A Spring Cleaning Checklist that Doesn’t Overwhelm

It’s confession time: Every year when it comes to spring cleaning, I go into a bit of brain lock. I see all the items that are stretched out in front of me that need to be done, and I just want to curl up inside the house with a cup of coffee and a Netflix marathon.

Sometimes, that cleaning checklist is just too overwhelming, and I don’t even know where to start. Here’s a solution to that.

This spring cleaning checklist breaks down the essentials so that you don’t run cowering into your house from fear of having too much to do:

1. Organize Your Supplies — Each room has a different set of supplies based on your needs. (For instance, the bathroom has different needs than your bedroom.) I suggest creating a cleaning tote for each room. Keep all your tub and toilet cleaners in a small box for use in the bathroom and carpet freshener and a duster for the den and bedroom. By getting your supplies organized upfront, you will know what you need to buy before you start. (And trust me, there’s nothing worse than getting into a cleaning groove and finding out you are missing something essential.)

2. Go Room by Room — Too often, we try to do everything all at once. The reality, then, is that we spread ourselves too thin and don’t get most of what we want completed. Instead of doing this, create a separate checklist of things to do for each room. Start with just one room and do everything on the checklist. Don’t move on until it’s all done, even if this takes more than one day. It took you all year to get the house where it is since the last spring cleaning. Don’t try to fix it all in one day.

3. Create Piles — As you are going through your rooms, take everything out of drawers, off shelves, etc. and use this opportunity to clean and dust these areas. As you empty things out, move them into three separate piles. The first will be your “keep” pile. As soon as you are finished sorting and dusting, put these back where you got them—they are the clothes and other items you are keeping. The next pile should be for donations. These are the products in a good state of repair that you can donate to charity (or possibly sell at a yard sale). The last will be your trash pile for anything broken, chipped, torn, or just so outdated or worn that no one would want it. Throw these out immediately. Now is the time to be ruthless. If you haven’t used it in a year, then chances are you don’t need to keep it.

4. Set Up Regular Checklists — Don’t wait until spring rolls around to get your big cleaning done. If you create checklists for each month (or at least each quarter), then you can spread out the work over all twelve months and not just a couple of weekends when you don’t feel like cleaning.

By following these easy steps, you can break down your big cleaning jobs into smaller chunks which are always helpful. So, pop in your earbuds, fire up some music or a good audiobook, and get to cleaning.

**********