Spring Clearing!

March’s blogs are all about Spring Clearing. Yes, that’s right, clearing, not cleaning. It’s getting to that time of the year when we start to feel like we might emerge from our winter dens and the light that comes in through our windows starts to highlight the dust (and piles) that may have built up.

A good declutter can help with the cleaning as well - on my current 12 Weeks To Tidy course, many of the participants are telling me not only how much easier it is to keep their homes tidy, but also how much easier it is to keep them clean. Certainly, I always find it easier to clean when I don’t have to move stuff out of the way first.

Pick an area that needs a bit of attention – it might be the junk drawer (there’s one in every house, a place where things are stuffed when they have no other home), or it might be a coffee table or sideboard; an area where things build up. In my house, the sideboard in the kitchen is a dumping ground – it’s where people drop things as they come into the house, and where the things from the table get dumped when it’s cleared before or after meals.

1. Empty the drawer or area completely and give it a good wipe down.

2. Look at the items that came out of the drawer and categorise them – pens, tape, string, paperwork, hair ties etc.

3. Decide what you need to keep, move, donate, recycle or bin.

4. Put the things that already have a home back into their home.

5. Choose a home for the things that don’t have one!

6. Admire your work.

Once that area is done, you may feel like you want to get on with another, or you may want to just bask in what you have done already!