By: Rita Doctor

Ah, don’t you just love spring and the hope of a new life it brings?  Spring always conjures up images of blooming colorful flowers, heaps of sunshine, temperate weather, fresh breeze and of course, spring cleaning!

Admit it, the idea of cleaning the WHOLE house can be pretty daunting.  I always find myself imagining that I’m holding our house upside down like a box – shaking it like I would, for a lack of a better illustration, a trash bin until all its contents fall off.  After everything has been cleared, I’ll start putting back the sofa, the smart TV, the stove, the fridge, the bed, etc until everything is where it should be clutter and dust-free.  Wouldn’t cleaning and arranging the house easier this way?

However, because we are no Monica Geller  and we do not have a magic wand to instantly transform our room, one must be armed with the right mindset and a strong-as-a-toddler's will. Thus when embarking on your spring cleaning, remember this hard and fast rule:  Refuse to get overwhelmed and lazy.  And yes, this is actually me reminding myself.

Here are some tips which we hope you can find a motivation to get you started with your spring cleaning, and hopefully to finish all the rooms of your house by the end of season or even much earlier:

Picture how you would like your space to look like and work on to achieve that goal.  In this way, you’ll have a clear cut idea of how you will “attack” each room.  After you have cleaned and de-cluttered your stuff, you may want to rearrange the pieces of furniture to bring a new perspective to your space.  You may also opt to change the curtains, throw covers or linens. Whatever it maybe, you’ll be amazed at how a little change in the layout can bring a fresh new vibe onto your room.

Tackle one space at a time. If it’s impossible to do it in one day, give yourself at least two days or more. Just make sure that you give yourself a deadline to finish a particular area.  I learned that if you don’t set a date to finish your tasks, chances are you’ll be leaving things unfinished for the rest of the year.

Put everything in its proper place.  Kids toys, baby stuff, unopened bills, the list is endless. The key to a more organized house is that EVERYTHING is placed in its own proper spot.  After doing some purging in your house, you put together the same things in the designated storage.  There are tons of storage ideas available in the market. Shopping and stacking up on these nifty receptacles is one of life’s little pleasures – that is if you're neat and organize savvy.  But if you’re one of the people who are failing miserably on getting things organized, well -- Welcome to the Club!  Don’t fret though, we may suck at organizing now, but we’ll get there.  It will probably take us a little longer, but believe you me, our time will come. 

Get everybody involved.  The responsibility of cleaning up and maintaining the whole house should not solely rest on you.  Ever heard the saying that many hands make light work? This saying can’t be truer especially if everybody in the household will put in some kind of work when doing spring cleaning.  It doesn’t only lighten the work, it also makes the work done faster.  You see, everybody tries to maintain the cleanliness of areas that they poured on much effort of tidying up.  It’s human nature! 

This is also a good way of jump-starting your little kids to doing house chores.  You know that kids get a little excited when they are asked to do what grown-ups do in the house.  Better take advantage of this stage when they still have this wonder in their eyes.  Because I tell you, this awe that your kids have will vanish in no time. 

Doing away with the clutter. Last year during the lock down, I tackled one of the rooms in our house that looked more like an abandoned junkyard.  I threw a lot a mountain of stuff and then converted it into a kid’s study.   It may not be much to a designer’s eye but it does serve its purpose minus the annoying clutter.  If you clear the mess, you’ll be amazed as to how much space you actually have and can still utilize. 

If it will help, you may want to take a before and after picture of your room. You know that sort of thing that you see in room reveals.  This will give you that boost to make that progress in your other rooms.  

From our house to yours, here’s to a seamless spring cleaning!