Spring cleaning is almost here!

You’d think from the exclamation point in the title that I’m excited about that, but I’m not necessarily. The headline just looked nicer that way, hahaha.

Let’s be honest, unless you’re the neatest of neat freaks, you probably don’t really enjoy spring cleaning. You might enjoy the end result (I know I do), but the actual process of dusting in all those nooks and crannies and washing window screens and stuff? Not quite.

It would be much nicer if we could wave a magic wand and have a fairy godmother take care of all that for us. (Ideally, with an army of housecleaning sparrows and other forest creatures, because how cute would that be?)

But, it’s almost that time. Every morning when I leave for work, I have to decide which of my jackets I’m going to wear…The winter one, but without any gloves? The spring one, with a scarf if it’s chilly? The days are staying light longer, the temps are getting warmer, and for all that loveliness, there is a price to pay. It is called cleaning up all the stuff you let slide when you were feeling lazy from being stuck inside all winter.

Just one of the many joys of home ownership… 🙂

My dreaded spring cleaning to dos

Luckily, I can be a bit of a perfectionist, so once I get started on these tasks, I am in it to win it. I’ll scrub things till they shine, once I’ve started. But that doesn’t mean I like it!

My personal most hated spring cleaning chores are:

• Cleaning the windows. Our house was bought as a fixer-upper project, and one of the fixes it needs is new windows. The ones we have are original to the house, meaning spring means raising up the storm windows, dropping down the screens, and cleaning each of these components. Which means dealing with those awful little tab levers you need to push on with your whole body weight to get them to move after decades of other people doing the same thing. (Then the storm window slides back down when you’re halfway done, usually right onto your hand…) It should take about a minute a window to get those things in place, but it usually takes me like 10, and there may be a leeetle bit of swearing involved…
• Dusting out lint traps areas. Like that little vent under the fridge…the heating vents…that space between the fridge and the counters that’s way too tight for a broom to get in but that still needs to be dusted. Not hard, but time consuming. (And pretty gross!) Thankfully, The Hubby gets to dust the tops of light fixtures and ceiling fans since he’s the tall one!
• Getting our flower beds in order. I don’t mind gardening itself, and I don’t mind pulling weeds now and then once our season’s flowers are in. But facing our weedy, sad looking flowerbeds at the end of the winter and getting them ready for spring somehow takes all sorts of effort from me. Maybe because I try so hard to keep things tidy during the warm months, and then somehow over the winter (when nothing should be growing!) they revert into a wild state of disorder and chaos. How does that happen? How can I combat it? (No, seriously, if you have tips, I’d love to hear them!)

What spring cleaning to dos do you dread? How do you make spring cleaning more fun (is that even possible?) 🙂

~Heart,

Em

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photo credit:  queercatkitten