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maintain your spring cleaning throughout the year

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Deep cleaning, organizing, and removing junk is synonymous with spring. It’s the time when we shake off the dust, wipe the windows clean, swap out the decor and shoes, and clear that stale winter air out of the house. It can be fun (for some), but if nothing else it’s just so fuckin’ satisfying to see the powerful change from the cold dark winter and it really does make an immediate shift in the energy of your space.

I find my cleaning isn’t as… vivacious in the winter as in the summer. lol

Maybe it’s the lack of fresh air or the fact that I’d rather do anything anything else than clean (ever). But it must be done… and so, for your benefit, I’ve trial and errored the shit out of some cleaning strategies to find just the perfect way to keep your place clean and fresh for a long long long time!

ok… so let me be serious for a moment, the best thing I ever did was hire a cleaner to ‘start me off’. I know everyone can’t do this, but if you can DO IT! Barter, trade, make a deal, heck if that’s not an option get a group of girlfriends together to clean each other’s homes… because the only other way to start fresh is to paint all the walls, put in new floors or move (also something I’ve done- lol)!

  • if you go the cleaner route don’t forget to specifically ask them to pay attention to windows and window tracks, baseboards and walls (especially around high-touch areas like light switches and doorknobs) as well as inside and outside cupboards and door frames.

After a lot of trial and error, I found what helped me most was breaking down the often neglected cleaning tasks into my weekly calendar.

Maintaining a clean home can take some scheduling and my go-to scheduling book has been created by Justine as a goal tracker book, but it seriously works great for my cleaning (and workout) schedule too (so when you order, get two πŸ˜‰ ).

By scheduling the nasty cleaning chores that I hated (and were often neglected), one at a time, it became manageable because I wasn’t spending what usually ended up being a sunny day off, trying to get them all done, and then becoming exhausted and way too frustrated to keep going, and then you know what… I hated it so much that I just never (ever) did them again!

I want to impress on you- this is not meant to replace your essential cleaning practice, this is an addition to your basic daily cleaning routine in order to maintain the spring clean vibe in your home! For me, the tasks I needed to schedule and be intentional with were the ones I hated and ignored. If my examples are not items like that for you, obviously adjust and change them to suit your demands.

I know I know, let’s get to the fuckin’ point! My trick to maintaining this type of cleaning regimen is to make it not only quick (hence the one task a day) but also to make it pretty consistent (almost weekly) so that things don’t get out of control to the point of giving up.

Here’s my basic cleaning schedule ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

day 1 β†’ windows including frames, and tracks (vacuum, and wipe down).

day 2 β†’ baseboards, door frames, cobwebs in the corners and dust on top of hanging picture frames.

day 3 β†’ bathroom tub/grout, vacuum fan, mirrors, floors, drawers, etc.

day 4 β†’ wash items like drapes/curtains, throw rugs, blankets, etc.

day 5 β†’ oven, fridge, freezer and other small appliances (inside and out).

day 6 β†’ vacuum/spot-wash couches, mattresses, kitchen chairs, etc.

day 7 β†’ front (and back) entrances including shoes, coats, washing floors, etc.

day 8 β†’ kitchen backsplash, outside of cupboards and pantry area.

day 9 β†’ organize the neverending piles of paper, mail, bills, declutter, etc.

day 10 β†’ do whatever day I didn’t have time to get to (cause life happens and I’m not perfect)

I also want to impress on you that my current home is a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1100 square foot apartment, and this type of routine would not have been possible in my old home (which had 5 bedrooms, 3 baths and 2 1/2 stories and took me a full day to clean half-ass!)- so it’s important that you adjust to your size, time and especially with the tasks that you feel get neglected and or suck at.

You’ll also notice that I have more than 7 days’ worth… it’s because I hate to clean a lot of things, and really there is nothing here that needs to be done more often than this. My daily cleaning is super simple and includes wiping down the kitchen and tidying up the living room before bedtime, I make my bed in the morning and vacuum every 3-5 days. Add more cleaning tasks if you hate more, or give yourself some time off if you have less!

you do you, babe.

xox

Tamara