Want to say “no” to seasonal cleaning?


The idea of a seasonal, bi-yearly, or spring cleaning has always given me a feeling of dread.
So, at one point I just decided that I will not require that of myself, and that is okay.
Instead, I wait until something bothers me or I’m in the mood for it.
Because I dreaded cleaning for so much of my life, I feel like when I require so much of myself I freeze up.
I have learned to do the dishes twice a day and wipe the counters off, and I have learned to do a weekly reset, where I sweep the floors, vacuum, dust, all of those types of things, and reset the house.
But it’s not any deep cleaning.
For the fridge, dusting/cleaning baseboards, etc, I don’t have a set system for myself, because I feel like it’s a tremendous amount of work that’s hanging over my head; a huge requirement of myself.
I don’t know why, but that is what it is.
Granted, the daily and weekly maintenance routines I have for myself are the bare minimum.

And my house is NOT perfect or pristine.


It’s just good enough.
The idea of requiring monthly, biannual or yearly tasks seems overwhelming to me, even after all these years of learning to manage my home, I still struggle with feeling as if I’m not capable of doing that.
But this week I’ve been feeling like I want to clean the kitchen. It just needs a good cleaning.
So I did.
I was in the mood to clean the kitchen, and I can’t explain why.
But if you watch the video, you will see that the living room still has stuff all over it.
Tomorrow is Saturday, and I don’t need to clean the kitchen tomorrow because I already cleaned it, so we’ve got plenty of time to address other areas of the house.
This method works for me.

All that I require of myself is just the bare minimum.

I feel like I can handle that.
I can do that, and then I can live my life.
The deep-cleaning things, I can do that when I’m in the mood (which does happen).
If you would like help establishing those daily and weekly resets, I created the home reset checklists.
These are habit trackers to help you establish these as habits and start out slow with a manageable amount.
And I have to tell you: I did the daily resets for years before I started the weekly resets.
Since I finally did embrace the weekly resets, who knows, maybe in another five years I will have a biyearly reset where I do a deeper cleaning! it’s possible! 😊
But the daily resets and weekly resets are what has carried me through all these years and made my life so much easier. (As well as getting rid of TONS of excess!)

Decluttering helps make the daily and weekly cleaning easier.

Having a habit of doing daily and weekly cleaning makes the house easier to clean because grime doesn’t build up.
When the house is cleaned daily and weekly, the chores don’t feel overwhelming, because it’s mostly clean.
When the house is mostly clean, we feel like we have time – time to do whatever we feel should be a priority in our lives.
I keep my daily resets easy:

  1. Quick kitchen tidy
  2. Wash the dishes
  3. Wipe off counters and stove

Keeping it this simple means I will actually get it done.
Like I said earlier, having a big requirement of myself feels overwhelming. I tend to quit before I even start.
So in order to be consistent, I have to require as little as possible.
And, just like this week, now and then I WANT to do a deeper clean and because the house is already maintained, nothing suffers when I take an hour or two to deep clean an area.

When you’re home is under control, decluttering is easier

These days I “get in the mood to clean” and a big reason for that is because things don’t pile up!
The daily things are done, I have the ability and time to focus on other things without the daily stuff becoming overwhelming.
And decluttering doesn’t feel so overwhelming either.
In fact, the more of a habit I have with maintaining the house, the more likely I will be to “get in the mood to declutter!”
That’s right!
When we see our lovely clear counters and empty sink, we think “Hey, I got a few minutes, I could sort this pile of papers or get rid of the clothes the kids have out-grown.”
Everything is just a little bit easier when the house feels managed.

When you declutter:

There are so many methods, and I prefer to work room by room, category by category, but there are only a few key things that are the BEST method:

  1. Make your decisions based on honesty. Does this item help you live the life you are living right now? Not your past life (back when I was in high school/college/parenting/married, etc), not your fantasy life, not your 20-years-in-the-future life, but the actual life you live right now. The type of cook you are right now. The type of recreation you participate in right now. The type of books you read right now.
  2. Once you’ve made the decision to get rid of something, completely remove it from your possession. Get it out of the house and out of your life. If you stash it in the garage until you can sell it, or find just the “right” home, it’s still impacting your life in some way. (Mental to-do list of all the things you still need to “deal” with… yup. That’s a heavy burden!)
  3. Keep things because you WANT them in your life. Don’t allow fear to be the reason you keep things. So often we’re afraid to live without things… I should be prepared to cook Thanksgiving dinner for 42 people!! And that vase from my mom, I’m afraid it will hurt her feelings if I get rid of it. Don’t let fear be the one calling the shots.

Ready to cement those daily and weekly habits so your everyday life is easier? Click here to get started with your own set of the Home Reset Checklists.
My house is not perfect or pristine. It's just good enough.

About Rachel Jones

Hi there! I’m Rachel Jones, and I founded Nourishing Minimalism in 2012 at the beginning of my minimalist journey. If you're looking for encouragement in your journey, I created a FREE Facebook Group - feel free to join me there: Nourishing Minimalism Facebook Group and I share videos each week on YouTube

2 Comments

  1. Melinda J Mitchell on 11/05/2021 at 6:23 pm

    Oh my gosh! How liberating to hear that from you!! Thank you!! Just daily resets, and dishes are too overwhelming, now that I’m getting more and more disabled!
    Thank you for permission to NOT!!

  2. histerija on 12/26/2022 at 8:45 am

    finally someone takling about cleaning i can relate to. most people and books always advice to stick to a strict schedule, to make a to-do list and they tell you how often you should clean your windows, carpets, sheets or whatever (horrible!). when i see a to-do list, i already feel overwhelmed and don’t even want to start anything. if i would have to spend half of my weekend cleaning, i wouldn’t want to wake up on a saturday at all. so i do bit by bit when i feel like it. it’s easier for me to clean one or two kitchen shelves from time to time than to clean all the kitchen shelves for 2 or 3 hours, especially if i’m not even in the mood to clean them- no way!

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