Spring Cleaning, Family Style

(Via Flickr/Karin Beil)

If you read last week’s Casa Latina spring cleaning post you know what you need to do to the outside of your home to get it in tip-top shape before your first BBQ. This week we address the inside of your home.

When most people think about spring cleaning, they think of window washing, tile scrubbing and overall home tidying and organizing. It usually involves someone (the mom) rolling up her sleeves and spending an entire weekend scrubbing every corner of the house. This year, I suggest you think outside the box, think of spring cleaning in a totally different way, and make it a family affair where everyone - where not just mom has a role.

Getting the entire family involved may not be easy, but put a weekend aside where each and every member of the family can take part in purging all unwanted items. This is about the whole family pitching in and developing good home habits that will help you keep things in order all year round.

If you have small children, this is a good time to teach them the importance of giving to those less fortunate. Walk them into their room, sit them down. Start by going through their toys and ask them, “Do you play with this? Do you need this?”

Place three clear containers in the room and label them – keep, donate and trash. Make sure the containers are clear; children feel more at ease when they can see where their toys are going. First separate the toys they play with and ask, “OK. We are keeping this.” And then ask them, “Do you mind giving this away? How long has it been since you played with it? Can we give it to your cousin? Can we give it someone else who needs it, because you have so many already?”

If your children are a bit older send everyone into their rooms, into their closets and drawers and even under their bed to start looking at what they have, so they may be able to decide on what they need and don’t need.

Family Time

This is about teaching your family early on about decluttering their own space. It’s about training them to pick up after themselves all year round. If you haven’t done so already, this may also be a great time to sit down and make yourself a big calendar where you write everyone’s chores down and create a reward system for keeping up with them, this calendar should also includes chores for the husband.

In my experience, husbands just don’t know how to purge. They think they can still wear the T-shirt they wore in high school 15 years earlier, so there is always a shelf in their side of the closet that houses a collection of shirts that are for nostalgic viewing only.

Spring cleaning is about a change of season, so this year’s format of bringing in Spring should be a change of routine

Each person in the household should start with their personal space, which is the bedroom, then move into other areas of the house as a team. In the kitchen, purge any mismatched containers, same with your pots and pans.

Then pay the garage a visit. How many items are sitting there that has been broken for years and are no longer useful? Get rid of them. Spring purging is about eliminating clutter, it’s about making life easier for yourself and your family. Once you family has a cleaning routine that they do on a regular basis it’s a lot easier to keep things in order.

Marlene Pratt is the co-founder of Casa Latina, an interior designer and on-air television host on both English and Spanish-language television. Follow Marlene on Twitter at @CasaLatinaToday and Like her FB page