As winter winds down and spring is just around the corner, do some spring cleaning and decluttering of your home. However, as you reveal all the cobwebs underneath your furniture and the overstuffed closets, you may be tempted to avoid cleaning altogether.
Spring cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore. It can be a joy. It can also be a great opportunity for you and your family to get rid of old stuff, bless others with your abundant possessions, and live a more minimalist life.
Here are five ways to make spring cleaning more enjoyable:
Delegate a Room to Each Family Member
Instead of being responsible for cleaning every room in the house, which can feel tedious and overwhelming, assign each family member to help you. For example, kids should clean their own rooms. Make small goals and help them to clean with those goals in mind. For example, give them two trash bags and a box. Tell them they can’t leave the room until they’ve filled two trash bags with junk they want to get rid of and one box with toys they want to put away for later.
Similarly, designate a chore that you have difficulty doing on your own to your spouse. Set a timer and tell your spouse you will both clean until it goes off. Set the timer for 60 or 90 minutes. You’d be amazed at how much you can get done in a small amount of time.
Part of the reason spring cleaning feels so overwhelming is that people often want to tackle the whole house in one sweep. However, doing it in small chunks, tackling each closet and room on its own, and then enjoying other activities will help it feel less overwhelming and more able to complete.
Play Music or TV
If you find this won’t be a distraction, play music throughout the home. Allow your kids to listen to your phone with their earbuds or play music throughout the home. Help them to remember that when we work, it is an act of worship. We must remember that we are working for the Lord and not for others.
Make it as fun as possible. Don’t clean the house in silence. Instead, use the resources you have to stream music or other fun visuals while you clean.
Celebrate
Vow as a family to celebrate your accomplishment. If you were able to clean and fill the bags and boxes within a reasonable time frame, promise to do something fun as a family activity. Go to the movies, eat out at your favorite restaurant, and promise the kids an extra television show.
This will help them look forward to being done. This will also be the catalyst for getting a job done. Hold your ground and make sure they don’t get to do the activity until the cleaning is done. Not only will it help ensure it gets accomplished, but each week, as you do it little by little, you could enjoy more time as a family. And that’s time you can’t get back.
Decorate Rooms Together
After the spring cleaning is done, set out to decorate a room in a different color or theme than before. Go to the hardware store together as a family and get new paint and wall decorations. Allow the kids to pick out specific wall art, rugs, and other accessories to make this space more theirs.
You can begin by allowing them to redecorate their own room, or you can choose a smaller room to redecorate. Bathrooms can always use tidying up. Pick a theme together and work to recreate it in one of your bathrooms.
You can get a silly one or as functional as you’d like. If money is no object, consider buying new knobs for the kitchen cabinets, new drawers and extra organizational space, or even new furniture to replace old, chipped pieces. You and your family will have fun making the house more of a space you can all call home.
Not only will they enjoy the cleaning that goes along with it, but they will also reap the benefit of making a space their own and learn skills such as painting, decorating, and picking out decor that will help make your home not just a livable environment but also a safe space they can call home.
If you use a family that loves the beach, consider a beach theme. Buy dark blue paint, stickers of fish and other sea creatures, and pictures of serene ocean views. Give them some leeway in their decorating skills, but be sure that you can enjoy it when guests come over as well.
Have a Yard Sale
Once the spring cleaning is done, set out to do a yard sale. Sell all the junk that you were able to save for later. This will not only help you declutter your rooms but also give your family a little more spending money to spend together. How many yard sales it may take some time cleaning items, marking them with the proper sale amounts, and making room on a Saturday to have the sale, but the money you make might be worth it when you’re all allowed to go out together as a family and have a special restaurant or go to a movie you’ve all wanted to see.
Adding incentives to a chore that already feels tedious will not only make it more enjoyable but also allow each family member to contribute as a family.
Tell the kids they can keep their portion of the items that they sell. They can save that money and put it toward a new favorite toy, give it away to missions, or save it for a rainy day. Whatever they choose to do, you’ll not only have a yard sale to get rid of extra clutter and junk, but it will also help teach your kids the valuable responsibility of money.
You can also choose to delay spending the money immediately. Get a glass jar at home and put extra money in it each week. Add to the amount that they earned from their yard sale. At the end of the year, count the money and see how much you’ve earned. Decide as a family which you’d like to do with the money. Would you like to go on a fancy vacation? Would you like to buy an item the whole family can enjoy?
Have fun with the benefits of all your hard work throughout the year. Kids might prefer not to spend the money immediately, thereby delaying instant gratification and saving it for a big possession they will use repeatedly. You can create a gaming room for teens, a she shed, or a man cave; the possibilities are endless!
Spring cleaning is a chore everyone must endure. Whether they choose to do it in the spring or in the cold months of winter, you are cleaning, decluttering, and making your space not just a house but also a home. Invite your kids into the process, and they may find that they’ve created a home as well.
Photo credit: © Getty Images/Rawpixel
Michelle S. Lazurek is a multi-genre award-winning author, speaker, pastor’s wife, and mother. She is a literary agent for Wordwise Media Services and host of The Spritual Reset Podcast. Her new children’s book Hall of Faith encourages kids to understand God can be trusted. When not working, she enjoys sipping a Starbucks latte, collecting 80s memorabilia, and spending time with her family and her crazy dog. For more info, please visit her website www.michellelazurek.com.
