My Simple, Effective Spring Cleaning Method

and why spring cleaning is a thing in the first place

A week or so ago I finally finished the bulk of my spring cleaning. The mess had piled up for an embarrassingly long time because I was so overwhelmed by the mess that it felt too overwhelming to clean. Catch 22? Anyway, I was finally feeling the urge to clean. Not just a regular clean, either. This became a deep clean involving lots of decluttering and reorganizing.

The mess that was my house while in the middle of decluttering…

A few days into the process (yes, it took me multiple days) I started wondering why spring is traditionally a time to do a deep clean on one’s house and wondered why that was and how it came to be.

Why spring?

Spring cleaning as a tradition has origins in Judaism and Iranian customs, with ceremonial cleanings that took place before major spring holidays. In the days before electricity, after having heated and lit a home with various forms of fire for the entire winter, people would open the windows for the first time in months, finally able to let the sooty air out and let in fresh air without it being detrimental to the wellbeing of the house’s inhabitants.

Most of us likely live in homes with modern lighting and heating so the latter doesn’t apply to us, even if the cultural aspect does. Yet, every spring without fail, people gravitate toward that big spring clean. The lengthening days give us renewed energy and inspiration after a long winter, which so often translates into productivity and all of the new beginnings that come with spring.

Though not everyone specifically tries to reflect their homes or rhythms with each season, there are plenty of things that people do seasonally, such as using more cozy blankets and lighting candles in the fall and winter or decorating with flowers and fresh greenery in the summer. Cleaning out the house in the spring is another way to live seasonally, even if it’s subconscious.

For me, spring cleaning has two main benefits: the obvious first is that my house is tidier and more put together. Though I don’t believe I will ever have a pristine, dust free home, a home that is relatively organized and uncluttered (a subjective term) is more pleasant for me to spend time in and makes me feel better. This brings me to the second benefit–mental health. When my house is cluttered, my mind feels cluttered. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg question as to which causes which but either way it’s not fun.

I’ll share my decluttering method with you. It’s fairly simple and very effective but does require a willingness to let the mess get ten times worse for a little while. You’ll see what I mean.

Step 1: Pull everything in the entire room out from where it goes and put it in one spot, like a table or an area of the floor. I recommend going room by room so that you only have one space at a time that feels like a Goodwill outlet store.

Step 2: Go through the pile and decide what to keep, donate or toss. Keep whatever makes sense for your family, your household and your lifestyle. Donate anything you don’t actually need or use that is in good condition. Toss anything you don’t need or use that you wouldn’t give to your neighbor.

Step 3: Clean all of the temporarily empty cabinets, shelves and closets that have been housing everything. This step is optional if you do this on a regular basis, which I don’t.

Step 4: Put away everything you’ve decided to keep. This can be done as you’re sorting through them if you want, or at the very end. Neither option is better than the other. Remove all of the donate and toss things from your house as soon as possible.

That’s it, really. It’s pretty straightforward, though it does often feel quite overwhelming during the process, but it’s really been the most effective way to really declutter everything and clean neglected areas while I do so.

I still have one area left to clean (my closet) and am planning to dedicate an evening to getting this done. With an audiobook playing and a nice cup of tea, the decluttering doesn’t feel quite so bad.