Spring Cleaning Made Simple
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I took my dog outside this morning and realized that the sun was rising—and it wasn’t even 6:30! Not only that, my eyes itch like poison ivy, and my neighbor’s cherry tree has pink blossoms that popped out overnight.
Spring is here! Yay, it’s my favorite season—I love the transitional seasons between winter (cold and dreary) and summer (hot and humid). The spring season has an advantage over fall, because it represents everything new. Maybe that is the reason why we feel a need to clean, declutter, and weed out our closets and homes in the spring.
To help you with the process of spring cleaning, I am offering a complimentary checklist if you subscribe to the blog. It’s comprehensive, but if you address each of the items on the checklist, your house should be in good shape for the year ahead. Subscription is free—what do you have to lose?
Exterior
With snow melted and better temperatures outside, spring is a good time of year to examine the exterior of your home and address problems. Start with a superficial look. Do you see anything that is peeling, crumbling, sagging, or missing? Use binoculars to look at your second floor and roof, and don’t forget about your gutters and chimney. If you see accumulated debris, remove it. Anything of concern that you find, either make plans to fix it yourself or hire a professional handyman.
If you are planning to paint the exterior of your home, make arrangements for a quote early in the spring. Having painted the exterior of my house last year, I found out that good painters are often booked months in advance for large projects. You will also need to decide on exterior paint and colors. A color specialist (like me!) can help you to choose a color palette, or you can do it yourself. See “7 Best Insider Tips for Choosing Exterior Paint Color” to make your process easier.
Yard
I noticed in the past week that my flower beds are flourishing with daffodil and tulip shoots, leaf buds on my shrubs, and WEEDS! After a hard rain yesterday, I went out back in my rain boots and pulled a garbage bag full of crabgrass and weeds—no idea where they all came from, but I didn’t see them a week ago.
While the yard is damp, weeds and their roots are easier to remove. If you remove weeds early in the season, you will have fewer to contend with toward summer.
Spring is also a good time to treat the yard for beetles, so contact your lawn care company early. Fertilize flower beds to ensure healthy growth during the warmer months. As annuals become available at local nurseries, plant colorful flowers to make your yard more inviting. Also, remove dead foliage and trim back branches that have become overgrown.
Interior
As you make the transition from your winter wardrobe to your summer clothing, decide if you need to remove unworn or outdated clothes and shoes from your closet. Every season, I place a “donation” bag in my closet and place unwanted items for donation. It’s good discipline to make it a continuous process through the early weeks of a new season, and it makes room for new items.
Go through the drawers and other closets of your home, and organize your items. Donate things you no longer use. Invest in beautiful baskets, organizing bins, and storage containers to make spring cleaning easier and more inspiring. Take before and after photos if it motivates you to keep your spaces clean.
Take the opportunity to open windows and allow fresh air into your home. Replace air system and water filters. Wipe down ceiling fans, blinds, window sills, and other places that accumulate dust. Vacuum under the beds to remove old dust. Flip the mattresses and invest in new pillows to improve your sleep quality.
As with the exterior, go room by room and make small repairs as needed. Small cracks in grout can appear after temperature and humidity changes. Look for cracks in walls, gaps around molding, and chipped paint. Look under each sink for potential leaks. Fix any irregularities that you find.
Home maintenance is a commitment, and like any commitment, it requires time and work. Since spring is the season of renewal, it is a great time to renew your commitment to your property.
