Get Your Home Back in Shape After a Long Winter
Despite the frequent snowstorms we’ve seen lately, it’s officially springtime in Alberta – just pay no attention to the snow drifts still clinging on for dear life!
With spring comes warmth, new life, blossoming trees and plants…and spring cleaning. You might be dreading the thought of opening up the windows, airing the place out, and cleaning every inch of your home from top to bottom (it has been a loooooong winter, after all!), but don’t worry, we’ve got a few tips to help make things easier. We won’t bore you with lessons on how to get all the dust out from behind your fridge or other such similar cleaning tricks – we’re sure your more than capable of running a vacuum over the place without us telling you how to do it! Instead, consider these tips less “cleaning hacks” and more “keeping-your-sanity-while-whipping-your-house-into-shape-hacks.” Nobody really enjoys spring cleaning, but with our help, you’ll make it through in one piece…hopefully. If nothing else, at least your house will great in the end!
Spring Cleaning Tip #1: Take Your Time
This is perhaps the most important piece of advice we can give to help you get through the onerous chore of spring cleaning. Remember: it’s less of a sprint to the finish line, and more of a long-distance marathon. There are some folks out there who would encourage you to rip the proverbial band-aid off and just keep cleaning until you’re finished…but those people obviously haven’t seen the shape my house is in right now! If your place looks anything like mine, there’s no way to just “keep cleaning until it’s done” unless you’re looking to succumb to exhaustion, boredom, and dust inhalation first.
Our advice? Pace yourself. Set lofty, but ultimately realistic goals for yourself. Tackle one room or chore at a time. And if you’re feeling tired or worn out? Take a break. For a few minutes, for an hour, for the rest of the day – whatever you need. Nobody likes dragging out a task for longer than it has to go on for, but keep in mind that there aren’t any deadlines here to worry about. There isn’t a Spring Cleaning Inspector making his way through town, rewarding those with sparkling, spotless homes and punishing infractions of dust and grime, so rest easy, and don’t push yourself too hard!
Spring Cleaning Tip #2: Try to Enjoy Yourself (as Much as Possible, Anyway)
Despite what Mary Poppins might have told you, cleaning isn’t fun – it’s awful. Don’t get us wrong, there’s nothing in this whole entire world as satisfying as having a house that’s entirely tidy and dust-free, but the act of cleaning itself? Not fun. So, do what you can to make it as enjoyable an experience as possible! First, put yourself in a positive mental headspace. Even if you’re not excited to clean, approaching the task at hand without being thoroughly miserable is the first step toward making the experience a more-bearable one.
Next: the ambiance. You don’t need to be scrubbing that floor in an atmosphere of tense silence! Throw on some music, queue up your favourite podcast, download an audio book, or even just switch the TV on to your favourite show. Heck, grab a glass of wine or a beer if you’re feeling saucy. Do whatever you need to in order to make cleaning less of a chore, and it will all be over before you know it.
Spring Cleaning Tip #3: Clean Smart, Not Hard
When you’re planning out your angle of attack, be strategic about what you’re going to take on. Tackling those gross, dust-caked blinds? Maybe pull them down and give them a clean before you vacuum and tidy the rest of that room, to keep your re-cleaning to a minimum. Make the sinks and faucets some of the last tasks you tackle – that way, you don’t have to go back and tidy up after using these fixtures to clean the rest of the house. Don’t set yourself more work than you need to do. If you plan ahead and think smart, you’ll save yourself both time and frustration.
There, That Wasn’t So Tough!
Spring cleaning isn’t anybody’s idea of a good time, but hopefully, these tips will help you to keep your wits about you through the process and come out relatively unscathed in the end – with a beautiful, sparkling, dirt-free house, to boot! We wish everyone tackling their spring cleaning in the days and weeks ahead the best of luck – and remember, no matter how bad things might seem, at least we can be grateful that spring only comes around once a year!
