When it comes to taking care of our home, cleaning is my least favorite thing. I would much rather decorate or even organize areas of our home. Cleaning just isn’t my strong suit.

So, when it comes to spring cleaning, you could say that I don’t have the best track record. Every year I look forward to spring because it’s a chance to start fresh coming out of the gloomy winter season. Part of starting fresh is the ever popular “spring cleaning event.”

Every year I have these lofty goals of cleaning our entire house or completely decluttering every closet and drawer. But inevitably, I get overwhelmed before I even begin and my spring cleaning plans never materialize.

Does anyone else get completely overwhelmed with the idea of spring cleaning? I know I do! One quick search on Pinterest and you’ll find hundreds of lists and plans for cleaning your home. And in each one of those lists, there are hundred of to-dos!

Clean this, scrub that, sort this, wash that. It’s enough to make you feel completely defeated before you even start.

This year I decided to take a completely different approach to spring cleaning. No more overwhelming lists or unrealistic expectations. Instead, I wanted to create a plan to clean our home that I could actually stick with.

After all, cleaning and organizing your home is an important thing to do. I wasn’t improving our home or our lives by giving up every year before I could even get started. That just created a messier and more chaotic home.

This year, I’m going to do spring cleaning the easy way!

Spring Cleaning the Easy Way

One of my biggest struggles with those all-encompassing cleaning lists was that there was just so much to do! I couldn’t figure out where to start or even fathom how I could get it all done.

So, instead of creating one giant list, I decided that I will identify my top cleaning and organizing goals and focus on only 3 areas at a time. After those 3 areas are cleaned and organized, I’ll move on to 3 more areas.

Keeping my focus on 3 areas at a time will help me to stay on track and not get overwhelmed. And overall, it will help me actually accomplish some of my cleaning and organizing goals.

To help me get started, I decided to create a pretty printable planner. One page is for my cleaning and organizing goals and the next is my 3 areas focus sheet.

The planner is a pretty simple design. The first page is for identifying my top cleaning and organizing goals for this spring cleaning season.

It’s unrealistic to think that I’ll be able to completely clean and perfectly organize every single area of our home during my spring cleaning event. So instead, I decided to do a brain dump and list some of the areas that I would like to focus on.

I tried to keep my list centered on the areas that will make the biggest impacts in our daily lives, or spaces that have just been bugging me and I am dying to fix.

The second page is what I like to call the focus sheet. I broke it up into three blocks, each representing an area of our home. Tackling 3 areas at a time seems much more manageable than trying to do everything all at once.

In each block, I wrote down one of the main areas that I would like to clean and organize as part of my overall goals. Then, I wrote in some details about how I will declutter, clean, and finally organize that space.

Breaking up the area into actionable steps will help me figure out how to start and then follow through and complete my plans for that space.

My plan is to start with these 3 areas and focus on completing the tasks I’ve written in each block. Then once I’ve completed the entire sheet I will 1) reward myself for cleaning and organizing and then 2) print off another focus sheet and repeat with 3 more areas.

Hopefully, this method will help me to tackle spring cleaning in smaller, more manageable batches. The goal is to actually clean and organize our home this year instead of feeling defeated and giving up.

Are you looking for an easier way to tackle spring cleaning? Grab a copy of the spring cleaning planner and start making your plan!

You can download the planner for free now.

Get the Free Spring Cleaning Printable Planner

As you start making your plan, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Keep it Reasonable

When you are doing a brain dump and making your overall cleaning and organizing goals, make sure you keep it reasonable. Don’t just list out every single room, drawer, nook, and cranny of your home. You’ll just end up overwhelmed! Try to think about the most important areas and spaces that you know will make an impact in your home.

Areas can be Big or Small

When I say “area” of your home, that doesn’t necessarily mean an entire room. It just means a zone in your house. For example, an area might be the junk drawer in your kitchen. A bigger area might be the powder room. Try not to list your entire living room as one area. Break it up into smaller zones so that it’s easier to tackle.

Rules are for Squares

There’s no particular way that you need to “spring clean” your home. Try not to get caught up in all the rules for cleaning. Just because one person says you should wipe down every single surface and scrub your walls doesn’t mean that’s necessarily what you have to do. Think about making progress overdoing everything perfectly. For example, you will not find me scrubbing my baseboards! That is definitely not in my plan.

Celebrate

When you finish one of your focus areas, take the time to celebrate! Go get a coffee or do something you enjoy. Maybe watch a show that you’ve been meaning to catch on Netflix. Take the time to reward yourself for a job well done. This will help you stay motivated to keep going and complete your goals.

This year I’m determined to actually make progress on my spring cleaning. No more feeling overwhelmed and no more giving up. It’s time to tackle my cleaning and organizing goals and start fresh this season. Who’s ready to start with me?

Grab your free printable spring cleaning planner today!

Let’s get cleaning!