I’ve been inundated lately with content on social media reminding me that Spring Cleaning season is fast approaching. I don’t know about you, but this overall message causes a whole lot of mom guilt for me. I am a working mom with two small children, a dog, and a husband who works a non-traditional schedule. In no universe can I Spring Clean my house from top to bottom in a manic blitz over a single weekend, or even a single season. God bless Martha and her comprehensive checklist, but polishing my kitchen cabinet hardware is item number 1,715,327 on my ever-growing to-do list. It will NOT get done. And it doesn’t really need to.
This is not to say I don’t want to refresh my home as the skies brighten and the temperatures rise. The prospect of a reset in my home as the flowers begin to bloom, the leaves return to the trees, and I can throw open my windows to let in some fresh air excites me. I love a little Spring Cleaning. I just don’t want the pressure and guilt that accompanies it.
So, I’ve found a happy medium. I have created a guide for myself that I am now sharing with you that accomplishes the positive feelings and better smells of Spring Cleaning without sacrificing your sanity. It’s only 5 steps so it’s totally doable. Join me in this low-key mom version of spring cleaning!
The Mom’s Guide to Spring Cleaning
1. Take small bites
I have a toddler, so I say “take small bites” approximately 42 times per meal. One day as I was admonishing her to “take small bites” it hit me that this was great advice that I could apply to non-food areas of my life. Taking a look around my disaster of a kitchen at the end of a survival weekend (a weekend when my husband works), I decided to take small bites to get the kitchen back into shape. This method of cleaning up my kitchen that evening wasn’t overwhelming, didn’t breed resentment that my family has to eat, and resulted in the same outcome (a clean kitchen) than my usual speed/rage cleaning method did. I was onto something!
Perhaps the most important tenet of my Mom’s Guide to Spring Cleaning is to take small bites of Spring Cleaning. Do not follow Martha’s comprehensive checklist. Don’t even look at it. Instead, think about your priorities and start small. Do you really hate the state of your primary bedroom? Then focus only on that room and do it top to bottom. Heck, you can even polish the hardware in that one room. Do you groan every time you glance at your baseboards in any room of your house? Then limit your Spring Cleaning to baseboards and give every baseboard throughout your house a thorough scrub.
Once you finish the task you designate as your Spring Cleaning priority, you can take another small bite. Perhaps you found that you love polishing the hardware on your cabinetry. Your next small bite could be polishing all of the cabinet hardware throughout your home. Who knows? This might be amazingly relaxing and satisfying. I wouldn’t know.
2. Spread it out
Once you’ve determined your Spring Cleaning priority and you’ve planned out which small bite to take, don’t think it has to be your singular focus until the task is complete. Focusing a large chunk of time on a cleaning project is basically impossible in my house, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a similar situation at home.
My kids would not tolerate mom just disappearing to polish the cabinet hardware for hours at a time. My son simply could not miss the opportunity to ask his 17 questions per minute and my daughter could not pass up the chance to attach herself to me like a monkey. Other than kids, I also have lots of other demands on my time keeping everything running smoothly at home. Laundry is basically a constant task and the children seemingly need a meal every 30 minutes. In short, any realistic idea of a mom with young kids doing any sort of Spring Cleaning needs to be spread out.
So, don’t fight the realities of your life. Embrace the need to spread out your Spring Cleaning project across many days or weeks. Have 5 minutes before naptime ends? Grab the Pledge and wipe down a nightstand. Send the kids outside to play with dad for as long as they can last without somebody hurting somebody else? Fire up the vacuum and go to town on the couch. Little by little, you will chip away at your goal.
3. Make it a family affair
Repeat after me: it is not just mom’s job to keep the house clean. Many of you were likely socialized to think that it is mom’s job alone to clean the house. We were socialized this way. But it’s time to break free of that nonsense and get the whole family involved.
Your partner can and should help you with the Spring Cleaning. Before you start, talk to your partner to make sure you’re on the same page about your priorities. If you’re both involved in the planning, you can both buy into the importance of achieving your Spring Cleaning goals. In my family, my husband does all the windows in the house every 6 months. He cleans the insides, the outsides, the sills, and the screens. It’s a big job and it’s a huge relief to me that I don’t have to worry about the windows. His total ownership over this task allows me more time to focus on my priority room or project.
If your kids are old enough, get them involved too. I would argue that most kids are old enough to involve in Spring Cleaning. My 4-year-old loves to sweep, so giving him this task as part of Spring Cleaning will make him feel important and also excited about doing something he loves to do. My almost 2-year-old loves to clean. I can hand her a spray bottle of water and a cloth and she will happily wipe the cabinets. She doesn’t do a half-bad job, either.
4. Declutter as you go
It pains my soul to think about cleaning stuff I don’t even want. In fact, the only thing I can think of that would be worse is moving stuff I don’t want to a new house. As you work on your Spring Cleaning project, don’t just mindlessly move stuff around. Take a good hard look at what you’re cleaning and get rid of the stuff that you don’t want or need to keep.
Choose whatever decluttering method tickles your toes. If you’re a does it spark joy type of person, hug your items and make your decisions. I’m more of a do I absolutely need to own this item type person and all the rest goes straight to the donation box or the trash can. This applies to everything. Paper stacked on the counter, clothes that don’t fit, toys that aren’t played with anymore, and cleaning products that don’t work are some good places to start if you need some inspiration.
5. Tackle the kids’ clothes
Why does it seem like the kids constantly need new clothes? They grow so darn fast and the clothes are unfortunately not woven from magic cloth that grows with them. I am always behind on the task of making sure that all the clothes in my kids’ drawers currently fit them. What better time to do a reset of their wardrobes than as part of your Spring Cleaning?
Take everything out of their dressers and closets. Check the sizes and eyeball the state of each garment. In addition to clothes that no longer fit, this is also a great opportunity to get rid of all the pants that have blown out knees and the t-shirts that have been sacrificed to Home Depot Kids Workshops that refuse to use washable paint. Pack up the items that are still in good condition, just too small or short, and take them to a donation center or your cousin who’s kid is a year or two younger than yours. Ditch the rest. Fill the drawers and hangers with items in their current sizes.
Once you have the sizes right, take inventory of what your kids might need. For example, my daughter for sure needs short sleeve t-shirts in her current size before the weather warms up for good. These are on my list when I have time to hit up the consignment shop. Having a list of what they actually need prevents me from overbuying one category and not buying enough of another. But you can’t make the list if you don’t tackle their clothes.
I hope you find the Mom’s Guide to Spring Cleaning helpful. You can do it (but don’t feel like you have to do it all)!