Organizing your Spring Cleaning

I hear a lot of people talking about Spring cleaning. I'm not sure why there is no Fall cleaning, or Winter cleaning, or Summer cleaning. Spring seems to get a bad wrap when it comes to cleaning.

Lisa Lelas gives some good tips for organizing Spring cleaning. Some of those tips can work well for other projects as well.

Her first tip is to get a jump-start on the cleaning. That way, when the weather gets nice, you can be outside if you want, rather than think you need to be inside cleaning.

Next she suggests beginning with an organizational plan, like a one room a week system to work on over the next six weeks or so. I like that tip. That breaks the project down into smaller parts. If you start out thinking about the entire job, it can seem quite overwhelming. By breaking it down into smaller parts, you can celebrate the success of each small step. You can get done with room one, and then celebrate the success instead of thinking, "I only have one done. How will I ever get finished?" I'm all for celebrating any chance you get. My wife and I like to use "celebrating" as an excuse to go out to eat. We can think of a lot of things to celebrate if we really try!

Lisa goes on to share tips on washing windows, getting a jump-start on the inside while the weather is still cooler, and then moving to the outside when the weather warms up. She also shares her "best recipe" for sparkling clean windows, using vinegar, ammonia, starch and warm water.

She goes on with a another good tip about using different colored wash clothes/sponges for different jobs to prevent cross contamination. And did you ever consider using Alka Seltzer tablets for easy toilet bowl cleaing? I wish I had known that when I worked in the restaurant industry. Those toilet bowls could get pretty nasty, and we were only allowed to use corporately-approved chemicals. I think Alka Seltzer tablets might have worked well.

If you are ready to tackle Spring cleaning, you might want to read her full post to get all her tips. It is worth the read.