Spring Cleaning Without Overwhelm
If the idea of spring cleaning feels more overwhelming than energizing, this blog post is for you. This year I’ve shifted my approach to spring cleaning—taking it from being a marathon of scrubbing and organizing—to making it a delightful reset. Honestly I've even been enjoying the experience. I'll share what I'm doing differently so that you can have a more peaceful spring refresh in your home as well.
The Mindset Needed for a Slow Living Home Reset
To be able to actually make this shift, I think it really requires a bit of a mindset shift around spring cleaning in general.
I used to think of spring cleaning as an overwhelming series of chores. Now I look at it more as an opportunity to reassess how my spaces feel, to find more simplicity and to add beauty to my home both inside and out. It’s less about checking off a list of socially expected tasks and more about me stepping back to take a fresh look at what I see. When I do this, I can be intentional with the time I actually have available to make changes that feel really good to me.
One thing I’d like to point out from the very start here is that what feels good to me, may feel entirely different from what feels good to you. That is why it is so important that you step back to assess how your spaces look and feel to you.
My sister recently went through the process of giving her home a big refresh. She started painting the walls in one room of her house and ended up painting all the walls throughout her whole house. She’s shared pictures with me and it looks really beautiful. She picked some bright bold colors that I know will really resonate with her.
If I was painting my walls, the colors I would have chosen would have been completely different–they would have been more muted, more natural, earthy tones because those are the colors that make me want to breathe in deeply, relax and feel at home. The point is, it’s not about making a Pinterest worthy, picture perfect home. It’s about freshening up your space in a way that truly makes you feel good to be in it.
Mindful Spring Cleaning Tips
When you think about what it feels like to feel good in your space, I think it can even help to incorporate a bit of mindfulness into the process. If you’ve set aside some time for freshening up a room, what if, before you get started you begin by engaging with your senses? Maybe you open up a window to let in the fresh air.. Maybe you turn on some pleasant music or diffuse some essential oils. In doing this, you relax and suddenly you become fully present and open to perceive how you really feel. This is a completely different experience than beginning with the mindset of attacking the room with a sweeper, dust cloth and cleaning products in hand. You may use those, but you’ve set the stage for enjoying the process first.
Ditching the Long Spring Cleaning List
When it comes to spring cleaning my home, I don’t set a schedule or make a list of things to do. Rather I just let this process unfold throughout the beginning of the season. I tune in to what most feels like it needs deep cleaning or a refresh and focus on that first. I do this by looking around and noticing what makes me feel most uncomfortable or what things are least pleasing to look at.
I think this idea that you can actually enjoy spring cleaning and let the process unfold naturally actually helps me accomplish more than I would if I was trying to knock out a long list of spring cleaning tasks. What typically happens for me is that while there are some large tasks like cleaning windows that require me to set aside a chunk of dedicated time, many other things get cleaned while I’m working in that space. I may pull out a cookbook that I’m about to use and decide to take a few extra minutes to pull them all out and wipe off the shelf.
Spring Decluttering With Intention
At the same time I’ll declutter by paying attention to what I’m setting aside and making a point of intentionally considering items that I am putting back. Is it something I will actually use and want to keep? If you struggle with the process of decluttering, this may resonate with you–what if you reframe that term? What if decluttering instead becomes “making space for beauty and more ease?
Questions to Ask for Decluttering
I read something the other day that stuck with me and that I think I’ll be using to help me when it comes to deciding what things to keep or let go of. The concept is that we have ownership bias. In other words, when we already have something, we think it is more valuable than when we don’t. A study was done and it was found that when you ask people to put a value on something they own, it almost always is higher than the price they would pay for it.
When I think about this in terms of spring cleaning, I can see asking myself if I “would buy the thing I am contemplating?” If the answer is “no”, I should really consider releasing it. The next question may be how useful this thing is and whether or not it adds value in some way to my life. Here’s another great question to ask for the process of letting go of things: Does this support the lifestyle I want to live now? If the answer to that is “no” and I am still tempted to keep it, I try to gently ask myself “why?”
How to Simplify Your Home for Spring
The past couple of years, I’ve also been very focused on simplicity. There can be a tendency to think that simplicity means getting rid of things. I like to think of it a bit differently. I like to think about it as creating space for what matters most. By its very nature, simplicity makes things more organized and easier to find. When you have less things to sort through in a given location, it becomes easier to see what you are looking for. Often you do get rid of things in process, but it can also simply mean separating things into different locations or storing them in a way that makes it easier to see everything. One thing that I focus on in this process is trying to reduce duplicates.
Creating Clutter-free Zones
Other practical ways to increase simplicity in the home can be creating “clutter-free zones”. You can decide that certain spaces, such as a kitchen counter or a nightstand are areas that you make sure is clear after you are done working in that area or at the end of the day. By doing this, it creates a sense of calm, as your eyes and mind have a place to rest.
The One Touch Rule
You can also intend to have a “one-touch” rule. When putting things away, do your best to only touch them once. As an example, when I bring in the mail, if at all possible, I go through it immediately. I go ahead and recycle what makes sense, I file what I will use later and I set aside Curt’s mail for him to do the same.
Reducing Visual Noise to Highlight Beauty in Your Home
One thing that will reduce the visual noise in my kitchen is to minimize what we have on our refrigerator doors. I’m also looking to see where I can minimize excessive décor, or group things or put them into baskets. I do believe that when your eyes have less to focus on, your nervous system relaxes more. Not to mention, after a while you stop seeing things anyway–I no longer notice most of the cards I put on my refrigerator to enjoy. If I mix it up and only have one or two, I really think I’ll pay attention to them and enjoy them more often.
I think when you begin to remove all the excess, it becomes easier to see the beauty and essence of what remains and as humans we are drawn to beauty. Seeing beauty makes us feel good. So I’m hoping that when I manage to simplify what you can see, the things that I have the are beautiful can more easily stand out and take center stage.
Trust Yourself to Make Space for Matters Most to You
As you know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You have to trust yourself that you have the ability to create what looks beautiful to you. For me, this most often ends up being my plants or flowers. I often end up moving them to different locations when I’m doing this kind of spring reset. I’ve tried to plant more cut flowers this year so I can bring inside more often. Candles are the other thing that I lean on for beauty in my home.
Purchase Beautiful Things That Will Last
When I buy things to use in the home these days, if it is something that I know is going to sit out and not be tucked away in a cabinet, I really try hard to choose things that are beautiful in their own way, even if it means spending a bit more. I like seeing things that are made with natural elements like wood and stone. Often these do come with a higher price tag, but I also try to purchase things that will last, so in the end, maybe there isn’t that much difference in the cost.
Hopefully I’ve given you a little inspiration to let your spring cleaning this year not feel exhausting—rather making it an act of love, for your home and yourself. Happy Cleaning!
