Durham Spring Cleaning Guide 2021

Published: April 01, 2021

Spring has sprung in Durham! After a year of lockdown, staying at home, and social distancing, it’s more important than ever to breathe new life into your home. If you’ve been putting off your spring cleaning or don’t know how to start, here is a list of tips and tricks designed for your convenience. Pair these tips with convenient storage options from UNITS, and your spring cleaning is bound to be a breeze!

• Start with labeling boxes. There are lots of ways to get sidetracked while deep-cleaning your house. You may find items that need mending and get distracted repairing them, or you may find things that aren’t in their proper place and get sidetracked putting them away. By labeling a few boxes and putting items in them to take care of later, you can keep yourself focused on cleaning.

• • Box 1 – To Donate/Consign/Sell: You’re likely to find things that you don’t want or need anymore. Instead of putting them down and forgetting about them or getting distracted trying to get rid of them, put them in this box to worry about after cleaning the room at hand.

• • Box 2 – To Repair/Mend: Don’t get distracted trying to repair items that need mending immediately. Instead, put them all in this box to repair at a later time.

• • Box 3 – To Put Away: Let’s say you find painting supplies in your linen closet. Instead of getting up and putting your painting supplies where they belong immediately, you can keep organizing your linen closet by putting the painting supplies in the put away box for later.

• • Box 4 – To Store: You’ll probably find items that you want to keep that don’t easily fit into any of the three box categories above. Items that you want to put in storage go in this box.

• • Keep a list. If there are things you want to put in a box category but don’t fit in a box, keep a running list of things that need to get donated, repaired, put away, or put in storage.

• Clean room by room. The easiest way to tackle the seemingly giant chore of spring cleaning is to clean room by room. Make a cleaning checklist for each room so that you can make sure to hit every area that needs attention. Don’t feel like you need to re-clean rooms that have been cleaned recently; feel free to dedicate your attention to the rooms that need it most.

• Organize and clear clutter. By using an easy four-step approach to clutter, you can clear clutter for good.

• • Identify the source/problem areas: There’s usually areas of our homes that get more cluttered faster than others. Identify those areas and tackle them first.

• • Analyze reasons for clutter: It could be that there simply isn’t any other place to put things in those problem areas, or that it’s easier to stick items on surfaces (i.e. countertops) than it is to put them away.

• • Determine solutions: For example, placing easy-to-access storage near problem areas could eliminate clutter for good.

• • Implement these solutions: Finish by implementing these remedies, and keeping an eye on those problem areas to see how these solutions have worked.

• Involve members of your household. If you live with roommates or your family, assign chores to divy up the work. If you have kids, assign age-appropriate chores like sweeping or dusting for younger children. Try turning on some tunes to make the work more enjoyable, or throw in a reward for incentive for everyone involved.

• Keep cleaning products minimal. Don’t feel like you necessarily have to go out and buy tons of cleaners for your spring cleaning. Instead, opt for a multi- or all-purpose cleaner and some microfiber cloth. With this, you should be able to cover most of your bases. Then, add specialty cleaners as needed.

• Establish new cleaning habits. This might be the most important tip of this guide. The number one reason clutter and grime builds up enough to necessitate a spring deep clean is lack of good cleaning habits. Spring cleaning is a great opportunity to start new cleaning habits. For example, instead of tackling all your spring cleaning in one day or even one weekend, try doing just 10-15 minutes of your spring cleaning checklist every day so you establish a habit of cleaning a little every day.