Getting Real with Shadra Bruce
It’s time for spring cleaning. The evidence in our home is rampant, from dirty windows to enough dust bunnies under the bed you can see the imprint from our slippers.
I really don’t like cleaning the house. If I was less frugal with my spending, I’d have weekly maid service. Not that I have room to complain – I already have a husband who does the laundry AND the bathroom cleaning (and all the cooking).
But when spring comes, I am one of those people who get the urge to clean everything. Ok, maybe it’s just the sun finally shining through the windows and highlighting the layer of dust on everything.
Either way, I am motivated to get some cleaning done. However, I’m still running a business, writing two books, and raising a family. It’s not like I have a ton of time to dedicate to the cleaning process. These are the areas I make a top priority when I first start spring cleaning – just in case I get to busy to keep going or lose motivation before it’s all done.
- Kitchen floor. All winter, people come in the door to our kitchen and drop their muddy, snowy, yucky boots on the towel we keep there to catch everything. By the end of the winter season, the entry rug, the towel, and the floor show clear signs of the winter’s damage. So first things first, everything gets removed from the kitchen. Shoes, now dry, go back to the owners’ rooms. The winter snow towels hit the laundry. I choke my way through shaking and beating out the rug, and then we thoroughly sweep and swiffer the floor. If nothing else gets done, this project makes me happy.
- Bedroom. Next up is my bedroom. All winter long, I happily rotate through my pile of laundry on the table, grabbing new clothes each day until the pile dwindles, only to have it refill magically every week when Dave does the laundry. But in the spring, I can rotate all the bulky winter clothes into the closet and go back to my lighter summer wear. Laundry gets put away, floor gets swept and swiffered, dressers, nightstands, and tables get dusted, and I even clean off my “makeup” table (the place where I pluck my eyebrows, since I don’t really ever wear makeup).
- Hallway. If I’m still motivated, I carry that motivation right out into the hallway/foyer where I dust the tables and shelves and sweep and swiffer the stone floors.
- Spring polish. From there, it’s the dig deep and clean hard stuff: light fixtures, windows, drawers, shelves, ceiling fans, and more.
Because we have a 7-person household mostly run by a toddler, we have a slowly moving tornado of toys to contend with. I don’t mind that kind of clutter – the clutter of living and having fun. Because we’re pursuing a minimalist lifestyle and trying very hard to rid ourselves of material possessions that we don’t need or use, each year, spring cleaning gets a little easier.
It helps that we’re not seeking perfection – just keeping the dirt and dust bunnies to a co-habitable level is good enough for me.
