SPRING CLEANING TIPS

Spring is finally here, and that means it's time to start cleaning your entire house! 

Spring cleaning is a time to make your home sparkle and to purge items you simply don't need anymore. Because spring is the season of new beginnings, it's the best time of year to declutter your home and start fresh. 

From the closet, to the kitchen cabinets, the guest bedroom and garage, you're bound to find something to clean and let go of in every single room. 

While it might seem daunting to do a deep cleanse of your home, we have a few tricks up our sleeves to make the process easier! 

1. Work on one room at a time
The biggest mistake made is trying to clean the entire house in one weekend. Cleaning and organizing take time, and in order to do it right, you need to pick one room and focus on it until it's done. Once you're finished with that room, then move on to the next.

The best approach to spring cleaning is to plan out a day over a few weekends to clean your home. That way you're only spending a couple of hours each weekend organizing and cleaning. This laser focused approach will make spring cleaning a little easier. 

2. Declutter first, clean second
Always declutter your home first, and clean second. It’s important to go through every closet, cabinet and drawer and organize your items into three piles: keep, sell or donate. 

It’s not proper spring cleaning if you don’t purge your apartment of all the unnecessary items you collected over the last year...or decade! 

If you’re looking to donate a lot of items, look into different local organizations that accept donations year round – in San Francisco, you can donate different items to Out of the Closet the SPCA, A Woman’s Place or The Sanctuary. 

3. Don’t overlook the small things
Don’t overlook the nooks and crannies of your home – wipe the baseboards, spot clean your walls, dust your curtains and lampshades, and wash your stove handles and light switches. It’s amazing how these small things can make the house look and feel a lot cleaner. 

4. Check the expiration date
There are so many things in your house that could be expired, so go through your kitchen and medicine cabinet to get rid of any item that past its expiration date. Don’t forget to also comb through your beauty products and check their shelf life – most beauty products only last 1-2 years after being open, so you’ll want to be mindful of their expiration date as you use them.

Whether you love it or hate it, there's no denying that a good spring clean is a worthwhile exercise. 

Plus, you can make it easier on yourself by maintaining the cleanliness around your home so that fresh feeling stays around for a long time. All it takes is 15 minutes each day to tidy up the house to ensure your house is always tidy. 

Happy spring cleaning!