Spring to it

Good morning everyone. I am super excited today because Spring has officially sprung and we all know what that means...Spring cleaning time!!!!! I hear some of you cheer with that news and I hear some of you groan but the reality is, a good clean out can do wonders for improving our lives. I am not just talking about scrubbing the cupboards and washing the curtains, I am talking about cleaning, de-cluttering, organising, beautifying and re-energising our lives. A total revamp our home, our mind, our body and our soul. Sounds great to me! 

Spring brings with it a feeling of fresh starts and new beginnings. You can hear birds chirping away, you can see flowers beginning to bloom and you can see randy little butterflies flapping about in pairs trying to have sex mid-air (geez, get a branch guys). Yep, it is a beautiful time of year indeed. So with September being the beginning of the season, I have actually decided (right this moment in fact) that I am going to commit the whole month to a Spring clean of my life. And guess what? You can come on this journey too and dabble in a bit of a spring clean for yourselves. I am sure many of you are not quite as messed up as I am so a total life overhaul may not be completely necessary, but surely you will find some helpful information in the coming posts. Fingers crossed :-)

So, what is the first step to a total life overhaul then? I would assume it is to identify the areas of your life that you want to change/improve...um "everything", this is a total life overhaul after all. Onto step two...

For me, a messy home equals a messy mind so my first order of business is to get this house cleaned up. Clean, de-clutter and organise. This part takes a lot of time so here are a few tips to try and make it a little easier:

• Pick one room or area to clean up at a time. It is far less daunting to do it this way and once it is done, you are filled with a sense of accomplishment and motivation to move onto the next space. 
• Forget sleep. Spring cleaning takes time and spare time is a luxury many of us don't have so clearly the only solution is to forgoe some of your precious zzzz's. This lack of sleep is only temporary and all for a good cause so just do it. 
• A dear friend of mine once said "sometimes, you just have to knuckle down and do it". She's right. Just keep reminding yourself of this any time those negative thoughts like "I can't do this" or "I am too tired" creep into your mind. Knuckle down and do it. Simple. 
• Fit little tasks in around your daily routine. Like this morning, Porky was having his morning tea at the bench so I took the opportunity to scrub the kitchen cupboards and clean the kickboards. I even got the long armed dusting thingy-majiga-me-bob and swept out under the fridge and dishwasher. It was gross but I feel a lot better knowing those spaces are now clean. 
• Don't waste money on 50 different cleaning agents to get your house sparkling. I keep it simple albeit not entirely environmentally friendly. Bi-carb and vinegar are old favourites and I use these to clean everything from bench tops to bathrooms. For the shower though, I totally use that horrible Exit Mould stuff. It kills my lungs and harms the environment but it kicks the moulds arse. I also use proper toilet cleaner to clean in the bowl of the toilet...sorry marine life. Other cleaning kit essentials include water soluble lavender oil for dusting and mopping; Windex for stainless steel appliances, windows and mirrors; cloth nappies as rags and some of those Chux magic erasers to do damn near everything. 
• Be ruthless when de-cluttering. Have piles for keep, rubbish, recycle, donate, re-home. Stop holding onto things because they might be useful "one day". Side note though, a week after you throw whatever it is away, you will find about 10 uses for it and kick yourself for throwing it out. Just saying.
• Get organised!!! This will require several individual posts to cover the topic adequately so I wont go into it today. Today, we shall focus on the idea of cleaning and de-cluttering. Once that is done, then we can get on with the all important task of organising.   
• Most importantly, just get started. Success breeds success so once you accomplish task A, task B will seem a little more achievable and so on and so forth until you have achieved your goals of a clean, tidy and functioning home. Sounds great to me!

I'm off to do some more spring cleaning. Happy Monday xox    

PS - Common sense reigns supreme here so if for some reason you decide to forgoe sleep and consequently drive a forklift into a swimming pool because you were so tired, I will assume no responsibility for that whatsoever. You know your own body and if you can't survive for a few nights with less sleep, don't listen to my advice to skip the zzzz's. Do what works for you.