Spring Cleaning Week: Kickoff

It's officially one of my favorite times of the year - SPRING CLEANING WEEK! That's right, I break out the mops, buckets, dust cloths, brushes, and spray bottles for an entire week of deep cleaning. Nothing inspires me to clean like spring, and nothing makes spring more enjoyable than ridding your home of allergens a house that smells of lavender, mint and eucalyptus!

Spring Cleaning Week goes beyond my regular weekly cleaning to include things like re-sealing grout, re-caulking, clearing out cabinets and closets, washing windows and window treatments, swapping winter for spring clothing, washing sofa slip covers, and other deep-cleaning processes that don't get done frequently throughout the year. I love it not only because the house gets fresh and clean, but I also love the opportunity to clear things out and part with stuff that is just taking up space. For example, my bathroom storage is maxed out, but I actually use about 6 things in there on a regular basis. Of course some things you need to hang on to for occasional use, but lots of things can just go. Spring is also a great time to swap out some decor items for an instantly updated look without spending a lot of money. Changing out toss pillows for a different color or moving some furniture around can really make a difference in taking a room winter to spring, much like you can swap a few accessories to make an outfit go from day to night!

The game plan is to tackle a different room/area of the house each day. I find that I'm most effective in cleaning/reorganizing if I can focus on one room at a time. I'm going kickoff SCW today with...

The Master Bedroom & Bathroom
On my cleaning list are the following items:
  - Dust everything
  - Wash all bedding and swap winter for spring bedspread
  - Wash windows, sills, and window treatments
  - Go through closet for items to donate
  - Swap winter for spring clothing
  - Clean bathroom
  - Scrub and re-seal grout
  - Re-caulk
  - Empty out/reorganize cabinets, toss old or unused items

Since I only have nap time to work through it's certainly possible that all of this will not get done today. That's the magic of Spring Cleaning WEEK. Chances are, there will be another day that I have less on the agenda which allows for some flexibility. Here's what the rest of the week looks like...

Tuesday-  Main bathroom, C's room (when J gets home since she's sleeping in there during nap time)
Wednesday-  Living room & Play room
Thursday-  Kitchen*
Friday-  flexible

*Thursday is also the day that our appliances are being delivered, so things will depend on what time that happens and how long it takes.

I'm also skipping the basement all-together because that's J's domain. He spends more time there than anyone else and most of the stuff down there belongs to him, so I'm leaving it alone.

Does anyone else out there have a spring cleaning ritual? Is your house so clean that you don't need to do a "spring" cleaning? Stay tuned for more on Spring Cleaning Week each day as well as a whole post update on 23-month old C!