Spring Cleaning: 10 Tips to Getting and Staying Organized

Spring cleaning can be quite the task, but it can also be very refreshing. Seeing the bright sunshine shine through the windows of your house and feeling a lot lighter without all that unnecessary clutter is amazing. Spring cleaning doesn't have to be overwhelming, and getting organized and staying organized can prevent you from having to do extensive spring cleaning every year.

Spring Cleaning Tip 1: Make a spring cleaning attack plan.
Before you even lift a box, lift a pen and make a plan of attack. Your spring cleaning plan of attack should start with the bigger obstacles and work down to the smaller things. If you have a room that you use for storage that is impossible to walk through then that room should be at the top of your list. Rooms that just have a couple of drawers that need to be gone through should be toward the bottom of your list.

Spring Cleaning Tip 2: Don't reminisce while you are spring cleaning, simply sort.
When you are first sorting what you want to do is be able to look at something and make a snap decision about whether or not you need to keep it. If there is any question in your mind, put it in the keep pile for now, and then go through that pile again after everything has been sorted through. Don't reminisce about high school, your children as babies, or anything else, just sort.

Spring Cleaning Tip 3: Throw away any trash immediately.
Don't simply bag trash and pile it up while you move room to room. Once you have gathered everything that you are going to throw away from a room, then throw it away. Piling up bags of trash is simply moving the clutter from one container to another and from one location to another, which means nothing is getting organized. Get the trash out of the house!

Spring Cleaning Tip 4: Put things you are keeping where they go immediately.
Don't wait around to put things where they go. It is easy for a room to get messy when the things that belong in that room don't have a place to call home. Giving every item that you plan on keeping a home will help you to keep a room organized throughout the year. Remember: If you can't afford the space to store it in an organized fashion, then you can't afford to keep it.

Spring Cleaning Tip 5: Don't let emotional attachments get the best of you.
Everyone wants to keep items from high school, their wedding, and the time when their children were younger, but that doesn't mean that you have to keep every little item. Limit the amount of keepsakes that you are going to give space in your home to a large Rubbermaid tub or some other reasonably sized container, and make sure the container is labeled to help you keep them organized.

Spring Cleaning Tip 6: Books, music, and movies require shelving to stay organized.
These three items can be the hardest to part with, especially since you never know when you are going to want them. Quickly sort through your books, music, and movies looking for any items that you know you don't need or want. If you want to hang on to all of these items, make sure that you have shelving to keep them neatly organized.

Spring Cleaning Tip 7: Knick-knacks.
If you have keepsakes that you genuinely like, not just ones that you feel like you have to keep because your best friend gave it to you, then keep them organized in a china cabinet where they will be out of the way and properly displayed.

Spring Cleaning Tip 8: When you buy something new, get rid of the old version.
If you have reason enough to purchase a replacement for something in your house, then you have reason enough to get rid of the item your are supposed to be replacing. Don't allow yourself to get into the trap of thinking, "I know I was replacing this item, but having two would be even better." Purging items whenever you are trying to replace them will help you to avoid having to sort through the build up of old stuff every spring, keeping your home organized throughout the year.

Spring Cleaning Tip 9: Either fix it or ditch it.
When something to needs to be either fixed or replaced, take care of it right away. It is absolutely pointless to allow items that don't work properly to take up space in your house. Fix broken items, call a repair man to fix them, or replace them, don't simply store them.

Spring Cleaning Tip 10: Don't leave any rock unturned.
If you set aside a weekend for spring cleaning, then make sure that at the end of that weekend all the cleaning is done. Don't leave things to be sorted later, don't leave the dusting for later, don't leave anything for later. Make sure that you get every square-inch or every room clean and organized before your spring cleaning deadline is up.

Hopefully these 10 spring cleaning tips will help you to get your house organized and make it easier to keep it organized throughout the year.