5 Easy Steps to Successfully Spring Clean Your Home

Open up the windows and turn on your favorite tunes because your house is about to transform into light and bright.

Spring cleaning is meant to alleviate what you have gathered through the Autumn and Winter months and to prepare your home to receive all that is possible for all of Spring and Summer.

Let's get started!

Step #1: Gather

When starting with a space be it the kitchen, the bathroom, or a bedroom drawer it is important to gather everything that needs to go in that space and that is already in that space.

Put everything into one spot.

Step #2: Separate into Piles

Now that you have a massive pile, take a look at what you have. Divide it into separate piles:

1. Need to keep

2. Like to keep

3. Don't need

Each pile should be deliberate. If you don't know if you should keep it, put it in the "like to keep pile". You can focus on whether you should or shouldn't keep it, later.

Note for the "Need to keep" pile: I like what Marie Kondo says, if it sparks joy you keep it. There is not deliberating or figuring out if you should keep it, just keep it.

How do you know if it sparks joy? You feel a sensation inside of you that ties you to it.

Step #3: Deduce

Now that you have three piles, take time with each one individually.

Start with the "Don't Need" pile. It feels good to take out the trash and to box up thrift store donation items. Pack up the "Don't Need" pile accordingly. And honest-to-goodness, I beg you, GET RID OF IT IMMEDIATELY. Take the boxes to your car and the trash bags to the trash can.

Next up is the "Like to Keep" pile. This pile can be strenuous on your mind. You decision making muscle will be fatigued (p.s. have a ready-made dinner for the night you decide to work on this one).

Questions to help you sort through the "Like to keep" pile:

- Do I already have one of these? If so I only need one.

- What purpose does this really serve in my life or does it just take up space?

- Do I honestly need it?

Trust your gut and get rid of it.

Note for those who are waiting for the perfect person to give it to: Stop waiting. The perfect person for your gifted hand-me-down will probably go shopping for what they need either at a store or at the thrift store where this item -- your item will be. This is your sign to let it go. Your special yet unused item will find its way into the right hands. I am sure of it.

Whatever is left from the "Like to keep" pile, it has been transferred over to the "Need to Keep" pile.

The "Need to Keep" pile is now organized and deduced.

If you have two of something that is the right amount. Anything over two needs to be deduced down to two.

If something is broken or needs mending, set off to the side and do what you need to do with it a different day.

Step #4: Create Space

Now that you have only the "Need to Keep" pile to work with. You can now account for the space that it will need.

Questions to ask yourself:

- How can you effectively use the space that you have to place each item in that space with room to grab it and put it back with ease?

- Do you need organizing bins for small items?

- What will support the function of the space?

- What activities do you do in this space? Decide now to put the most used items in the front of the organization space than in the back.

Step #5: Organize

When organizing think about function. How do you grab things?

For example, when you get a cut on your finger where are the Band-Aids and the Neosporin? Do you grab them quickly or gently? QUICKLY, right? So you are not going to put them in the back of your medicine cupboard surrounded by tons of items. You are going to place them in their own plastic bin where they can be easily reached (out of your children's reach) and you are going to make sure there is space around these items so you can grab them quickly.

Think about how you use your room and then think about how that item if placed in the most optimal place in the room to be reached for used and then placed back -- where is the best place for it?

If you have lots of little items, get an organizer that supports the collective items.

If you have larger items that all need to go together, consider using empty spaces like under the couch and bed, with sliding storage bins that can easily be accessed yet keeps the larger items out of the way.

When there is a will, there is a way.

Allow your brain to ask, what can go here? What would look best here? And what would support this space to function best? These questions help me problem solve any organization challenge that comes my way.

As you clean, organize, and create proper space for each item in each room of your home, you will feel lighter and brighter. Behind each cupboard is a clean and well put together compilation of everything that matters most to you -- and it feels amazing to open it up and do what needs to be done.

Happy SPRING CLEANING!

This article was written by Kaitlyn Andrews, Life Coach for Women