April showers bring May flowers and it’s time now to sow the seeds of a new season in your home. Over the winter, we collect things: holiday gifts, cards, hats, mittens and mismatched socks. You may have felt the need to hang onto your clutter through the dark and chilly months, but now that the sun is reaching in through the windows, the dust bunnies and old sweaters are exposed—and they don’t look good.

It’s time to start spring cleaning! Now, I’m one of those rare breeds that really gets into cleaning. Unlike many other projects in life, cleaning is an endeavour that can be tackled and completed in a relatively short time frame. Eventually, your home will be clean and ready for spring, which can freshen up you mood and put a spring in the step of your whole family.

Where to begin?

Even though I’ve claimed to be a lover of cleaning, I must admit that cleaning and organizing an entire house is a daunting thought. So, I’ve devised a bit of a guide for the aspiring spring-cleaner. It goes like this:

Choose the area that you think needs the most work.

It sounds like tough love, I know, but if you go headfirst in to the toughest space, you’ll see the biggest transformation—and that’s the most inspiring way to kick off the festivities. It’s tempting to head to someplace like the kitchen or the bathroom because those rooms always need to be cleaned and there is always something to do there, but you may find that just doing the dishes again, or scrubbing the tub and toilet, doesn’t give you the same sense of achievement and change that, say, sweeping and cleaning the deck will or reorganizing the hall closet will.

Speaking of Closets…

These days city-dwellers are learning to live in smaller spaces, but this hasn’t translated into owning fewer things. Many people fill up storage lockers, hall closets and bins with items that they are certain they will need again someday.

Statistics have shown that most of the stuff stowed away into storage facilities are never used again. Often people give up on their stuff entirely. This is so common that there is a reality television show about buying up the content of abandoned storage units. According to Times Union, “there is more than seven square feet of storage for every man woman and child in the United States.” Which is the country with the largest storage industry? That would be Canada.

This year, I urge you to be honest with yourself about the items you store around your house. Ask yourself: Are you going to use this again? Have you already replaced this item? Is there someone in your life who needs this item more than you need to store it? Can you sell it and put the money towards something you would actually use?

Revel in recreational furniture rearranging!

Now that you’re free of all that clutter, you have more space to move things around! Moving your furniture around is a very educational experience. You will never know the true potential of a room and your furniture until you’ve tried moving things around. A simple rearrange can be just the thing to shake you out of the winter doldrums and re-introduce you to your space. I’ve found myself wishing I lived somewhere else, someplace with different lighting or a better layout. Thanks to the magic of moving things around, I’ve been able to rearrange my home into a new headspace for myself and my family every time, which is a lot easier than moving house!

Not interested in physically testing all the possibilities only to find that you should have left well enough alone? There’s an app for that! Maybe try out this free Room Planner app from Chief Architect. If you do, be sure to let us know how it went!

What are some of your go-to spring cleaning rituals? What makes you feel fresh in your space, ready to take on a new season?