaning, decluttering and organizing, but loving the ultra-clean and tidy home after it’s completed. To make the process a little less painful, we’re offering five tips to get organized that will leave you feeling accomplished and ready for a carefree summer.
Tips to Declutter and Get Organized
1. Pace Yourself
Don’t be embarrassed if it’s been a few years since you did a thorough spring cleaning and decluttering. We all get caught up in the day-to-day chaos of life, and push the household chores to the back burner. To tackle a home that hasn’t received a deep cleaning and reorganization in a while, tackle the project in small tasks. For example, clean out the junk drawer in the kitchen in the morning and give yourself a break before organizing the linen closet in the afternoon. Create a spring cleaning checklist of chores in order of priority, and tackle them over several days to avoid becoming overwhelmed and giving up on the project entirely.
2. Gift the Gift of Hand-Me-Downs
Sometimes cleaning out and organizing is easier when you have an end goal, especially when that goal means helping others. To tackle the closet full of unworn clothes and cabinets stuffed with too many coffee mugs, go through them with gifting in mind. Maybe the young couple who recently moved into your neighborhood could use your old set of dishes, maybe the child of a friend heading off to college could use some extra clothes without mom doing his or her laundry, or maybe someone in need will purchase your excess clothes and dishes from a local consignment shop. Taking the time to declutter closets and cabinets also provides an opportunity to organize old clothing and dishes that you do want to keep, and create more space.
3. Ease Your Mind with Photo Digitization
We all accumulate photos and videos over the years of special family moments and milestones, and most of us are guilty of poor photo organization by tossing them into boxes or envelopes to organize later. When later never comes, we start to feel the stress of those memories getting lost or damaged while being stored in damp basements or humid attics. To ease your mind that those cherished memories are preserved, order storage boxes designed to preserve photos and organize them while moving them over from their current storage containers. Or, send them off to a company such as iMemories to be digitized. Using this method, your memories are not only preserved for generations to come, but can also be streamed and shared on any device at any time.
4. Easy Garage Organization
The garage can easily become cluttered, serving as a dumping ground for lawn care products, sports equipment, tools and much more. For most of us, we only use half of the items stored in our garage and hold onto the rest assuming we’ll need it eventually. For a clean garage, grab a large storage container and commit to placing one long-term, unused items in it daily. This can range from a child’s old soccer ball used before they graduated to the next size up, to and old set of wrenches collecting dust. When the container is full, run it to Goodwill where those items will become someone’s newest treasures.
5. The Gift of Extra Freezer Space
Whether you have a deep freezer in your garage or just the freezer in your kitchen, they can both become packed with food that’s been long-forgotten. While you likely had the best of intentions when that food was frozen, anything that’s been in the freezer for a year likely won’t be eaten and might even be coated in freezer burn. Toss anything that you can’t identify or is past a year old, and free up much-needed space for fresh food that you know you and your family will eat within a reasonable timeframe.
While spring cleaning falls into the category of “things I’d rather not do,” most people who put in the effort are highly-rewarded with the outcome. Additional storage space, an extra-clean home, and freshly-organized closets and drawers can be a therapeutic experience that leaves people feeling more relaxed, less anxious, and motivated to maintain the organization. Follow these top spring cleaning tips to achieve both a clean home and improved mental health.
