Spring is the season of cleaning, refreshing and organising your home. As the weather gets cooler and the days get longer, we find ourselves opening up the windows, dusting off the cobwebs and removing the winter layers of our humble abodes. With the upcoming season of entertaining upon us, it is time to get our homes in order and renew them accordingly. Below are our top tips for refreshing and organising your home this Spring.
Step 1 – The Spring Clean
In order to make our homes feel fresh and inviting for the holiday season ahead, they need to be spic and span. Spring is the perfect time of year to undertake all the tasks you have been putting off throughout Winter. The weather is warmer, and the days are longer, which means you can spend a day on the weekend outside in the sunshine, cleaning your exterior windows, blasting your alfresco area and ensuring your garden or pot plants are looking amazing.
Spring is also the perfect time of year to tick off the cleaning tasks in your home that you have been avoiding. Write down a list of everything you would like to achieve, then set aside one weekend to tick everything off in one go – time batching! Cleaning tasks we suggest for Spring are to dust skirting boards and architraves, clean light switches and doorknobs, dust ceiling fans and lights, remove marks from walls, clean fly screens, wash windows, remove and shake out rugs, wipe down all furniture and dust artwork and frames. You can also dive into a deep clean of your bathroom, kitchen and laundry including disinfecting all surfaces, cleaning the oven, defrosting the freezer and so on. Your home will feel amazing after and the process will give you renewed energy to see your space with fresh eyes and be thankful for the wonderful home you have!
Step 2 – Organising
Now that your home is sparkling and is the cleanest it has been in years, it’s time to get organised! The Marie Kondo movement was huge this time last year, but have you maintained the organisational systems you put in place and still follow the ‘only keep what sparks joy’ mindset? If not, don’t fear, we have a few simple tasks that you can undertake to get your home organised and working efficiently in no time! This step includes the fun part of popping in store and picking up all the beautiful and effective storage solutions!
The main areas of the home we need to focus on when re-organising are the kitchen, wardrobes and storage areas. These are the main sections of the home that tend to build up over time without anyone noticing. Start with the kitchen and remove everything from the cupboards and assess if you have used it in the last 6 months, is it functional and is it necessary? Try cutting down on any items that tend to turn into collections over time such as mugs, glasses and serving ware – unless it is ridiculously sentimental, brings you joy or belongs to a lovely matching set, it has got to go. Wardrobes are another area of the home that burst at the seams and we ignore for the most part as they’re behind closed doors. The wardrobe has very similar organising principles to the kitchen – remove everything, keep what is essential as specified above, then organise. Sorting by clothing type, then by colour is the most efficient way to categorise and save you time when getting dressed. Pick up some gorgeous matching hangers from Howard’s Storage World to ensure it is visually pleasing.
The last aspect of the organisation transformation is the storage areas of the home such as linen cupboards, under the bed, storage cabinets and garages. This process will take a bit of time to sort through, but if you dedicate a few hours each weekend, it will become more organised in no time at all.
Once you have sorted out all your essentials you can then look for storage solutions to make everything look beautiful and function well. We recommend baskets, labelled boxes or plastic containers in varying sizes. Pop into Howard’s Storage World to see an abundance of storage solutions that will make everything work more effectively in your home! Be sure to check out Freedom, Tk Maxx and Oz Design Furniture for some beautiful baskets and furniture storage ideas too.
Step 3 – Preparing For The Upcoming Season
Summer in Australia not only includes summer holidays and outdoor entertaining, but Christmas and family time all rolled into one. Our homes need to be functioning at 100% to ensure we have a stress-free holiday season and get to enjoy the time spent with family and friends.
When organising your home in a Spring refresh you will inevitably come across your Christmas decorations and Summer entertaining supplies. We recommend taking everything out and making sure all items or decorations are in good condition, still work properly and they still bring you happiness. You will find that once you have simplified your Christmas decoration pile, you will have more joy when putting them up as December rolls around. This may even open up the opportunity to buy some gorgeous new decorations that bring a refreshed feel to your home this Christmas! Adairs and Freedom have some absolutely gorgeous Christmas decorations to adorn your home with this season!
Step 4 – Decorating For Spring
The last, and what we believe to be most enjoyable step, is decorating your home for Spring! As we have said goodbye to Winter, it is time to pack away any heavy blankets, excessively fluffy cushions and the pile of throw rugs from the living room sofa. Try adding a few brighter soft furnishings into your space with some on-trend colours such as a coral, sage green or blush pink. We are loving the lemon cushion pictured below from Freedom! No Spring refresh is complete without adding a beautiful bunch of flowers to your coffee table or kitchen counter. Café 63 have fresh flowers on offer every day and their seasonal bouquets are perfect for Spring!
With new furniture and homewares ranges popping up every few days, it is hard not to get excited about revitalising your home this Spring! Pop into any of the stores at Homemaker The Valley this Spring to see some gorgeous new ranges that will brighten your home and have you looking forward to the holiday season ahead!
