I’m not being dishonest in my title here, but—full disclosure— I don’t really DO spring cleaning, per se. So I’ll share “spring cleaning” (imagine me making air quotes with my fingers…) the Tranquil Domesticity way.

What’s the matter with good, old-fashioned spring cleaning?

First of all, I have nothing against spring cleaning. My house could use a good once-over ANY time of year. But as I was doing my version of spring cleaning, I began thinking about why spring cleaning is even a THING, and I found an article (click here) which references yet another article and confirmed some of my suspicions:

I figured back in the day when everyone burned something to heat their house through winter, springtime was a good time for a thorough soot removal, with the added advantage of being able to air the house out without freezing to death.

So I was right about that much, but apparently spring cleaning also goes back to ancient cultural and religious customs. It was a way to symbolize a fresh start. Either way, I think it’s probably always been a human tendency to want to freshen up the domicile come springtime throughout history.

As I said, I don’t have anything against a good all-over cleaning–and certainly not against fresh starts!

But it sounds like a team sport. Or at least that it oughta be.

And I’m pretty sure taking a whole day on the calendar to do a wholesale cleaning of my house would be a hard sell for most of my prospective team members.

And truthfully, actual cleaning is a lot easier than it used to be for a lot of reasons, not the least of which are easier-to-clean surfaces and modern cleaning equipment.

But maybe it’s CLEARING and not CLEANING that’s needed.

The actual real obstacle between my house and cleanliness is not dirt.

IT’S ALL. THE. STUFF.

So Tranquil Domesticity-style spring cleaning for me is in reality just another excuse to clear out some of the stuff. If I have an afternoon or a whole day I’m going to designate to spring cleaning, I’m going to spend that time decluttering. I think the work will pay dividends towards a clean house much more than a day spent actually cleaning something.

But is it the proper time to “prune?”

My husband’s grandfather could grow anything, so every time he was around, I asked him questions about plant care (we inherited some extensive landscaping at two of our three houses we’ve owned). When I asked him about the right time to prune a certain shrub, his answer was “pretty much any time you have a sharp blade lying around.”

The same is true for decluttering. There’s hardly a wrong time. ANY time’s a good time. Any excuse to clear some of the clutter is a good one. So Spring “Cleaning,” Fall “Cleaning,” and probably Summer “Cleaning” should become traditions. (Winter? We’ve probably all got enough going on then…). And as I alluded in the earlier heading, perhaps we should call it CLEARING instead of CLEANING.

Should you try declutter all at once??

Now, you could use your whole family’s vacation time (spring break? summer vacation?) to go through all your belongings and edit and pare stuff back, but I’m not suggesting you do that. PLEASE don’t do that…

But to keep from getting overrun with stuff and miring down in it, you HAVE to squeeze in time somewhere to get rid of things. And some people do find value in doing a big chunk all at once, if they have the luxury to do so (without forfeiting ALL their vacation time…). There is value for many of us in achieving a little bit of momentum as long as we don’t drag everything out and then get sidetracked or pulled into some crisis.

Or perhaps a little at a time…

So maybe instead of trying to clear ALL the clutter in one go, most of us could use the concept of spring cleaning to “jog your memory” or to reset the habit of decluttering. Even as a way to jump-start decluttering the whole house (which could be spread out over months).

If you’re like my family, you accumulate STUFF every Christmas, birthday, graduation, other holidays, and sometimes just because.

To make it worse, all of us have gotten almost too good at ordering our own stuff online during the pandemic as well. Between the whole family’s gifts received, impulse buys, and regular updates of housewares, decor, clothing, and technology, there’s always something that needs to be leaving your house, whether it actually does or not.

Or some combination of both.

There are gurus (some I admire greatly) who say decluttering should be a one-and-done proposition. In other words, if you’re doing it right, you’ll never have to do it again.

