Spring Home Refresh: Part 1

Even though it’s now officially Spring, we Mississippians have been reveling in the beautiful spring weather since late February! Along with the yellow pollen comes a fresh burst of energy to refresh our homes to welcome in the new season!

In this 3 part series, we’re discussing simple ways you can refresh your homes during the Spring Season. Here’s how we’ll break it down: 

Part 1 - Spring Cleaning

Part 2 - Kitchen and Dining 

Part 3 - Interior and Exterior Living Spaces 

Let’s dive in! 

 

The first step to refreshing your home is to give every room a good deep clean. 

When our homes are clean and tidy, we are more likely to feel happy and relaxed. There is something about clutter and unfinished projects lying around that causes you to feel more anxious and stressed - even if only subconsciously.

And because we believe that our homes should be the most comfortable and our favorite places to be, it’s worth it to put in the extra effort for a good Spring Cleaning. 

You can take it room by room a little at a time, or set aside a weekend to focus on cleaning up and cleaning out. Take the opportunity to thoroughly clean spaces and surfaces that you don’t typically focus on during your daily/weekly cleaning routines.

You can break up your Spring Cleaning into 2 parts: Cleaning Out and Cleaning Up. 

Cleaning Out

In your kitchen, remove utensils, serving dishes, linens, pots and pans, and any gadgets that you haven’t used in a year. 

In your closet go through your clothes and pull out items you no longer wear or use (shoes, clothes, jewelry, purses, accessories, etc.)  

In your storage closets pull everything out and remove unused decor items, used-up candles (don’t forget to re-stock your favorite candles!), broken items, and anything you don’t find useful anymore.

In your living rooms, remove old throw pillows and blankets that don’t smell fresh anymore no matter how many times you’ve washed them. 

In your bathrooms remove old products and those little bottles of shampoo and conditioner you took from hotel bathrooms that you know you aren’t going to use. 

“Isn’t it funny how you can just BREATHE better after you get rid of the clutter?” - Erin Napier

 

After you clean out your items, move on to phase 2: 

Clean Up

Get yourself a good bottle of spray cleaner - like this Lemon Verbena Surface Cleaner from Barr-Co and some cleaning rags and get to work! 

Wipe down all surfaces, blinds, baseboards, and windows. Don’t forget to wipe down the tile backsplashes too! 

Vacuum corners and hard-to-reach places. 

Wipe off the ceiling fan (it’s incredible how much dust collects on ceiling fans. How does it stick on while the fan is moving??) 

Pro-tip - to flood your rooms with the spring sunlight, don’t just clean the inside of the window, but clean the outside of the window as well. 

And after it’s all said and done, light a candle, make yourself a snack on a beautiful board, feel so proud of all that you accomplished, and enjoy your clean home. 

 

“Dadgum I love how it feels to walk into a just-cleaned house. I spent the afternoon cleaning the floors, dusting the dressers, nightstands, piano, bookcases. I scrubbed the bathrooms. I polished the kitchen floor with 2 coats of Mop N Glo. I vacuumed under the coffee table. And tonight when we got in from church and the house was chilly, and the floors felt like glass under our barefeet, and it smelled like apple pie and Mr. Clean, I was so glad I spent my afternoon like that.” - Erin Napier on cleaning house. 

Coming up in Part 2, we’ll share ideas on ways to refresh your kitchen that doesn’t involve cleaning or scrubbing - you’ve already done that!