Ah, spring! Well almost.
The unofficial start to the season for many of us is when we lose that precious hour of sleep, but hear the joyful birds, welcome longer days, and think about spring cleaning and many of us have big dreams when it comes to spring cleaning! No room will be spared the threat of a deep clean and yet, if you are still working for a living, most corners and cabinets will be spared the actual deep clean.
How far will you get before it’s too hot to deal with it, depending on where you live, of course. And how long will your list get before you decide it’s overwhelming and there’s this Netflix series you want to finish?
Year after year, things just get stuffed in closets and under beds until, one day, management calls and says they need to replace your bathroom or paint the whole apartment and you start moving things around to make room for maintenance to do the work. An endless Tetris game is pulled apart as you try to find places to move everything. True story 🙂
Then you begin to question why you still have that set of papers from college, the box of CDs you have never listened to, and on and on. Oh and don’t forget all the cat toys that have been hiding for years under and behind various pieces of furniture.
It’s amazing what we hold onto without really intending to. Often it’s just because we don’t have the energy to deal with it right now and in the closet it goes.
Just like that New Year’s resolution, your intention is honorable but not sustainable and you give up early in the game and go back to creating pathways between boxes instead of creating space.
So what can you do? This task seems so hopeless and exhausting!
First, stop thinking and just get started. Feng Shui cleaning is helpful: if you don’t love it, if it doesn’t make you smile or tap into good memories, toss it. (Look up Karen Kingston’s book Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui )
Next, make a decision to only bring in something that replaces something you use all the time. like a pair of shoes or a broken toaster.
Third, keep only the things you would leave out and not in boxes, except for holiday decorations or special dinner ware.
Finally, make a habit of going through at least one box or closet as often as you can all year long. This might be once a week or once a month, but once you start creating space, you will look forward to the practice of spring cleaning regularly, and not just when you don’t have to turn on the headlights on the way home from work anymore.
Happy spring cleaning!!
Vanderslice Coaching 