How to Make “Spring Cleaning” Fun and Easy

Spring cleaning: the act of cleansing your life from the darkness of winter to begin anew with a clean slate in the fresh season of spring. Do I get brownie points for sounding philosophical and making this seem like an enjoyable process? Let’s face it – in reality, we all freaking dread spring cleaning. There comes a point in time when it becomes a necessity, since we college women have a tendency to accumulate a ton of miscellaneous crap, for lack of a better term, over the year (or over the past few years if you are a bit of a cleaning slacker). Cleaning kind of sucks, but it feels so great to actually be able to see your bedroom floor again after it comes out of hiding. Here’s a few tips and tricks to getting yourself to spring clean and maybe even making a little money!

#1. Get some music pumpin’.

Put on some comfy yoga pants and blast Katy Perry like there is no tomorrow. This process is almost equivalent to going to the gym – it is only tolerable if you’re listening to some sweet jams to get yourself motivated. 

#2. Give yourself a goal and a reward for completing that goal. That pile of old clothes you’ve been staring at for a month? If you go through it and get rid of everything, you should splurge and eat the last cookie in the apartment! Or something like that. I like to set goals for myself in terms of how many articles of clothing I get rid of. It helps to quantify things, which could even mean just setting a time limit for yourself to clean. Once you reach those goals, give yourself a reward woman! This could be anything from fro-yo to a brand new purse to a spa day. You do you – treat yo’ self.

#3. Go through old things and donate/sell what you can.

Websites like Craigslist and the “Cal Poly Free and For Sale” Facebook page are great ways to sell old furniture and knick-knacks!  In terms of fixing the problem of your every increasing closet, Vinted is an app/website that is an awesome tool to sell some of your old clothes. The site allows you to sell clothes and print shipping labels to ship them to customers all over.  The site does keep a small portion of your sale, but it is still is so worth it if that cute dress is just collecting dust in your closet!

#4. Spring-clean with a partner. Cleaning is always more fun with a friend.  Make a day of it and completely tear your apartment apart if you need to. It’s fun to go through other people’s things in a socially acceptable manner! This way, you can compare inventories and even swap things with each other.  You can get rid of clutter and go shopping simultaneously!

Lastly and perhaps most importantly…

#5. Don’t be afraid to make a big mess before you can clean it up.  It can be super overwhelming to completely annihilate your room and take everything apart. Trust me, I know — type A personalities do not handle disaster (or even merely perceived disasters) well. But don’t fret, there is a light at the tunnel! Taking everything out and laying out gives you a better sense of the stuff that you actually own.  This way, you can tell if you have duplicates of things, and what things are old or you never use.  This also makes the great spring cleaning all the more rewarding. Take pictures before and after and revel in your success!

Now go get yourself some Windex and Clorox wipes and clean to your heart’s content!