What’s The Difference Between Spring Cleaning And Spring Clearing?
And why should you care?
In This Post, You Will Find Out Why You Should Be Focussing On Spring Clearing Rather Than Spring Cleaning, And How To Set Yourself Up For Clearing Sucess.
Cleaning is simply removing dirt. Which is great, because it gets rid of grease, dust, mites and all manner of nasties that can make us sick.
But cleaning is hard if you have a lot of stuff. You need to pick things up, move them out of the way or clean on, over and around them.
Clearing is about getting rid of excess stuff. Once you get rid of what you don’t need cleaning gets much easier.
Clearing Has Other Benefits Too. Think of Clearing As Creating Space.
Any artist or graphic designer will tell you that space around elements is as important as the elements themselves.
Consider how peaceful an image is that has a lot of sky, an expanse of beach, or a minimal background. As opposed to one that is full to the brim with shapes or colour.
The same principle applies to your home.
By clearing decorations, knickknacks photos and pictures you reduce visual clutter. And you instantly create calm.
A mix of artwork spread out will look more cluttered, as your eye is pulled in lots of different directions. Group your pictures for more visual impact and a less cluttered look.
Matching frames and picture sizes will give you an even cleaner, calmer look.
The same is true for other objects in your home.
Lots of small elements create visual clutter. Bring them together for a bigger impact and more clear space.
Clear Your Counters To Instantly Reduce Overwhelm In The Kitchen.
The more your eye can see, the more overwhelmed you can feel. Especially when things start to get messy.
So store as much as you can out of sight. And for items you need to have out, group them together by size or colour for a calmer look.
So Instead of Spring Cleaning, Focus on Clearing
- Check your counters. Do you use the things on them daily? If not, can they live elsewhere?
- Check surfaces. Should the things on them be there, or do they need a home?
- Check your decor. Do you still love it?
- Look at spacing. Are things spread out? Can you group them to create less visual clutter?
More clear space will make cleaning much quicker and easier.
How To Set Yourself Up For Success In Your Spring Clearing
Can setting out to clear your house actually be setting yourself up for failure?
You know your house needs clearing, and you know you have too many things. So what’s the problem in setting out to tackle it?
Well, if you are:
- Short on time.
- Have a lot of other commitments.
- Run out of steam quickly.
- Struggle to make decisions.
- Have a hard time organising.
- Have ADHD.
You could actually be setting yourself up for failure.
Why is that?
Well, going in with the expectation that you are going to get your whole house sorted is a pretty lofty goal. Especially if you are setting out to do this on your own.
I mean, your actions and habits have led to the way the house is now. Changing ingrained patterns is a long process. It doesn’t happen overnight.
You also need the right toolkit to make big changes in your home. And by toolkit, I don’t mean mops and pretty storage boxes. I mean the right decluttering and organising strategies that work for YOU. Not the organisers on TV, but for you personally.
So How Can You Actually Have an Effective Spring Clearout?
- Break the goal down. Clearing the whole house is way too broad and big. Break that down into much smaller chunks.
- Check if any chunks depend on something else happening first. For example, you might want to get the carpets steam cleaned. But actually, to get to the carpets you need to remove a lot of stuff from the floor. Which means decluttering each carpeted room first.
- See which of those chunks can be delegated or outsourced easily. Booking in a window cleaner, carpet cleaner, handyman(person) gardener or cleaner could be the absolute best use of your time and money to really make a big difference in your home.
- Now, look at your list and highlight which areas are the most important to you. For example, the kitchen might be very important as you use it daily. And the garage less so, because you don’t use it as much.
You may also enjoy this post, 12 Ways To Start Decluttering When You Are Feeling Overwhelmed
Now you know what your highest priority is. But that’s not enough. You need to set yourself up for success.
- Take a look at your calendar and see when you actually have time for these spring cleaning tasks. You might need to book a babysitter, take a day off work,
- Check if there is anything you need to arrange ahead of time like a charity pick up, a skip or a pair of helping hands. Book this in.
- Make your goal obvious. If it just exists in your head you are likely to forget and not get it done. Print out a checklist to hang in an obvious place, write your steps on a large chalkboard or post it in an accountability group online.
- Then go one step at a time. Share your wins with an accountability buddy, support group or coach.
When your house is really messy, working on just one small area may feel like rearranging deckchairs on the titanic.
And for those of us with ADHD, well, we want it all done, and we want it now!
But hang in there. Even if it takes you a whole month to do one room, just think, you will easily get through your whole house in a lot less than a year. Progress is better than perfection.
But what if you need to clear your house faster? I can help! Check out how on my Services Page HERE.
