The Ultimate Spring Cleaning Guide When You Have No Time

01| Start Your Spring Cleaning Out With a List

 Lists are my go-to when trying to accomplish big work in little time. They keep you on track, avoid wasting time thinking “what’s next” or “what am I forgetting,” and give amazing satisfaction when you get to check off each item!

I scavenged several checklists this year and really like this list Kelly at Live Laugh Rowe has created. Please feel free to download it to use as your ultimate spring cleaning guide or do a quick Pinterest search to find one better suited for you.

02| Clean in Sections

Thinking you have to clean your entire house in one sitting can be a daunting task. Doing this to yourself can make it harder to even start!

Instead, break up your spring cleaning into sections.

I’ve tried breaking up the cleaning by task versus by room, but here’s the problem I ran into with that: there was a lot of unfinished work laying around and zero gratification of a completed job. With the little time I had each day, if my task was to do all the dusting, once that was done the floor looked dirtier than ever from all the falling dust. And the floors might not be completed for another few days!

Pro Tip: When cleaning, make sure to work from the top to the bottom. If you do the opposite, say complete floors first and follow up with dusting the fans, get ready to repeat the work from all the dust falling.

After that fail, I changed to completing my cleaning room by room. This includes when I declutter, too. You can use the exact same room by room decluttering checklists I use by signing up in the form just below!

Pro Tip: Kitchens can be a massive room to cover all on their own. I’ve broken it down in this post to help you completely organize your kitchen in a total of 5 hours max!

03| Set That Timer

 I’m amazed at how easy it is to get sucked into the black hole of cleaning. We dread doing it, put it off, then all of the sudden we feel obligated to scrub the grout behind the toilet in the guest bathroom! At that rate, the cleaning list we made won’t be completed until fall!

To combat this insanity we all end up doing (if you’re one who thinks it’s not worth doing if you can’t do it right, you should check out this post), I’m giving you my biggest hack yet in this ultimate spring cleaning guide…

Set a dang timer!

We’ve established that we are busy #adulting, so spend your precious time on the stuff that actually matters. If you can only dedicate 30 minutes a day to your spring cleaning, set your timer for 15 minutes to declutter, 10 minutes to dust, and 5 minutes to vacuum. Bada-Bing! You just spring cleaned your bedroom in 30 minutes without feeling you might as well clean the soles of every shoe you own while you’re at it.

04| When In Doubt, Throw It Out

Something that constantly eats into my time while cleaning is deciding if I should get rid of something or not. These could be things like clothes, gifts from others, or hard to replace items.

After listening to this episode of my friends podcast, I’ve adopted the thinking “when in doubt, throw it out.”

If that particular hard to get rid of item is tripping me up, then I’m already contemplating that I’d be okay without it. And it needs to go.

Pro Tip: For certain memories I’d like to keep, I’ve started taking a picture of the item. Pictures take up way less room.

05| Create a Cleaning Kit

 Yup! A cleaning kit is a must on this ultimate spring cleaning guide. The first time I saw one was at a previous job, where every item you need to complete a certain job is right in a convenient caddy. It cuts down on SO MUCH time, since you don’t have to walk back and forth getting the supplies you need. And if you’re thinking of the bulky black totes and saying “no way, those are just ugly”, take a look at how adorable this cleaning caddy is!

Now, I don’t try to keep my entire cleaning closet in a single caddy. Instead, that space is used to the products and items I’m most likely to use:

• Surface Cleaner
• Microfiber Clothes / Paper Towels
• Anti-bacterial Wipes
• Glass Cleaner
• Scrub Brush
• Gloves

These are just a few ideas of what to keep in your cleaning caddy, but ultimately it’s what you use!

06| Sanitize While You Declutter

What do you do when you’re pressed for time? Apply the old saying “kill two germs with one Clorox wipe” of course!

Something we can all appreciate is not doing double the work when you don’t have to. So, while you’re busting out some declutter action, why not sanitize while things are pulled out and getting removed?

Take for instance your massive throw pillow collection (anyone else have this obsession?). While you’re sorting through which ones are looking too rough to keep, take a moment to spot clean (or completely clean) the ones that make it to the keep pile.

Pro Tip: Take a trash bag through the room while decluttering. Anything that doesn’t belong there gets put in the bag. If you don’t find a home for each item in your bag o’ stuff, then it either goes to the donation or trash pile.

07| Treat Yo’ Self

 So this isn’t exactly a time saving tip in this ultimate spring cleaning guide, but I feel like it needs to be included. This treat yo self might not be on the same caliper as Donna and Tom’s in Parks and Rec, but for all this hard work during your limited free time definitely deserves a treat yo self moment. 

For treat yo self spring cleaning edition, get yourself some nice cleaning or organizing supplies!

Try looking for items that will help you stay organized with easy while being beautiful to look at. Here are some of the items on my organizing wish list:

• Super Convenient Battery Organizer
• Modern Desk + Magazine Organizer
• Beautifully Clean Make Up Holder
• Highly Organized Fridge + Freezer Bins
• Simple Shoe Organizer for Cleaning Supplies

Get Started With the Ultimate Spring Cleaning Guide

It’s true that spring cleaning can be a daunting task to accomplish for us busy ladies! Even if you have limited time, getting your space a good freshening up is possible with these handy time saving tips.

Try one or all of them this spring, because clearing out the overwhelming junk makes it so much easier to be an Optimist Prime!