Spring Cleaning After Renovation – You’ve finally done it! That long process of planning for the big renovation of your home!! What a relief, you finally have your home that way you have always wanted it to be!! But wait… looking around, the renovation turned out just as planned, but now… It’s a mess!! Sawdust is everywhere, wooden boards are in strange places, screws are on the floor. Don’t even take a look at the baseboards!! Time to get your cleaning gloves on and get to… SPRING CLEANING!
So first things first. Take a deep breath and imagine what your home will look like after all of this cleaning has been done. Seeing such a mess after renovation can really cause quite a bit of anxiety. There’s no need for any discouragement after you have finally made your dream into a reality. Have no fear deep breathing is here!! And of course all of your cleaning supplies.
Great, now you have successfully calmed yourself down. The next order of business is to wipe down all of the surfaces. Start any objects on any counters or tables that you may not have moved yet. Wipe them down with a wet washcloth with a little bit of soap. Move on the countertops and tables, and next move on to the chairs. You may need to follow behind yourself with a dry washcloth. This is to ensure no residual soap or dust has been left behind.
Once you have sufficiently cleaned all of the counters and tables, it’s time to take out your handy broom. Start by sweeping the baseboards. You may need to spend a little extra time on these as dust tends to cling to them. Now, sweep all of the floor surfaces!! That’s right, all of it. Make sure to get right up next to the baseboards and sweep all the dust-up!!
Once you’ve got everything swept up and disposed of, it’s time to bring that shine out! Moping for me has always been the fun part. With sweeping, you can’t always tell exactly where you’ve swept. Mopping though, that’s a beautiful thing. It makes your house smell nice, you get the comfort of knowing that the floor has actually been cleaned!! Such a satisfying thing.
You are starting to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel of the Spring Cleaning journey!! The organization takes a bit more of a thought process. How do you want your home to look? Will you be keeping your old decor, or will you be redecorating to go along with your newly renovated home? My strategy for organizing is to keep it homey, but also keep it clutter-free. Everything should have a home.
With the idea of everything has a home, you will know where to put things back once you are done using it. No more work of having things laid out, collecting dust. This will also keep your stress levels down since you also won’t have to spend an eternity looking for something. A good rule of thumb is to keep things in the same “family” together. An example would be remotes, Play Station controllers, TV remotes all go in the same space on the TV stand.
After figuring out an organization game plan and demonstrating a strong follow-through, you can move on. The decor is not one of those things where “more equals better” applies. You want your home decor to stand out to where it will be noticed. On the flip side, you don’t need it to stand out so much so that the space looks small and crowed. If you are a plant person, either has a designated space for plants or choose a location where they will look classy. If you go with a designated space, maybe choose somewhere by a window on a table. You could even go with an open bookcase so light can reach the plants.
Think about some wall art, maybe pictures, or a nice quote that represents you and your home. An example that I have in my home is my key holder. It has three hooks for keys and then a larger hook for my dog’s leash. The sign reads, “Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul.” As I get older, and we go through quarantine, I’m beginning to realize how true this is.
Now that you have cleaned, organized, and made your house a home, you can sit back and relax. Take a few moments to enjoy your new area after all of the renovations and be proud of yourself. Renovation is hard work and if you’re anything like me, you really hate spring cleaning. This is an accomplishment and should be celebrated with a nice glass of wine. Then we can all come to understand the quote on my keyholder!!