This month I have the wonderful Patty Cruz-Fouchard a professional organiser, from ‘Organised and Simple‘ writing a guest blog for my Laura Felicity Design readers, on how to go about having a Spring Clean Summer.
I’ve known Patty for a couple of years now, and I love what she does. With her calm and collected manner, Patty works with and shows clients how to make the most of their space; be it at home, the office, or home office.
I asked Patty if she would mind giving some tips to us on how to go about having a Spring Clean Summer, and I was delighted when she said yes.
Head over to Patty’s website to find more about what a professional organiser can do for you, and how she can help you.
I will leave Patty to give her top tips to Spring Clean…
Spring Clean Summer – Wonderful idea, but where do I start?
We have officially started the Summer season here in the UK, and you might be thinking that a Spring Clean is no longer applicable.
The Summer is a period of big change too.
At this time of year we start to change our wardrobe to Spring/Summer clothing. The BBQs, picnic hampers and garden furniture come out. Plus, more evening and outdoor events tend to take place.
Mental adjustments happen too when we are going through this seasonal change. We tend to feel in a happier mood and feel more social.
However, we sometimes can feel stuck and overwhelmed in preparation of this warm and sunny period;
- What if we can’t find our beautiful summer clothes in a crammed and disorganised wardrobe?
- Or where to even start looking for our picnic accessories, BBQ and garden tools in a cluttered shed or loft?
- And what if we feel the common areas of our home need a clear-out to make it inviting and homey to our guests?
So many things to take care off! Where do we start?
- Take a step back and think: Which is the one and only area in your home, if streamlined, would make the biggest impact on your day-to-day life? This area shouldn’t be the biggest one i.e. loft or garage, it should be a small to medium sized project where you can experience big results. A wardrobe, a bedroom or a hallway, are usually a good place to start.
- Set a Vision – What do you want the area to look like? What do you see yourself doing in this area? Why do you want this area to be organised? In an ideal situation how would your life be, what impact would it have if this area were just the way you wanted? This Vision will keep you motivated throughout the project and will help when deciding what to keep and what to dispose off.
- Break down the project in chunks of time and diarise – Block out dates in your calendar (3-4 hour slots) and make appointments with yourself to tackle the project little by little. This makes the task more manageable and increases your chances of actually finishing the project.
- Sort and Toss – Take everything out and categorise “like- for -like” when sorting. Categories should be created either by usage, colour, size or purpose. The important thing here is to find a common theme. Once items are grouped by category, go through them and decide if each individual item matches your Vision, this makes the decision process of keeping or tossing quite straightforward.
- Store – Once you know what your left with, and things are categorised with like- for- like, then you can put them away according to frequency of usage (the most used items need to be easy to access and more visible).
- Evaluate and Maintain – Life is constantly evolving. A good time to re-assess life is in the Autumn/Winter when another seasonal change is taking place (new activities, other type of clothes, different mental attitude). Regular updates mean less effort to maintain and minimises the chances of things getting out of hand.
Bear in mind that doing a ‘Spring Clean Summer’ doesn’t apply exclusively to rooms and physical belongings.
Other areas that can be streamlined are; paper and emails, as well as de-cluttering diaries (appointments, activities, roles, engagements).
A clear mind and a clear space have a positive impact on our well-being and performance.
Have a great Spring Clean Summer, and contact me if you need any help.
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Patty Cruz-Fouchard
