Photo: Jewish Women’s Archive / Flickr

Whether it’s a home you’ve recently moved into, or your own home that has slowly gotten out of hand through a number of reasons, sometimes we have to tackle a home big time! Some people call this spring cleaning, while we call it what it is, proper cleaning. Below are tips on how to do this somewhat painlessly. After this little guide and the clean up to follow, you’ll be sure to never have to go through such heavy cleaning again, guaranteed.

Step 1: Tidy up first

The reason a very messy home seems overwhelming to clean is often as simple as various items lying all over the place. Clothes and toys spread all over the floor, and kitchen counters tipping over with items. Looking at all those items individually tells the brain there’s too much to do.

Deal with these first. Throw away what needs to be thrown away. Put your clothes in their laundry basket, toys in a toy box and so on. Now take a damp cloth and wipe all the counters in your home. This will have a remarkable impact on the overall look of your home, and set you well on your way proper cleaning and peace of mind.

Step 2: Do the heavy cleaning

Once surfaces aren’t clogged with items, you’ll have a better sense of how much tackling your floors really need. Make sure you have a powerful vacuum cleaner – we’re biased towards the cute Numatics vacuum cleaners – to dig deep into your carpeting. If you have tile-based floors, as old-fashioned as this will sound to many, a mop still does a rock solid job. If your vacuum doubles up for dry and wet floors, then you’re good to go.

Step 3: Refine, repeat, refine, repeat

Photo: matteopenzo / Flickr

Most overwhelming tasks require the same steps to be done repeatedly to complete them. Studying requires you learn something practise it, and then perfect it. Cleaning a very messy home is exactly like that. Go from room to room. See what needs tidying and wiping down, and then pull out the vacuum. Move on to the next room, repeat steps 1 and 2. Once your whole home is complete, you can now deal with closet, cupboards, and very specific spaces.

And don’t be emotional about items you never use. Toss them, sell them, or give them away. Simple as that! Proper cleaning is about not being overly precise about how you get the job done – it’s simply about getting the job done.

Tags: cleaning, clutter, spring cleaning