Just as in nature, spring is the perfect time for a fresh start. When you return  to a messy home it has the potential to be very stressful. A home in disarray can feel like a series of problems staring you in the face. I am a strong believer that your home should be your sanctuary, not a source of stress.

Over the next few blog posts I am going to break down spring cleaning into a series of manageable steps so the task seems significantly less daunting. There are three major steps - separating and purging, cleaning then organizing. 

Step 1: Separate

As with most big projects, I suggest tackling the most difficult part first so you can continue the rest of the project with a sense of accomplishment already intact. In this case, start with your messiest room, the room that you do not let any of your guests see. Admit it, most of us have that room. The first step is to separate. Start from one side of the room and work your way to the other while separating things into four piles, the first and most important being trash.

Group Trash

Grab a large box, bin or trash bag and fill it up as much as you can with items you no longer need because they do nothing to enrich your life. These are items that you forgot you had, have little or no sentimental value or have not been used or worn in over a year. Have you ever moved? Did you literally fill up a section of your curb with garbage while you were in the process of packing? The goal with this purge is to get to the point where if you needed to move the next day you would feel the need to take nearly everything you currently have in your home.

Tip: Start your trash pile a few days before your next trash pick-up. That will give you a hard deadline, which will force you not put this off for more than a week.

In my next blog post you will receive tips on Group 2: Recycling. There are two types:

The obvious: paper, plastic, aluminum

The not-so-obvious: electronics, chemicals, and paints