7 Spring Decluttering Tasks

A true spring-clean doesn’t happen overnight, or even over a weekend. After all, you’re busy. And as much as you’d like to, you can’t push pause on work or the kids’ clarinet lessons to take care of home and room organization. What you can do is map out a plan of attack and get your organization ideas on paper in the form of a daily checklist. Make a list of all your chores. When one is finished, check it off and move on to the next. This will give you more insight into whether your home decluttering will take one week or a bit longer. In addition, you’ll be able to break your cleaning down into more manageable tasks. Meeting each small goal will keep your momentum going and you’ll have a visual representation of the progress you’re making.

It’s hard to work home and room organization into your weekday routine. You’re likely tired when you get home from the office, or are wiped out from spending a day caring for the kids. But you’ll find tackling a task or two on weekdays is well worth it in the long run.
Save massive projects like closet organization or installing extra shelves in kitchen cabinets for the weekends. You’ll just be overwhelmed if you attempt these tasks without ample time. And if you don’t complete them, you might get discouraged and abandon your spring-cleaning entirely.
Instead, set reasonable expectations for yourself. Here’s an example of how you could take care of cleaning chores throughout a workweek:

Monday — clean the bathrooms.
Tuesday — wash and steam the kitchen floor.
Wednesday — vacuum carpeted areas
Thursday — scrub the backsplash and the microwave and wipe down countertops.
Friday — take a break! You deserve it.
You can also get the family in on the home decluttering. Create a chore wheel, so there’s no confusion about who declutters what. Include organization and cleaning tips on the wheel to make sure the jobs get done properly. Inspire the kids to help by offering them allowance or rewards as incentive. For example, you can set a new wi-fi password each day. Have kids earn access to the password by completing their chores. Genius, right?

If you want to take on home decluttering the right way, you can’t simply pick up items and put them back where they were. You need to spend some time on room organization, too.
However, you shouldn’t try to organize the entire house in one day. Take your time and map out your organization ideas on a room-by-room basis. Start with smaller areas, like closets, kitchen cabinets and bathrooms. Get these out of the way so you’ve tackled the hardest spots first. Then work your way to bigger spaces, which tend to be less cluttered.
To make the most out of your organization, declutter by donating old clothes, shoes and toys that you don’t need or use anymore. Then invest in storage necessities like under-the-bed containers, clothes organizers and bins to hold cleaning products. You’ll soon find the more organized a room is, the less time it takes to keep tidy.

Sort through your shoes. Add any that you want to donate or repair to those respective boxes. Clean the floors of your closets, and get rid of any unused storage solutions. Wash your slippers.

Clean your appliances, including their plugs, tops, bottoms, sides, and any accessories that came with them. Deep clean your coffee maker, following manufacturer instructions. Thoroughly clean utensils, such as can openers, that might not be washed on a regular basis. Replace old kitchen sponges and rubber gloves.

Thoroughly clean your fridge and freezer by removing all shelves, racks, and storage containers and washing them in your bathtub. Toss any old food. Wash your ice cube trays. Wipe down the sides of the fridge and freezer. Then, put everything back in. If you’re afraid of food spoiling, use a cooler to keep food cold while you work. Take everything out of your cabinets, and clean all the surfaces before replacing the items. Check the cabinets for any unexpired food you don't plan to eat that can be donated. Throw out expired or questionable food.

Wash your couch covers, pillowcases, and other linens used around the house. Launder the drapes in your living room, dining room, and bedrooms. If you can’t wash them on site, bring them to the dry cleaners. Wash your ironing board cover Wash your tea towels and kitchen towels. Toss small rugs, bathroom mats, and bathrobes in the wash.