Spring is around the corner, and for many of us, it’s the season where we step into our scrubbing gear for some serious spring cleaning.
The origins of the word ‘spring cleaning’ are interesting and many. One story goes that festivals like the Jewish and Persian New Year as well as Easter fall during Spring prompting people to clean up for the impending festivities.
Another theory points out a more practical reason rooted in necessity. In olden times, in cold countries, winter required excessive burning of wood and coal for heating, which resulted in grime and soot all over the house. It was pointless to clean it every day, and the dirt would accumulate. It was only by March or April when the weather became more clement that people could begin tidying the house. And it was a lengthy process.
Over the years, spring cleaning has become generalised to refer to a deep cleansing process regardless of the season.
In the first of our Spring Cleaning series, we give you our pro tips on how to get started on your spring cleaning, beginning with decluttering and sprucing up your bedroom, a space that is usually a comfortable mess.
Getting started
Before you get started, keep your tools handy. Keeping cleaning brushes, trash bags, and sorting boxes at hand is necessary to accomplish the task speedily and effectively.
Keep a notebook as you move from room to room. Note down the tasks that you can deal with immediately, and the ones you need to deal with in the next two days. Bucketing your to-do list into time-bound actions will immediately give you clarity and will hasten the process.
Dirty linen go first
Begin by what is immediately apparent. That means bedsheets, pillow covers, and duvet covers if they haven’t been changed in the last two to three weeks, which is the expert-approved time for a change.
Professionals in the hospitality industry recommend changing sheets and towels every ten days or two weeks but if that’s cumbersome, three weeks should ideally be as far as you go.
Don’t forget to take out those long-forgotten items like bed skirts too. Pillows and duvets should also be thrown in the washing machine to give a thoroughly sparkling look to your sleeping area.
Professionals in the hospitality industry recommend changing sheets and towels every ten days or two weeks but if that’s cumbersome, three weeks should ideally be as far as you go. Don’t forget to take out those long-forgotten items like bed skirts too. Pillows and duvets should also be thrown in the washing machine to give a thoroughly sparkling look to your sleeping area.
Pick and sort your wardrobe
Guests visiting? Quick, hide that belt, the pair of shoes, and that mound of clothes in the wardrobe, and the room is clean! Sound familiar? We have all been through this situation where we just don’t have the time to put items into their appropriate corners in the wardrobe, and we end up stuffing them inside haphazardly.
Spring cleaning is the time to pull that wardrobe apart and sort out the wheat from the chaff. While you don’t have to go through the elaborate routine of seeing if they bring you joy, you can give a second of thought to each item to evaluate how much you really use it. Sort out the ones you are giving or throwing away, and neatly fold or hang your clothes. Be ruthless. That’s the only way you are going to allow your wardrobe to breathe.
Declutter surfaces
You might be diligent enough to dust surfaces regularly but do you actually declutter them? Take a good look at your room. That charger belonging to your old phone. That timepiece whose battery needs to be changed. Stray pencils and pens, small accessories, used bottles of body lotion are all items that take up surface space in the bedroom.
Most of the time, items like empty bottles end up occupying space because we were simply too lazy to throw them into the dustbin. Procrastination is the arch-enemy of clean rooms!
Devote a few minutes to each surface in the room. That includes the floor, dressing tables, ledges, and any other area where you have items piled up. Attack each area methodically and take immediate decisions on appropriate disposal or placement. Once we tidy up and the surface gleams, the difference will be immediate. Not just in the room but also your mind.
Fixtured and furnishings
Curtains that need washing and light fixtures that need a good wipe down are also part of the spring cleaning process. If you have a carpeted floor, don’t stop at vacuuming it. Shampoo it. Carpets are magnets for stains, hair, dust motes, and skin particles that we shed daily.
Use basic products like baking soda or vinegar to give a shine and remove these invisible particles. If your floor is tiled, give a thorough clean by mopping it with disinfectant after dusting. Wipe down the light fixtures, windows, and mirrors, similarly. Don’t forget to dust and wipe the heating or air conditioning vents too.
