Spring Cleaning, Simplified

This year, I'm not stressing about spring cleaning. This doesn't mean that I won't be doing some high-octane cleaning; it just means that I'm not going to break a huge sweat or give up my long-awaited-for warm days.

Here are a handful of simple but super helpful ways I'll be gettin' 'er done. (Hate that phrase.)

- Do all the jobs. Wow, that DOES sound overwhelming. What I really mean is that when I do ceilings, I'll take a broom with a microfiber cloth and "sweep" all the ceilings in the whole house while I'm at it. (Spoiler alert: Already did this. While on the phone, even.) Or, when I do the fans, I'll wipe all of them down and only do the "take off every single light cover and wash/dry" if absolutely necessary. All the woodwork at one time. All the vacuuming at one time. Etc, etc, etc.

Sometimes, I try to do a room at a time (like last year) and, sometimes, it works fine. But, this year, I kind of prefer doing the jobs I feel like doing at the moment and getting them ALL done. Also, once I get out a particular cleaning product (say, the Old English for our woodwork), it'll be nice to just put it away when the job's done.

- Stretch it out. While it sounds like a buttload of work doing the above clusters of jobs, I'm not doing them all at one time. Instead, I already started the cleaning process and am doing a quick 5-10 minute job before work in the morning or at the end of the day, or a longer one on the weekends (sometimes a couple). It's a marathon, not a sprint!

- Use the least amount of products possible. I love multi-tasking cleaners. We use a Method all-purpose cleaner made with mostly-natural ingredients that does glass, wood, ceramic...frickin' everything. We also love our Dr. Bronner's castile soap, which can be used on pretty much anything and everything you can imagine. Sure, this time of year I take out the big guns (like Old English), but for the most part, it's simple. Kind of the point of this post. ;-)

- Enjoy the clean. By doing little jobs here and there, it highly reduces the amount of stress we put on ourselves. Know what else reduces it? Enjoying the clean stuff.

Throwing open the windows not only helps to freshen up your indoor environment, but also lifts your spirits. Opening the curtains after you've washed and rehung them helps the light come in and - yup - same thing, lift your spirits. Or just plopping down after you've finished a job and allowing yourself some relaxation time by way of a book or movie is totally allowed - even if you haven't finished ALL the cleaning yet.

I can't say how many times I've looked in my newly fresh (and deodorized, woohoo!) fridge just to enjoy a job well-done. Seriously.

Do you guys all spring clean? What are some of your tips and tricks for getting your spring cleaning done? We'd love to hear them in the comments!