Knock Out Your Spring Clean with the Help of a Spring Cleaning Planner.
Spring is in the air! Well, it’s on the calendar anyway, and you know what that means? Yep, my friends, it’s time to start thinking about spring cleaning. Just typing that sentence made me groan a little.
If you’re like me and find the thought of tackling seasonal cleaning a little overwhelming don’t fret. I’ve totally got your back in the form of a spring cleaning planner to help you (and me) knock out your spring cleaning quickly so you can spend more time enjoying the season.
Make use of the Spring Cleaning Planner to get through your seasonal cleaning quickly
You see, when it comes to spring cleaning, I suck! I set out with the best of intentions and then fall flat on my face. But not this year! This year I’m approaching it in a different way and it all starts with how I’m planning my spring
How to Plan Your SPring Cleaning WHen Life Is Chaotic
Whether this is a busy season in your life or, like me, you generally have a hard time focusing on getting through all the spring cleaning tasks on your list, there is a way to tackle spring cleaning without losing your mind.
With many years of failures under my belt, I’ve come to realize that it is not the actual, physical work of spring cleaning that trips me up. It’s how I plan it.
I’m a natural scatter-brain, I get side-tracked very easily. It’s taken me a while to figure out how to work with that part of me, but through trial and error I’ve figured out that how I plan things is what makes the difference between success and failure. It’s my hope that by sharing my approach will help you create your own.
Step One – Decide What Needs DOing
Before we can make our plans, we need to know what we’re planning. Everyone’s definition of spring cleaning is different. Our homes and where we live will determine what we need to tackle in our season cleaning.
You can sit down and write out a list of all the tasks you need to do, or you can check out some of the spring cleaning printables I’ve shared in the past. I have detailed lists of tasks broken down by each room.
I also have a checklist that I created for those who prefer to tackle spring cleaning task by task. You can check each tasks off by room as you do it, or you can simply use it to keep track of what tasks you’ve finished in each room.
However you choose to do, having a list of everything you want to do for your spring cleaning will help you know how to plan for it.
Step 2 – Determine How Much Time You Have to Dedicate to Seasonal Cleaning
In an ideal world we’d have all the time we need to tackle our spring cleaning. Or maybe magically, it would just do itself. Realistically speaking, most of us need to carve out chunks of time here and there to tackle these tasks. Maybe we can dedicate a weekend to doing it, but we probably won’t be able to complete it all in just one weekend.
Sit down and look over your calendar and your schedule for the next few months – yes I said months – and figure out how much time you can realistically spare for your seasonal cleaning.
Step 3 – Prioritize Your Cleaning Tasks
Now it’s time to figure out what seasonal cleaning tasks are most important to you. This will be different for everyone. If you’re not too sure how to priortize the tasks, start by comparing your seasonal cleaning list to your normal, every day cleaning. Any tasks that you already do fairly regularly can be considered low priority for your spring cleaning.
Like wise, any tasks that you don’t normally (maybe even never) get to should be a higher priority.
My top priority tasks for this year are:
- testing my smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and replacing the batteries
- cleaning my exhaust fans
- cleaning my range hood
- cleaning above my kitchen cabinets
- cleaning window tracts
- cleaning window coverings
- cleaning under and behind all my appliances
- cleaning all my light fixtures
These are all tasks that I only get to a few times a year. Truthfully, some of them I haven’t gotten to in almost a year. Life happens and I don’t always remember that I didn’t clean the light fixtures like I meant to, and didn’t reschedule that task in my planner.
Create a few different levels of priorities so that when you’re planning your cleaning you can do it in stages. Start with what you feel is most important and work your way to the least important.
I like to have four levels, it helps make each round more manageable.
Step 4 – Evaluate Your Tasks and Assign Them a Time
We can’t always foresee how long a project or task will take, but we can make an educated guess based on past experiences.
Go through your lists and evaluate each task on them.
- Is it going to be very time-consuming?
- Is it something that you do in stages, like laundering curtains or allowing something time to soak?
- Is it something you can start and stop as needed or do you need to see it through from beginning to end?
Then assign a time frame to the task. I like to add in a buffer for just in case moments, like something being tougher to clean that you thought or getting interrupted while in the middle of cleaning.
This step is important because it makes the next step easier.
Step 5 – Schedule Your Spring Cleaning Into Your Planner
If having a list is enough for you, feel free to skip this step. If you’re like me and need the extra accountability and reminders, then spend a little time fitting your spring cleaning tasks into your schedule.
You already took a look at your schedule to figure out how much time you have to give your spring cleaning. Now it’s time to fill that time up. Using your estimated times, and starting with your top priority tasks, fit them into your schedule where you can.
The Spring Cleaning Planner
To help me stay on track this year I create a spring cleaning planner. It’s pretty straight forward and follows the steps above.
It start of with a cover page that can be used to make a divider in your home management notebook if you want.
Then comes two pull pages of list paper for making up your list of everything you want to include in your spring cleaning.
The last two pages are for more detailed planning. Picking a start and stop date, determining how much time per day or week you have to commit to spring cleaning, and how many days you can set aside for it if that’s something you’d rather do.
I also included room for jotting down what your reward is going to be and lined space for notes or whatever you might need there.
Following that you’ll find five list boxes. These are labelled from the highest priority to the lowest. Beside each
Each of the list boxes also has a space for notes, or additional tasks if you need the extra room.
Full-Size Spring Cleaning Planner
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Half-Size Spring Cleaning Planner
This one is the half-size one. I also formatted this one for easy double-side printing.
If your printer has a duplex function (meaning it automatically prints double-side) made sure you select short-edge binding in the settings.
Once you’ve printed it, you can either fold it in half to create a booklet, or cut down the middle and punch the pages to fit into your planner.
There’s not much to this planner, but I’ve found that having some structure
I’m hoping that by planning my spring cleaning in waves, ranked from most important to least, I’ll be able to whip through it in no time this year.
What about you? Are you spring cleaning this year? Or do you have a different way of tackling these seasonal cleaning tasks? Drop a line in the comments I’d love to hear from you.
