Cleaning – yuck! There are some words that strike fear into a woman’s heart. And yes, that woman would be me. Getting motivated to clean takes time and effort in itself! And yet somehow I find a spring clean far more interested than the weekly clean. Can anybody really tell me they love mopping the floor? That’s a whole lot of silence I hear out there.
Anyway, since I’ve had years of experience in spring cleaning I think that I’m highly qualified to let people in on my motivation secrets for doing the big clean. I’m also super experienced in cleaning during a move, after way too many shifts about while renting. So let’s give it a crack with my tips…
Set aside a whole weekend and get everyone out of the house
If you’re like me then it’s really better to clean solo. I might be a bit of a control freak, sure, but I find if anyone is helping me out it really messes up my “flow”, plus sometimes they do a lousy job anyway. If you’re doing a really big clean then it’s probably going to take 2 days instead of one. Look, I know it’s a lot of time, but trust me, cramming everything into one day is probably going to make you cranky as anything.
If you’ve got kids, ship them off to the grandparents. If you’ve got housemates or a partner, ship them off to the pub. This way you’ll be able to get fully in your “cleaning zone” as I like to call it.
Grab everything you need from the shop
There’s nothing worse than getting halfway through your clean and realising you don’t have any oven cleaner, or dust rags, etc. etc. Running down to the shop part way through is going to ruin that cleaning flow, trust me on this one.
Write a list of everything you’ll need for a whole house spring clean, check what you’ve got on hand, and go and grab the rest from the shop before you start.
The night before
For the love of god, make sure that you get a good rest, and go to bed early. Don’t drink the night before and make sure that you get a full night’s sleep. Wake up at a reasonable hour to start the clean because working away into the night is de-motivational. If you’re fresh in the morning you’ll be far more likely to be in that cleaning spirit – or something resembling it.
Put on a good cleaning playlist
Upbeat, fun music is going to be key to getting you through this clean. The type of playlist that I like to put on is a mix of pop and dance – the sort of tunes that you’d probably hear at the gym while working out. If you don’t already have one, you can find these types of playlists on Spotify or even YouTube. Hook up to your speakers and start pumping that music to start bouncing around. Once you start, if it’s got a good beat, you’ll often find yourself doing each task to that beat…
Stay hydrated
Cleaning can actually be quite good exercise if you’re going at a fair pace. This is why it’s important that you remember to keep hydrated! Drinking enough water, more than you usually do, is critical to putting it back into your body and ensuring you don’t get dehydrated across the course of the weekend. Another water one that I do is if I feel like I’m getting too dirty – there can be quite a bit of dust build up, so sue me – is to take a shower. When you’re cleaning your house and you’re dirty it just kind of feels weird. So anytime you’re feeling too sweaty or dusty, don’t just give up. Jump in the shower and clean up then put on a fresh pair of old clothes and start again.