By Cassie Castro

I believe that your physical environment reflects your internal headspace, and for that reason, I enjoy seasonal cleaning… not just Spring cleaning! I have tons of cleaning and organizational rituals – daily activities like making sure my bed is made before I leave for the day, weekly tasks like vacuuming and washing sheets, and monthly goals like deep cleaning the bathroom. I find cleaning and organizing to be very therapeutic and calming.

I look forward to all of my cleaning rituals, but I get excited about seasonal cleaning the most. This is the time when I systematically tackle each room of the house, inventory what’s inside, and purge to give away for donations! I endeavor to live minimally (but I sometimes get lost in the chaos of retail therapy and trending Amazon life hacks). Here are my favorite seasonal cleaning guidelines:

• Work in one room at a time, targeting one space of the room at a time. For example, if you’re planning to start in your bedroom, start with one section of the dresser before moving on to the next. The last thing you want to do is start going through and inventorying too many things that you feel overwhelmed and give up!
• Take everything out of their designated storage spaces. Create three piles: keep, throw away, and donate (and if you wanted, a sell or repair pile, too).
• How do you determine which item goes in which pile? As Marie Kondo, the famous organizing consultant, suggests, if it sparks joy, keep it! If you haven’t used it this season or last season, check for quality to donate or throw away. If you’re holding onto it because of its monetary value, look to sell or regift it.
• If you’re having trouble letting go of something sentimental, take a picture of it and then let it go.
• Set a goal for what you want to accomplish each day… Keep chipping away at it!
• Put on your favorite playlist and have your friends or partner participate by helping.

Now that you’ve minimized the clutter in your space, you can reorganize your belongings and move on to phase two: deep cleaning! This means that it’s time to break out the cleaning supplies, dusting and polishing tools, and the vacuum. More on that for my next blog!