lifehacker.com
With all this talk about spring cleaning, you could be forgiven if you focused on, well, just cleaning in the spring. But the real beauty of spring cleaning is that it can be a jumping-off point for a clean year. Yes, you can put in extra effort right now, restocking and upgrading your cleaning supplies and doing all those intense annual tasks, but if you don't keep up with your tidying all year round, you'll be stuck doing another exhausting round next spring. Use this as a starting point for a big year of your cleanest home ever. First, commit to a cleaning scheduleWhile you're undertaking spring cleaning this year, keep track of what tasks you enjoy (or just hate less than the others), what takes the most time, and when you feel most motivated. You're going to want to know all of that as you set out to create a manageable and personalized schedule for the rest of the year. There are a lot of ways you can structure your schedule, but what's most important here is finding a time that really works for you, whether it's the morning, afternoon, or evening. It will depend on your existing schedule of work and responsibilities, plus when you feel most motivated and how you choose to approach cleaning. I recommend only cleaning in 15-minute chunks each day to keep the whole endeavor manageable and stop it from getting overwhelming, but you can divide those up however you like. Micro-cleaning and -decluttering are a great option, as they ask you to pick a small space every day (think: a cabinet or a tabletop, not a whole room or even a whole closet) and focus on that. Over time, cleaning every small space will result in a cleaner home, but there will still be times you need to call in the big guns and tackle a large project, like a kid's room or a kitchen that's seen better days. Block out a day every month to do a whole-house tidying. Otherwise, really stick to your scheduled 15 minutes every day. If you're finding that, after a few weeks, the time you selected doesn't work, switch it up. It's better to make some adjustments early on than to fall behind because you're determined to stick with something that's not working. Pick cleaning approaches that work for youOnce you get a handle on the times you commit to cleaning, you need to figure out what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. The micro-cleaning approach of picking a small space every day works well, but you still need a plan for what you're doing to that micro-space. There are a few techniques out there that lend themselves to long-term home maintenance more than others, like 365 Less Things and the "calendar" method. Both of those are centered on decluttering, but can be modified for general cleaning tasks, too. With 365 Less Things, you commit to throwing away or donating one piece of clutter every day; with the calendar approach, you toss or donate one thing on the first of the month, two things on the second, and so on until you are up to 30 things on the 30th and 31 on the 31st. These are great for decluttering and habit-building, so use them as intended at first, but feel free to switch it up. Instead of getting rid of six things on the sixth, think of something you could clean six of, like the six upholstered chairs around your dining table or the six mirrors on the upstairs landing. Here is a list of my favorite decluttering techniques and here are my favorite cleaning techniques. There are a ton out there, from books by cleaning gurus to methods discovered and disseminated by regular people on social media, and trying them out during your scheduled cleaning time can keep you engaged and help you find the approach that works best for your home. Adjust as necessaryLike I said, you should be keeping track of how this goes. You don't have to keep hyper-detailed data, but it's helpful to make note of what's working and what isn't. Changing the time you typically clean, trying a new technique, or playing around with the rewards system you want to use for yourself are all fine and even good. It takes a long time to build a habit and sink into a quality routine, but the goal should be to use spring cleaning as an opportunity to see how great your home can look and spend the next 11 months keeping it that way. One thing that is pretty helpful here, at least for me, is calling in reinforcements. I don't mean a professional cleaneralthough I have found that hiring one every month or two is super helpful, as they notice spots that need attention that you may overlook, plus I counterintuitively clean extra well before one comes out of fear of being embarrassed. I mean using an app. There are a handful of apps out there that can help you build the perfect cleaning schedule, keep tabs on what's been tended to and what hasn't, and even send you push notifications reminding you when a certain area needs your attention. Apps, cleaning pros' books, and CleanTok influencers' posts can all help guide you, motivate you, inspire you, and altogether push you toward getting better at keeping up with your cleaning. Then again, you can read, watch, and log in to as much as you want, but none of it matters unless you get after it in real life, so start building your schedule, download my checklists, and prepare for spring, summer, fall, and winter cleaning now.
