I love spring. After being under a shroud of snow for so long, it’s exciting to experience a fresh world again! I look forward to gardening, grilling outside, and even washing my windows.
Spring is a time to reassess the physical nature of your home. The first step to creating a lovely, pleasant atmosphere is to declutter. Everyone has heard this mantra before, but it really is one of the crucial initial stages to organizing your home life. It’s difficult to think about color and candles and even meal planning when your are fighting piles in every room. Start small and attack one project at a time. Perhaps the pile of papers on your kitchen desk needs attention or maybe a closet is sending you over the edge.
As you work on manageable small projects in your home, you can also implement a daily plan that will allow you to see more immediate results in the physical nature of your home. Here are five steps that you can follow regularly.
1) Throw something away every day. Everyone has something they are holding on to that needs to be tossed!
2) Complete one major cleaning project daily, i.e. the floors or the bathrooms or dusting. This will allow you to feel like some aspect of your home is always clean. It’s a mental exercise more than anything. This will keep you from feeling overwhelmed, as well.
3) Initiate pickup moments in your home 2-3 times per day. Even toddlers can stop pulling out toys for a little while and help. This should only take 5-10 minutes. You will have to train your children to help but they will quickly learn what you expect from them when you ask for assistance.
4) Do your dishes as you cook.
5) Neaten your home before you go to bed. This will allow everyone to experience a fresh start in the morning.