Sign Up for Our (Free!) Mood-Based Spring Cleaning Program

As much as I appreciate the calendar nudging me to deep clean every spring, I never can seem to psych myself up for it. It doesn’t matter how vividly I remember the self-assured satisfaction of dusting the ceiling fans or finally digging the gunk out from the window tracks. Some days, I’m just not in the mood.

Honestly, making that connection between mood and motivation is what inspired this year’s spring cleaning plan. Apartment Therapy does this every year (a few times a year if you count programs like the January Cure and September Sweep): taking what can be an overwhelming item on your housekeeping to-do list and breaking it down into daily steps to make the whole thing more fun and more doable. With programs like the Cure, which we’ve been honing for more than a decade, we’ve got the process pretty ironed out, adding a few new touches each year. But spring cleaning is something we keep reinventing.

Like my built-in bookshelves that I seem to keep rearranging, I’m not really sure if the spring cleaning program keeps changing because we want to keep things interesting and fresh, or if we’ll eventually settle on the perfect plan to come back to year after year. But those of you who follow me on Instagram know I like to poll Apartment Therapy readers to decide what to do next. When I asked what we should do for spring cleaning, the answers were all across the board.

I keep learning this lesson, but it became especially clear that day on Instagram: We’re all at different levels of competency when it comes to housekeeping, not to mention different standards for what’s “clean.” Some of you clean your ceiling fans weekly, while others don’t even have ceiling fans. And once you factor in that whole “mood and motivation” business, it becomes obvious: There’s no one-size fits all checklist for spring cleaning.

So we’re not doing a checklist. We’re spring cleaning for your home, and your mood.

Starting Monday, April 1, we’ll send out emails (totally free) and guide you through a series of spring cleaning tasks designed to get every inch of your space looking better than ever—covering one specific room or zone each weekday for 20 days total. But what makes this year’s program special is that if you’re busy, or tired, or just not in the mood for a clean-up, we’ll also have two other routes for you. Here’s what each day will look like:

What are you in the mood for today?

We’ll guide you through a straightforward, thorough clean of the day’s zone—with a brief walkthrough, plus plenty of tips and resources.

This will be something fast and easy. It shouldn’t take more than five or 10 minutes, but you can check it off your list and feel good about getting something done for your home.

This one will be a small, low-touch task—sometimes just a thought exercise—that will get you re-committed to your goal of a clean home, and set you up for success at a later date. You’ll be keeping up with your spring cleaning without hardly trying.

With these three tracks, the goal is keeping you committed to your spring cleaning—even on the days when you’re away from home, or too busy or tired to dig in on a checklist. You’ll be able to keep up without hardly lifting a finger and, more importantly, maintain the momentum that’s going to give you a happier, cleaner space by the end of April.

As always, you’ll also have the support of thousands of other Apartment Therapy readers who are also doing their best, the best way they know how.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now for email updates so you always know what’s next. See you on April 1 (no joke!) for the first day of Spring Cleaning for Your Mood.