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Time to Start Spring Cleaning

January 17th, 2011

Yesterday afternoon I took down all the Christmas decorations both inside and out. It’s always sad to do this as the house seems empty and bare afterwards. I miss the warm glow of the light in the evenings and the smell of pine in the house. For me this signals the start of spring cleaning.

All of the Christmas decorations were taken down, cleaned, organized and put into boxes. I try to make sure everything goes back in great condition so that it’s quick and easy to put up next year. It was the perfect day, sunny and bright. That made the outside work seem warmer than the 18 that it was, and it made cleaning the living a much sunnier task.

All of the fresh pine garland and the tree get put outside on the brush pile. They provide great habitat for snakes, rabbits and other animals. We have a pile that we’ve been building since we bought our house. It’s out back by the edge of the woods by the compost piles. It’s important provide this kind of habitat for animals in your garden. I keep hoping for a big black snake to move into mine.


Now that Christmas is down, it’s time to start moving furniture, cleaning the floors, and getting all those spring cleaning chores checked off the list. I like to get my spring cleaning done in winter, spring can get awfully busy around here with maple sugaring and seed starting.

Do you spring clean? When do you start?

14 Comments to “Time to Start Spring Cleaning”
  1. A Year In My Garden on January 17, 2011 at 5:03 am

    I have three fsamilies worth of Xmas trees mouldering on my brush pile – although we do’nt call it that – eventually I’m hoping it will become a bank for growing ferns on

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  2. Sue on January 17, 2011 at 5:08 am

    I have to wait with spring cleaning until April-when we might have a day that warms up enough to hang all the bedding/throw rugs/curtains out on the line. It never feels like spring cleaning until I can have fresh air coming in. Then look out-a mad flurry of window washing and lots of scrubbing. Hubby clears out before he gets dusted too-LOL!

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  4. Jennifer Fisk on January 17, 2011 at 8:32 am

    The Christmas tree is down and burned and almost all decorations are put away. The exception are the electric candles in the windows and the flowering crab apple tree loghts. I will unplug the tree lights sometime this week. The window candles will stay until it remains light until 5:30 or so. I love the looks of my house with those candles when I come home at 5.
    My preference would be to hire someone to spring clean but alas, I’ll start picking at it soon. Right now the sun is so low in the sky, the dirt isn’t too noticeable but by March the project will have to commence.

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  5. Nebraska Dave on January 17, 2011 at 10:14 am

    The manger city is packed away but the tree remains dark in the corner waiting to bagged and scuttled away into the murky depths of the basement where it lives until next year when it lights up the glowing fibers once again for my family enjoyment. I didn’t really have an extremely lot of decorations this year for some reason but it was sufficient.

    Spring cleaning? Really? I haven’t even had a glimmer of thought about that yet. I’m with Sue on that one. It has to smell like Spring outside before I get in the mood for Spring cleaning although I admire folks that can have it done by Spring but I’m just not one of those folks.

    I’m still enjoying Winter. Today my grandson and I will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day by tobogganing down the school yard hill again. Well, that is if the freezing rain holds off. Then it will be home for hot chocolate and later maybe a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. Let’s not hurry Winter away with so much still left to enjoy.

    Have a great Spring cleaning day.

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  6. Lisa on January 17, 2011 at 11:07 am

    I clean in the week between Christmas and New years. I divest and thin out closets and clutter. I pack away last years files and start new file folders. I collect stuff for the CPA along the way. I clean out the garage, too. The other time I do big cleaning is when spring shifts to summer and the house gets closed up. Turning on the A/C means I can clean all the yellow pine pollen from the surfaces in the house. Unlike many here in FLA, I don’t hermetically seal up my home.

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  7. Amy W. on January 17, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    We took down our Christmas decorations as well but we use artificial everything since my Mom can’t handle real pine smells though but we’re surrounded by pine trees hence our farm name “Pine Pod Farm.” We put other silk flowers in place of our Christmas decorations. We do a little bit of cleaning here and there. Getting ready to plan a trip to Georgia and to Florida in February.

    Amy

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  8. Morgan G on January 17, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    We also like to get things nice and tidy around the house right after the holidays, leaving the spring open for gardening, house projects and impromptu weekenders here and there. Then, come summer, it’s okay to be plain lazy.

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  9. MAYBELLINE on January 17, 2011 at 5:06 pm

    “Spring cleaning” happens on a regular basis otherwise the dust would overwhelm me. Probably every month or so.

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  10. Mrs. Whimsy on January 17, 2011 at 10:51 pm

    I always have my Yuletide decorations down by my early January birthday. I don’t really do a spring cleaning, I try to clean all the time. I tend to do such a thorough job of cleaning that I never get the whole house done at one time. It drves me crazy, that I can’t have everything done all at once…ever.

    I could never get used to snakes in my brush pile though! lol

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  11. RobinL on January 17, 2011 at 10:59 pm

    I think I am the only person who is not sad to take down the Christmas decorations! Now I’m not Scrooge, but I find them to be “clutter” and I love the fresh new look of my home when it’s back to “normal”.

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  12. Canadian Doomer on January 17, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    We just had the coldest day of the year so far. -20C Winter is settling in solidly now. Spring cleaning won’t be on anyone’s minds around here for several months.

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  13. Andrea on January 18, 2011 at 12:03 am

    I do what I call my New Year’s cleaning on, you guessed it, New Years :). That way I bring in the New Year with less clutter, and get into a good cleaning routine which helps me be all around more productive in the year.

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  14. Jane on January 18, 2011 at 2:36 am

    Note to self: Take down Christmas tree…FINALLY! I think I am holding onto it this year for some reason that is currently beyond me at the moment. I just can’t seem to bring myself to put it away just yet. As for Spring cleaning, YES! Generally shortly after taking down the Christmas tree. Hmmm, maybe THAT is the reason I’ve been putting off taking down that tree?

    Reply to Jane's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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