https://www.bin-store.com/blog

We’re still in the midst of winter, so you can relax a little while longer before you pull out those mops and dusters, but soon enough it will be spring, and that means it will be time to clean, declutter, and organize. Many years, we take a casual approach to spring cleaning. We wipe down a single wall or clean a single overhead fan and call it good, because we did something we usually do not.

But now and again, you want to do a really thorough top-to-bottom job. Your household and family deserve it! So here is a quick spring cleaning list to help you really do a comprehensive job this year:

• Fully vacuum and wipe down your walls and ceilings.
• Clean as many of your carpets and rugs at home as you can and vacuum them. If you have any rugs that do not include waterproof backings (like Oriental rugs), you need to have them cleaned professionally.
• Wipe down your upholstery and remove old stains.
• Thoroughly dust your shelves, including books and everything on them.
• Polish metal surfaces like door handles, mirror frames, and picture frames.
• Apply wax to your wooden furniture.
• Wax your floors.
• Wash your window screens and windows, and clean draperies and wooden blinds. You can do a lot of this at home as most draperies can go straight into your washing machine. The rest can be cleaned professionally.
• Dust everything. This, along with wiping down your walls, may require you to completely empty out your closets.

One of the best spring cleaning tips is to make the most of this opportunity to not only clean, but also declutter and get organized! It is very tempting to try to get all your cleaning out of the way in one fell swoop and then get everything crammed back in place as quickly as possible so you can move on with your life.

But if you do that, you are just going to make decluttering and organizing harder on yourself later. So also come up with a spring cleaning decluttering checklist and a spring cleaning organizing checklist. As you go, get rid of items you no longer need (donate them or recycle them whenever possible—or gift them to friends who may want them). Come up with smarter organizational schemes which will save you time cleaning and fetching what you need in the future.

You might be thinking, “But that means that spring cleaning is going to take me a lot longer.” That is true, and that is why I actually think in many ways spring cleaning is a flawed concept. If you really want to tackle the mess in your home, you need to take it on bit by bit. So spread your cleaning, decluttering, and organizing tasks throughout the year. Come up with a calendar. Take on just one room a month if you need to. It will take a long time, but eventually you will get everything sorted. And then next year, you will have a lot less work to do. You will finally have the clean, organized home you dream about!