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    Real Simple Spring Cleaning: Refresh Your Home, Calm Your Mind
    Real Simple Spring Cleaning: Refresh Your Home, Calm Your Mind
    Real Simple Spring Cleaning: Refresh Your Home, Calm Your Mind
    Ebook247 pages1 hour

    Real Simple Spring Cleaning: Refresh Your Home, Calm Your Mind

    By The Editors of Real Simple

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    About this ebook

    In the pages of Real Simple Spring Cleaning, you'll find the best shortcuts and time-saving tools, ways to get ahead of the mess, tips for enlisting family members, and strategies that make sense for your particular time constraints. From your kitchen and your closets to your car and even your beloved pet's favorite spot, this special issue of Real Simple will have your home sparkling clean so you can enjoy all of life's other joys.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherReal Simple
    Release dateApr 27, 2018
    ISBN9780848758349
    Real Simple Spring Cleaning: Refresh Your Home, Calm Your Mind

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      Book preview

      Real Simple Spring Cleaning - The Editors of Real Simple

      1

      THE MIND-SET

      A clean sweep is something to celebrate. A clean break is a welcome opportunity to start fresh. Coming clean can be incredibly difficult but also incredibly important. The fact is, there’s something inherently emotional about even the idea of cleaning—it might at times be something we dread, but it can also be cathartic, gratifying, and even (yes, we’ll say it) fun. How does your approach to cleaning intersect with your personality? And how do you manage if the other members of your household aren’t exactly cleanliness-compatible with you? Once you understand why you feel the way you do about getting things spick-and-span, you’ll be better equipped to go forth and make it happen.

      What’s Your Cleaning Personality?

      Are you a piler? A hate-cleaner? Do you do chores to avoid another dreaded task? Understanding the psychology behind your housekeeping can help you discover ways to do it better and faster. Step into our office...

      By Erin Zammett Ruddy

      THE BITSY CLEANER

      An all-hands-on-deck cleaning sesh would be nice if you had the time. Until then, you opt for the piecemeal approach, sneaking in 10-­­minute spurts of scrubbing here, a little dusting there.

      UNDERSTAND IT

      You are the nonprocrastinator, says Timothy Pychyl, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa and the director of the Procrastination Research Group. You don’t have to be motivated by total chaos or work yourself up to a major clean. You just do it. Yet be sure you’re multitasking for the right reasons, warns Susan Bartell, Psy.D., a Long Island, New York, psychologist: Some people are afraid they’ll be judged if they relax, so they try to prove they’re not wasting any time by always squeezing in some kind of cleaning.

      PLAY INTO IT

      The more often you clean, the easier it is, says Donna Smallin Kuper, a certified housecleaning technician and the author of Clear the Clutter, Find Happiness. Stay on top of the problem areas before they become problems, which will allow you to go longer between cleaning sessions. Rinse toothpaste from the sink before it hardens, vacuum carpets every few days, and squeegee the shower door after every use, she says. Keep a checklist of weekly tasks so you don’t miss anything, which is a pitfall for this type of personality, says Linda Cobb, a cleaning expert in Phoenix and the author of Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean: When you find a window of time, consult your checklist first so you’re making progress toward the larger goal. And try to fit in a longer, once-a-week session so you’re able to enjoy that ‘It’s all done’ feeling.

      THE ANGRY CLEANER

      Frustrating phone call with your mom? Husband ignoring that stack of plates teetering in the kitchen? Break out the Brillo. And P.S., where the %*@# is the vacuum?!

      UNDERSTAND IT

      Cleaning can actually be a really healthy way to channel anger, says Amy Johnson, Ph.D., a psychologist in Canton, Michigan, and the author of The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit. It’s much better than smashing things! It’s also better than sitting around stewing, because cleaning is physical and will help harness some of the adrenaline you’ve built up. But no matter how calm those gleaming countertops make you feel, you probably also need to address what rankled you in the first place.

      PLAY INTO IT

      Channel your anger into a chore you’ve been putting off, says Kuper. Or tackle a task that requires elbow grease, like vacuuming or mopping. Make sure to clean when you’re happy sometimes, too, adds cleaning pro Melissa Maker, the author of Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster—and Loving Your Home Every Day. You don’t want to always associate cleaning with negative feelings, she says. Oh, and if your huffing and puffing is to get the attention of a slacking spouse, consider revisiting the who-does-what-chores-when conversation.

      THE STRAIGHTENER

      You’ve never met a paper you couldn’t pile or shirts you couldn’t stack on that bench in your bedroom instead of, you know, hanging them up.

