Spring Clean With Me! Week 1: Prep Week + Laundry Room

WEEK 1: PREP WEEK + THE LAUNDRY ROOM

The purpose of Prep Week is to get our checklists ready, supplies ready and gear up for Spring Cleaning. If you have any questions, feel overwhelmed or don’t know where to start, please reach out and ask me for help.  I am here to help you succeed! We’ll also be cleaning the Laundry Room as well as we get ready for Spring Cleaning our homes this month.

I’ll be sharing a full post tomorrow with more details on the Spring Cleaning Sale in the shop this week but it’s LIVE now if you want to fill your cart and stock up! I’ve marked down quite a few products in the shop so you’ll receive 10% off in addition to the sale prices. The Homekeeping Planner and the Weekly Wall Calendar are on sale, all the Printables are marked down, Essential Oils are on sale to make sale for something new, and more! (Hopefully the laundry powders will be back in stock later this week – if not, they’ll go on sale as soon as they are back!) Use the coupon code SPRINGCLEANSALE on the products in the shop for 10% off your entire order and you can use the same coupon code SPRINGCLEANSALE for $10 off a new subscription to Homekeeping Society – that coupon applies to the monthly AND annual plans!  This is the last time I’ll have a coupon on Homekeeping Society before December (just an FYI).

Prep Week:

• Get your supplies ready (hopefully the Spring Cleaning Sale will help with that!) I’ll be back on Wednesday with the 3 DIY cleaners you can spring clean your whole house with and on Thursday with 5 Must-Have Spring Cleaning Tools. I’m excited to help you spring clean your home with ease!

Laundry Room:

• Clean your laundry room – hopefully this will be a simple task for you this week. Spend a little time cleaning your washer and dryer and your laundry room. Bonus points for getting caught up on laundry this week too!

How to Spring Clean When You Don’t Have Time

Spring cleaning will take time, but so does regular cleaning. It’s maintenance and when you spend a couple minutes every day doing a little bit of cleaning, it WILL save you time all week long. I know in our house, spring is when the kids’ activities start up and schedules fill up. If you want to clean or spring clean, how do you make time for it? Look at your schedule or your day and look for a couple time slots that you can move around. Think you don’t have time? Look at your phone usage and I bet you have at least 15 – 30 minutes during most days that you can spare. Think about the time you spend not as time wasted, but when you clean and declutter, you actually end up saving time in the long run and you’ll actually feel better too.

Make the time. Decide when you’ll make the time to spring clean and jot it down. Gone all day and exhausted when you get home? Choose 2-3 days a week when you’ll do a task or two before you leave for work or when you get home. Ask your family members for help. I’ve been known to pay in the form of ice cream or a special toy in exchange for help. There’s nothing magical about the days of the week – if you want to set aside Saturday mornings for the month of March and tackle the cleaning, do it. Home all day with littles, decide on what the optimal time is to get some spring cleaning done, but realize that it might not happen how you planned it. Be flexible and realistic. If you have kids of preschool age and up, make them a spring cleaning bucket (wand duster, water in a spray bottle, and a microfiber or cotton cleaning cloth) and have them help you.

Consider your mindset. Be positive and do your best and most of all, have some fun with your cleaning. Spring cleaning is time well spent – your home will be ready for spring and summer and you’ll feel better about your home. Don’t worry about how long it takes you to do the cleaning, do your best, work at your own pace, and enjoy the process.

See all the posts for the Spring Clean with Me series here.

Instead of looking at a big to-do list of all the things you don’t know when you’ll get to, think of it more as a day-to-day approach to spring cleaning. Just like the Clean Mama Routine, you’re going to think, ‘everyday a little something’. It doesn’t have to be everything but if you add a task or two every day that you can during the month of March (and April if you need to), you’ll find that you almost tricked yourself into Spring Cleaning. I love, love, love Spring Cleaning and I love sharing my tips and tricks with you. I want you to find a little joy in the process too.

Here’s your checklist to get started:

• FOLLOW: Make sure you’re following along on Instagram @cleanmama
• SUBSCRIBE: If you haven’t subscribed to the blog – you can do that by putting your name and email address in the FREE PRINTABLES PAGE
• DOWNLOAD + PRINT: Once you get the password (you only need to enter your email address in ONE time), grab the Spring Cleaning Checklist on the FREE PRINTABLES PAGE – this is what we are following for the month of March.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS: Spread the word on your social media and tag me so I can share too! Cleaning is always more fun with friends!

WATCH FOR A NEW POST EVERY MONDAY: Every Monday for the month of March I’ll lay out the plan for the week, tell you how I’m approaching Spring Cleaning and then I’ll have a post or two during each week that helps with the tasks for the week. Make sure you’re following along on Instagram for DAILY updates from the Clean Mama HQ (my house).

SPRING CLEANING IS THE MONTHLY FOCUS FOR MARCH: You can find the Monthly Focus in the Homekeeping Planner and in the Homekeeping Society subscription. If you want to work with a small group, join Homekeeping Society for the support!

SPRING CLEAN WITH ME SCHEDULE – I’ll link the posts as we go!
WEEK 1 : Prep Week + the Laundry Room
WEEK 2 : Dusting + Wiping
WEEK 3 : Kitchen Deep Clean
WEEK 4 : Windows + Bathrooms
WEEK 5 : Beds + Floors

NEW? START HERE!
Follow the Clean Mama Routine – if you haven’t tried the Clean Mama Routine but you want to do some spring cleaning, start with the Daily Tasks and add the spring cleaning to those OR set a timer for 15 minutes each day and do what you can. I developed and refined the Clean Mama Routine throughout the past 15-20 years – the final tweaks that you see today are what came from working 60+ hours a week, traveling for my job, starting Clean Mama, and being pregnant with our third. When the routine helped us keep our home in order during that chaotic time when the last thing I wanted to do was clean, I knew I was on to something. You’re too busy not to try it – trust me! Here’s a post that will help you figure out how to do the routine with a busy life.

As you become familiar with the Clean Mama Routine it will take less time and you’ll be building habits that will help you keep your home consistently clean. I share my Weekly Tasks every day on Instagram – follow along here: @cleanmama

You can find these downloads on the Free Printables page, go grab them if you need a full-how to:

The Clean Mama Routine is also available in the Cozi + Clean Mama app. Go here to sign up!Are you ready to get started! I’ll be back later this week with a post on my favorite DIY cleaning recipes for spring cleaning, a sale in the shop, and more!