Country Lifestyle Sustainable Spring Cleaning: Refresh your Home and Mind

What is Spring Cleaning?

The tradition of spring cleaning dates back to ancient times and is practiced throughout the world as a way to welcome the new season and prepare for the warmer months ahead. During the winter months, people tend to spend more time indoors, which can lead to clutter and a build up of dust and dirt. Spring cleaning provides the perfect opportunity to declutter and deep clean the home, getting rid of any unwanted items and making the living space more comfortable and inviting.

In addition to the practical benefits of spring cleaning, many people also find that it has psychological benefits. A clean and organized home can reduce stress and improve mental health, as well as providing a sense of accomplishment and renewal.

Overall, spring cleaning is a way to refresh and rejuvenate the home and prepare for the new season ahead.

Tips for an Environmentally Friendly Spring Clean

Look after nature, and nature will look after us; that is why conducting your spring clean in a earth-friendly manner is so important. When it comes to decluttering your home, inevitably you will have several items that you cannot keep but there are ways to reduce waste and save them from ending up in landfill.

Recycle your clothing

In recent years, there has been a big advancement in the re-selling of unwanted clothes. Apps such as Vinted, Depop and Preloved are just some of the many avenues you can look to turn your old clothes into cash. Other household items such as furniture, kids toys, old working order appliances etc can be sold or given away for free on the likes of Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree. This not only frees up space in your home, but it allows the item to go to someone who could really make use of it. Charity shops will also take clean, good condition clothes and bric-a-brac, these can be taken to a brick and mortar store or bagged and placed in a donation bin often found in supermarket car parks and bottle banks. You can also repurpose old, tatty clothing into cleaning cloths and dusters rather than throwing them away.

Use non-toxic cleaning products

Opt for eco-friendly cleaning products to cut down on harmful chemicals. It is a misconception that harsh, toxic chemicals are necessary to eliminate bacteria and stubborn grime. In fact, it has become increasingly clear that petrochemicals, detergents, and chemical disinfectants are more detrimental than beneficial, posing risks to both humans and the environment. Exposure to these chemicals can be dangerous, especially for children and pets, and contact can lead to skin and lung irritation. Furthermore, studies have revealed that the debris that is washed away during cleaning eventually ends up in Britain's waterways, posing a threat to wildlife and placing additional pressure on our water treatment plants. Throughout history, people have cleaned their homes using natural ingredients long before the advent of harsh chemical cleaners. Common kitchen staples such as baking soda, lemon juice, and white vinegar are great alternatives to commercial detergents. Lemons, for instance, contain citric acid which naturally possesses antibacterial and antiseptic properties, and can also act as a natural bleach. Vinegar, on the other hand, is effective in cutting through grease and grime while also eliminating bacteria from surfaces. To reduce the strong smell of vinegar, you can dilute it with water and even add a few drops of essential oils. If you choose to use chemical cleaners, it is vitally important not to mix them. Mixing certain products can release hazardous fumes which can cause health problems like eye, nose, and throat irritation, headaches, nausea, and damage to organs and the central nervous system. While it is advisable to avoid using such strong chemical cleaners, if you must, it is important to read the label carefully, use them cautiously with proper ventilation and store them out of reach of children. For cloths and dusters, as above, old t-shirts work great in place of single use wipes and paper towels. Try to avoid micro-fibre cloths as these contain intentionally added plastics which can be washed away into our rivers and oceans.

How to conduct a Spring Clean

There are several ways in which you might conduct your spring clean. Maybe you follow the guidance your grandmother or mother passed down to you or perhaps you tackle it as a combined household effort one quiet weekend. However, if you have no clue where to start, consider the three D's.

1. De-clutter
2. Deep clean
3. Designate

De-clutter your home using the famous Marie Kondo method

Marie Kondo is a tidying expert from Japan and the best selling author of “The Life Changing Magic Tidying Up”. Her Netflix spinoff show gained a lot of popularity especially through the pandemic, when we all spent more time in our homes than ever before. De-cluttering and organisation became both a therapeutic and practical way to spend our time indoors, bringing a sense of order and calm to an otherwise turbulent time for the world as a whole. Her concept lays out simple and effective principles of keeping a tidy home, including how to fold clothes and store various items. To summarise, her method can be boiled down to two effective steps:

1. Deciding what to keep and what to discard
2. Deciding where to store the items you choose to keep.

The KonMari method urges tidiers to only keep items that speak to the heart and discard those than no longer ‘spark joy’. This feeling is of course subjective, joy is after all personal to everyone. Marie Kondo describes it as “ a little thrill, as if the cells in your body are slowly rising”. This method encourages people to be mindful, introspective and forward looking and improves your ability to be both grateful for something and to also let it go. Marie Kondo encourages tidiers to organise by category, rather than by room i.e clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous items and sentimental items. She also encourages this specific order as it ranges from easy to difficult, and by the time you are evaluating your sentimental items you will have honed the KonMari method down to a fine art. The method suggests piling every item in one category into one pile in the centre of a room, this will allow you to clearly and visually work through each item.

Why the KonMari Method is good for the mind

• The KonMari method places emphasis on intention, it requires you to both buy and keep things with purpose. This ‘less is more’ approach can in turn lead you to become less frivolous and wasteful.
• Folding your clothes the KonMari way allows them to be easily viewed and accessed which is a game-changer for time keeping.
• The method also encourages you to practice gratefulness of purpose and time served. This is something we can use in all aspects of our lives, to know that we are allowed to move on from chapters of our lives while being grateful for them at the same time.

Designated spaces

Having designated spaces is one of the most effective ways to stay on top of your organised home. Having a designated space for each and every thing will make it easier to tidy on the go, as well as always knowing where to find it again in the future.

The "Assorted Drawer"

Every home has it. Growing up in our house, you could find everything from cracker toys to loose change, old watches to spare shoelaces, a waiting area for the eclectic outcasts before they are moved to a more sensible space – of course they never were! An assorted drawer can be helpful to maintain (the illusion) of an organised home, but remember to do more regular de-cluttering than your other storage spaces. Remember does it spark joy? Is it still in good working condition/ compatible with modern appliances and is it truly likely that you will need it in the future? If not, re-purpose or re-cycle it and you'll be surprised how much more refreshed your home and mind can feel.