      UNDERSTAND IT

      Let’s just say it: You’re not a fan of cleaning. This is about avoidance, says Pychyl. Sure, all that shuffling gives the appearance of cleaning, but you’re never actually doing the real work that needs to be done. There could be separation and commitment issues at play, too, says Bartell: You may have a tough time tossing clothes you never wear or old trinkets because you’re afraid of the loss—or nervous to fully commit to a decision you can’t unmake.

      PLAY INTO IT

      A tidy house is not a clean house, so you’re going to have to go the extra mile at some point. Look for ways to hate cleaning less by buying products in scents you love, along with tools in bright, fun colors, says Kuper. Then get those supplies out before you start straightening. Seeing them at the ready makes it more likely you’ll actually use them, she says. And when you do straighten and stack, be more efficient by having a basket system for the important stuff (one for bills, another for school papers) and a recycling bin, adds Maker. Clutter builds up quickly, so be sure you’re not just organizing chaos, she says. Can you make a pile of 25 things look great? Yes. Do you need all 25? Doubtful.

      THE NEAT (AND CLEAN AND ORGANIZED) FREAK

      You could literally eat off any surface in your house—but it would never come to that. Because if so much as a ­cornflake falls, you’re right there to sweep it up. #NeverNotCleaning

      UNDERSTAND IT

      The personality trait at play here is conscientiousness, which sounds like a good thing until you take it too far…like, say, to the kitchen to scrub pots while your family members are still twirling their spaghetti. Someone very high on the conscientious scale can’t relax and often becomes a workaholic, says Pychyl. If you can’t stop yourself from cleaning, it becomes compulsive. You’re probably highly critical of yourself, too—and concerned about what others think of you, like the FedEx guy who might spy that heap of shoes by the front door. So you’re constantly pushing for perfection.

      PLAY INTO IT

      Stash mobile cleaning units, or MCUs, throughout your house, suggests Tom McNulty, a men’s housekeeping expert in Minneapolis and the author of Clean Like a Man. Get a box, a tote, or a grocery bag and pack it with your essentials: rags, window cleaner, all-purpose spray, and rubber gloves, he says. Place an MCU near areas where the cleaning bug hits you most often, like in the front entryway closet, under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, and in the bedroom closet. It may seem like overkill, says McNulty, but always being armed and ready means you won’t waste time collecting your tools.

      THE AVOIDANCE CLEANER

      Sure, you’ve got a work deadline and the kids want to go to the playground. But there are also beds to be made and floors to be mopped. And that spice cabinet ain’t gonna organize itself.

      UNDERSTAND IT

      Procrastination is about giving in to what feels good in the moment, says Pychyl. And while cleaning may not seem like the best feel-good activity around, it does offer immediate results. We have control when we’re ­cleaning. Unlike with many other tasks, we know how it’s going to turn out, and that’s appealing, he says. Still, why not just go for a walk or catch up on Catastrophe when you want to avoid doing something? Because cleaning is considered a valid use of time. But at the end of the day, says Pychyl, you’re likely going to feel pained and perhaps shamed by the fact that you didn’t do what you were supposed to.

      PLAY INTO IT

      You’ve got to put some parameters on procrastination cleaning, says Cobb. Set a timer for, say, 20 minutes, and when it goes off, return to what you should be doing. If you work from home, limit cleaning and tidying to 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening and keep strict ‘office hours,’ she says. You can also pick one room to focus on, and when that’s done, so is your procrastinating. And instead of hiding behind the broom when you don’t want to, for example, go to the playground with your kids, just say you don’t want to go. Parenting is harder than anything, so for some people, cleaning is easier than being with the kids—and that’s OK to admit, says Bartell. Send them with your spouse or a sitter!

      THE ALL-OR-NOTHING CLEANER

      You’re a constant cleaner—until you’re not. Once your immaculate space loses order, you throw in the dish towel and wait for the next big binge clean.

      UNDERSTAND IT

      This is the classic diet mentality: One slipup (e.g., eating one of those Thin Mints from the back of your freezer) and you give up and eat the whole sleeve. This person is a very rigid, black-or-white thinker, says Johnson. And definitely a perfectionist. Everything has to be just so, and if it’s not, you go into screw-it mode. Problem is, when you’re not OK with the gray areas of life (and your home), you’ll always feel like you’re failing, and that’s no fun. Try to accept a clean-enough house and see that nothing bad will happen, says Johnson. "Your mind will throw a fit about itin the beginning, but it

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