Spring Cleaning—Love it or Hate it?
The term Spring Cleaning gets thrown around a lot in this business and it can mean something different to each of us. I think Spring Cleaning is solving a problem you didn’t know you had. Like spending your entire weekend redesigning your closet with color coded hangers, matching accessory boxes and darling hooks for belts and purses—Then winding up with extra time Monday morning to enjoy breakfast at home with your family. Where did that extra time come from?
For those who can’t think of one good reason why anyone would want to invent extra work a) to a degree, you have a point, yet b) there is a twinkle of genius in some of my tips that might intrigue you to choose a pallet of peacock and tangerine and turn your messy disorganized office or closet into a gorgeous organized space with room to spare.
Another way to define Spring Cleaning is taking an area of your home or office and optimizing your enjoyment of that space by decluttering, cleaning and then improving the space with design. You can always tell when you’ve succeeded at a project. It’s when you find more happiness in that space or are more drawn to be in it. I’ve optimized linen closets before that caused me to want to open the door when I walked past just to enjoy the cleverness and pretty improvements made to that stupid closet filled with old sheets and mismatched towels.
When is it time to Spring Clean? If you listen to the rhythm of your energy you will feel highly creative and ambition on some days and kinda like a slug on others. Don’t force yourself to do a Spring Cleaning project on April 1 unless you are truly inspired. Some projects, like reorganizing the ever growing crap in the garage, takes a bit a planning anyway. One day you might just flip through a magazine to find colors that make you happy. Another day you might gather the family to pick out of the garage what will go to the Goodwill and what will go on Craigslist.org for sale or for free. Taking your time with these projects also gives you a chance to let natural occurrences present solutions or inspirations.
I’ve got a few ideas on how to clean, and how to not clean, every surface of the house. I’ll share some more in future posts. Today I’ll leave you with cleaning your windows and screens.
Tip #1— Cleaning the windows is so much more pleasant when done with a helper on a mild day with no wind.
Window cleaning projects can be an all-day project, but you only need to clean them a few times a year. Before you actually start cleaning the glass or even opening your windows, I suggest you clean up the screens, window sills and tracks first.
Screens collect a lot of dirt and dust over the winter. To avoid having that dirt fly right into your house on the first spring day, clean those screens before you open your windows.
1) You might want to mark the screens so you know for sure which window they belong to.
2) Make a spray bottle up of 1 cup ammonia, 3 cups water, and a few drops of Dawn Soap.
3) Lay the screens down on the ground and spray them with solution, use a soft brush to clean dirt, then rinse the screens and leave them to dry before you put them back up.
4) Vacuum the inside window tracks and clean your window sills before you clean the windows so as to avoid getting that dirt picked up by your cleaning process and transferred to your window or window sills.
5) Clean your windows with the right tools for a professional finish. Use a bucket that is made to fit your tools. Use a micro fiber combo scrubber / squeegee that you can attach to an extending wand to reach those larger windows.
All the supplies you need, including a window cleaning solution, can be found at Home Depot type places.
