How To Manage Spring Cleaning With Your Bullet Journal

It’s time for spring cleaning! I know, I know, this sounds like I’m your mother and want you to clean your room and get a job or something, but believe me, you’ll thank me when we are done.

And, of course, your Bullet Journal is here to help you manage all the responsibilities of spring cleaning.

My relationship with cleaning is the same as with working out. I do enjoy it once I’m doing it, but dragging my butt to do it is a very very hard task! Especially when it’s the big yearly Spring cleaning.

However, I’ve been pumping myself with decluttering YouTube videos and the KonMari method, and I finally got sold on the idea of a decluttered house.

So today, I’ll share with you my method, and of course, several Bullet Journal pages that will help you along the way.

Be sure to scroll until the end of the post to see more resources and get your free printable cleaning checklist.

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Step One: Decluttering Your Home

Before there was even any talk about cleaning the house, I needed to get rid of all the extra things. After hours and hours of YouTube and blog articles, I came up with my version of the KonMari method.

Ok, it’s kind of the same as KonMari method, but customized for a very small-sized apartment. Let’s go step by step through the process:

Envision the ideal home

Whether you lie in a mansion, or in a tiny apartment as I did, the first thing you should do is to envision your ideal home.

It’s pretty simple, just think of what you’d like your living situation to be. For me, I wanted to have an apartment where everything had its place, and I didn’t have to completely reorganize my living room every time I had guests.

Struggling with this step? I strongly recommend checking out YouTube decluttering videos or some minimalist apartments. All the space and flowing energy of those places will definitely give you a few ideas about what you want from your home.

A good Bullet Journal spread for this step would be like a mood board or a vision board. I haven’t made one for myself, but it might be a fun way to get into the reorganizing mood.

Commit and let go

This is a huge task, so before you jump into it, you need to commit to finishing it up!

That’s where your Bullet Journal can help – create a little spread with your motivation and maybe even announce it to some friends and family.

How To Tacle Spring Cleaning In Your Bullet Journal | Masha Plans

That way, you’ll feel accountable, and it should give you motivation to actually finish your cleaning and organizing project.

Letting go of things can be really hard, and that’s when it helps to understand for yourself why are you doing it.

I really knew my why: I needed more space, more energy. The clutter around me just made me a blob every time I came home.

Always know your why!

Tidy up by category

According to the KonMari method, you’re supposed to declutter by category, not by room. This definitely works if you have a lot of space in your home.

However, if I actually take out all my miscellaneous items in one place, I literally won’t have space to move around. I modified this method based on my needs.

Some things, like clothes and shoes, I did by category, and others, by room. It was ok with me because I don’t feel that attached to things (except for stationery of course!!!), and I didn’t need that smooth transition from meaningless to meaningful.

How To Tackle Spring Cleaning In Your Bullet Journal | Masha Plans

If you’re attached to your possessions more, I’d really advise you to try the original system. I feel like it gently leads you through the process and prepares you for hard decisions.

Only keep what sparks joy

And, of course, what you need and use. I really love this approach, and it was such a relief for me to finally throw away those horrible long-sleeved shirts I hated so much but kept to use during winters. (it’s February, and I still haven’t used them this year!)

There is one more thing that helped me to make decisions and I think it would be helpful for you as well.

I asked myself – if I had to leave China tomorrow, would I actually take this thing with me? Second – I made it clear to myself that all the good things will go to charity or other people who want and use them.

This finally allowed me to get rid of those two dresses I got two-three years ago for different occasions and never wore again.

And if you’re not planning to move countries, you can definitely just make it a theoretical question. When you think of doing all that big move, packing all the things, paying all the fees, trust me you’ll start getting rid of more things.

What might be helpful in this step is to create an inventory of all the things you have. Putting it on paper will help you to remember it all and, in turn, to make an easier decision about what to throw away.

I only have this packing list to show you, not an actual inventory. But it works the same way. You can divide it by room or by different categories.

Having a lot will also help you see if you have copies of items in your possession. Like I found out that I actually had 5 pairs of basically identical scissors, while in truth I only need two.

How To Stay Motivated And Finish The Decluttering

Decluttering the house, especially by hard-core methods like KonMari is a pretty demanding project. Even when you’re already committed and got started, it can just be too much to actually finish. So let me share with you some pointers I used to stay motivated and follow through until the end:

Take before pictures

When you have all your stuff out in the open, the place looks messy and not neat. It’s easy to lose motivation if you don’t see the result. This is where the before pictures help. Look into the drawers you already organized and compare them to the way they were before you started cleaning. You’ll feel super proud, I promise!