And perhaps if all family members are on board and are through growing and changing and don’t ever try any new hobbies or sports, and are constantly vigilant, AND all extended family members and would-be gift-giving friends have been briefed on the protocols, it might work.

But that has not been my experience.

And I believe most of us could benefit from a MAJOR decluttering (if it’s not been a regular habit) and then ongoing maintenance.

Hopefully on a less and less needed basis.

I could lecture us all about curbing our habits, and focusing on acquiring less stuff. But I think the REAL best way to learn that lesson is just to DO IT: To take the time to reduce what you have, using whatever strategies that work best for you.

I think there’s no other exercise that does a better job of causing you to pause before you add more.

When you’ve spent your precious time evaluating what stays and goes, and which things you’re going to use MORE of your precious time to maintain, AND THEN done the back-breaking work of ridding yourself of it, you’ll be motivated to be more careful about what you add back. So actually doing the decluttering work teaches you to clutter less.

And it does make a difference going forward.

But don’t let your guard down.

Even when we’re diligent about acquiring less, this “stuff” is insidious. Most of us have more than one person in our family. And some people have a harder time with holding onto things than others.

So… many of us are not just dealing with our own habits and acquisitions. Additionally, time marches on while we’re busy and not paying attention. And what was a pared-back, uncluttered space can still get stacked back up. Just let your guard down for a few months and see if it’s not the truth! But hopefully with each passing periodic, seasonal “clearing,” it gets easier.

So I hereby declare MY spring cleaning effort should be spent on reducing excess stuff in my home.

HELP!

There are all KINDS of ways to go about decluttering, none of them (that I know about) wrong. You need to decide if you work best in short bursts, or longer sessions. If you’re easily overwhelmed, you don’t want to drag out too much all at once. And you may want to consider if you need small wins before you move on to larger tasks, or if you want to get the worst over first. Just put a little thought into what works best for you!

If you’ve found success of any kind at decluttering, please SHARE in the comments any wisdom you can pass along. Conversely, feel free to pose questions that I –or others–could possibly answer. If you’re still struggling along, like SO many of us who live in an excessive culture, here are resources I recommend, all of which have been helpful to me at some point: 

Marie Kondo (author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up) – https://konmari.com

Minimal Mom (Dawn Madsen) – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeLICYOqHfIrfSAQq1TT7PA

Dana K. White – https://www.aslobcomesclean.com

Alejandra Costello – https://www.youtube.com/c/AlejandraTv/featured 

Marla Cilley – http://www.flylady.net

Joshua Becker – https://www.becomingminimalist.com

Different strokes

All these folks have some vastly different ideas and approaches about minimalizing—is that a word?? 

And that’s good, because different approaches work for different people. And sometimes different approaches work for the SAME people at different TIMES. Perhaps what has worked for you before doesn’t work any more, and you need to check out a different approach. Or perhaps you just need to give what you’ve tried already a second chance.

However it may be, if you’re completely uncluttered, you probably don’t NEED to do any spring cleaning, because your house is probably already clean! But if you’re like SO many of the rest of us, “spring cleaning” time is a great opportunity to do a reset, and kick out some of the clutter.

The cleaning part could happen after all…

Cleaning is EASY when you don’t have to try to move around a million things to get it done, and all your stuff is organized and easy to access. Plus it already looks clean.

So even though I don’t plan to do traditional spring cleaning. I can guarantee, when I clear out a space, and STUFF is no longer standing in my way, cleaning will follow.

But what’s the point again??

In my recent past life as a professional organizer, I wrote a blog post about how getting organized was not the point, but rather a means to an end. And it’s the same with decluttering (yes, two different things, even though related). Having an uncluttered life is not the end goal, but rather hopefully a means to more clarity and focus, and less time spent maintaining material things. And more time for what’s important.

So let me know where you stand on this issue—do you do some form of spring cleaning every year? Or is now a good time to think about lightening up after a long winter’s hibernation and clear the way for a year-round lighter, cleaner home?

Peace,