Once again, spring has sprung. It’s time to start thinking about your annual spring clean, which means planning, organisation and setting aside enough time to do the job justice.
However, spring cleaning doesn’t need to be something you dread. In fact, with a few subtle changes and additions to your schedule, you can make this yearly job fun and enjoyable.
1. Turn the process into a gameshow
Get together with family or friends, and turn essential cleaning tasks into a competitive game show. Set races, time tasks or give one another scores out of 10 for the standard of cleaning. At the end of the session, tot up the points and declare a winner.
2. Make shopping your incentive
By decluttering your home and deep cleaning certain storage areas, you’re getting your home ready for new stuff. Exactly what that stuff looks like is entirely up to you. For instance, if you want to go on a shopping sprees for new clothes, get your bedroom and wardrobe space ready with a big cleaning session.
3. Catch up on your favourite author
A big spring clean can be a lonely, monotonous and soul-destroying job at times. But why not catch up on your favourite author as you scrub, vacuum and polish? Download an audiobook, whack on some headphones, and clean to the dulcet tones of a novel narrator.
4. Throw a cleaning party
Many hands make light work, so persuade your friends and family to pitch in by throwing a spring cleaning party. If you’re wondering why on earth people would consider helping you to clean, there are a few incentives you can use. For example, you can lay on a spread of food and drink for afterwards. Get together with three or four friends, and schedule spring cleaning parties on four successive Friday nights — ensuring everyone in the group hosts a party and gets their home cleaned.
5. Feel the burn
If you’re a fitness enthusiast, why not combine your spring cleaning with a rigorous workout? Make full use of your stairs, keep the pace up and listen to some up-tempo music. Energetic cleaning can burn up to 500 calories per hour. And the faster you move, the quicker you complete your spring clean!
6. Crack out the vodka
Vodka actually makes a great cleaning agent, stain remover and deodoriser. Fill a spray bottle with one part water and one part vodka, and get spraying. And to give you an added incentive, use screwdriver cocktails and bloody marys as your reward.
7. Colour code everything
Give every room in your home a colour code, and create a colour-coded cleaning station for each. For instance, if your bathroom is blue, make sure your brushes, dustpans, mops and cloths are all blue. You can then create colourful cleaning rotas based on the colours you choose. This also lets you know which cleaning tools you have used in your bathroom, as you probably won’t want to use them anywhere else in your home.
8. Keep the breaks coming
The last thing you want is to run out of energy during the early stages of a difficult spring clean. It is therefore a good idea to set a break timer at regular intervals. Never work for more than an hour at a time, but limit your breaks to no more than 15 minutes. It’s also a good idea to arrange some activities for these breaks, such as reading, watching your favourite TV show or chatting with a friend on the phone.
9. Make spring cleaning playtime
If you have kids at home, they can help you to make your big spring clean a great deal more fun. Believe it or not, small children love cleaning, as it is a way to be just like mum or dad. Give your children their own responsibilities, and let them get on with it — whilst keeping them away from chemicals, of course. Create a cleaning chart, and mark each completed job with a star. Give a reward for every four or five stars, and you should be able to keep things fun motivational.
Spring cleaning is a great way to prepare your home for the summer — after a long winter during which you probably spent a lot of time indoors. While this is always a big job, it doesn’t have to be tedious and soul-destroying. Make things fun, and the spring cleaning time will simply fly by.