Baby steps

You don’t have to start big. Try to divide your stuff into macro-categories and clean them up bit by bit. I started my cleaning way before my vacation, so I did it in baby steps – one day: socks drawer, one day: scarfs. Don’t push yourself to do it all at once!

Keep yourself exposed to decluttered places

Make sure you keep the image of a clean decluttered house in front of your eyes. It can be your own vision for your home, some Pinterest pictures, YouTube videos or even just visiting some open houses. Make sure you are exposed to spaces that inspire you to go and create the same energy in your own home.

Track your progress

Bullet Journal will be a great place to help you with that! Create a special cleaning tracker and just tick every time you clean out one more category. This is always a great extra motivation.

Don’t be a perfectionist

If it’s your first time, it’s better not to expect to declutter so much that you suddenly live in a minimalist home. If you’re having a hard time throwing away items you’ve had for ages, keep them, don’t let them stop the whole process.

Keep them for now, and when you finish your first round of decluttering and see how amazing it is to have all that space, I’m sure it’ll be easier for you to declutter even later.

Step Two: Cleaning The House

I don’t really like cleaning. Ok, that sounds horrible. I mean that I LOVE living in a clean place, but cleaning is always a boring chore unless you are a Disney Princess and have lots of forest animals to help you.

But honestly, it’s just a matter of starting, and a big, HUGE motivation comes from seeing your living place completely free of useless junk and in order. You’re just one extra step away from the house of your dreams!

This is where a little cleaning checklist would be so very useful. It helps you to see how far you’ve gone, plus checking off boxes of hings you’ve done will definiely help with motivation.

This is basically a list of a room by room cleaning chores I have to do (haha as if I had more than just two rooms in the whole apartment).

This helped me to make sure I’m not missing anything and generally made me much more motivated – checking out items from your to-do list is really so empowering!

Step Three: Keeping The House Clean With Cleaning Schedule Bullet Journal Spreads

Now that the big cleaning project is done, it’s time to make sure it won’t become such a big project next year. The secret to a clean house is to keep it clean.

Here are some tips on what you can do:

Each thing has its place

Yes, NOW I sound like your mom, but believe me, momma was right! Each thing in your house has to have an assigned place. That way, it’ll be easy to just put it back there once you’re done using it, vs putting it somewhere at random and not being able to find it next time.

Do a little every day

Don’t turn your cleaning into such a huge project; try to do a little bit every day. Just 15 minutes a day will make sure your house is always clean and shiny!

Create a cleaning tracker

Trackers are a great motivation and help; they make sure you remember to do your chores and feel especially happy by checking them out in your Bullet Journal.

Here is an example of my own cleaning tracker.

This is my annual cleaning tracker, I think it’s a fun way to do just one tracker for an entire year and not to worry about it ever again.

I also love that it allows me all the extra space to be creative and practice all my cleaning themed doodles.

Alternatively, you can create a weekly cleaning schedule. This is a great way to manage your cleaning – have small tasks for every day of the week.

You’ll find more ideas in the next section!

More Resources

First of all, you need to get some more ideas for your cleaning trackers!

So check this post:

Generally, for some more page and tracker ideas, be sure to check out these pages:

Since this is about spring, I thought you might also like these posts:

Free Bullet Journal Printables

Of course, i couldn’t leave you without some freebies.

There are actually two, a konmari checklist and a cleaning checklist, to make sure you stay on top of all your cleaning and organization.

You can find them already in the Resources Vault under “miscellaneous”.

If you don’t have access yet, you can always sign up in the form below.

Once you confirm your subscription, you’ll get the password to get 50+ free Bullet Journal printables, stickers, and worksheets to use right away.

If you’ve never used printables before, be sure to check my post How To Use Printables In Your Bullet Journal.

It’s pretty basic, and you can find all the supplies you need in my post Supplies For Using Bullet Journal Printables.

How are you getting on with your spring cleaning? Do you already use any Bullet Journal spreads to help you?

I would love to hear from you in the comments section below!

Hope this list was useful; if you find it so, please share! If you enjoy my content and want to show your appreciation, please consider supporting me with a cup of coffee.

And remember: Keep Bullet Journaling, and Don’t Be A Blob.