One Small Way to Get a Head Start on Spring Cleaning
The January Cure is all about refreshing and organizing your home for 2019. We tackle one assignment each weekday throughout the entire month. It’s not too late to sign up, and you can visit the Cure page to catch up with the assignments so far.
Checklists and chore charts are great ways of staying on top of your everyday housekeeping. And for all the things that a weekly plan can’t cover, we have spring cleaning on the calendar to remind us to do the deep cleaning that our regular routines overlook.
The January Cure isn’t about cleaning every nook and cranny of your space (again, we have spring cleaning for that) but it is supposed to set you up with good home habits that make it easier to take good care of your home, and by extension, yourself. One such habit is making sure the parts of your home that matter most to you—the ones you use most, or see most often—get a little extra love, more than just once a year. So we’re targeting the sofa with today’s Cure assignment: We’re going to fluff the pillows, vacuum the cushions and shower your favorite comfy spot with attention.
If your favorite seat isn’t a sofa, adapt the assignment to deep clean whatever sort of space yours is. Whether that’s a chair, the bed, or wherever you tend to plop down at the end of the day.
Today’s Assignment: Get your sofa into shape.
Spend a little time loving on your favorite seat at home.
Take the throw blanket and pillows off the sofa, and throw anything that can be machine-washed into the machine.
Remove all the couch cushions and give the naked sofa underneath a quick vacuum. Then vacuum and fluff each cushion as you toss them all back on.
When you return the cushions to the sofa, try to rotate and flip them around to new positions. How you fluff and flip from here depends on the design of your sofa—some have cushions that can’t be flipped, or shaped cushions that fit only in one particular place on the sofa. It’s like a fun puzzle you’ll have to solve, but the idea is to flip, turn and rotate each piece into a brand new position. You want to reveal fresh fabric and also rotate cushions throughout different positions that get different amounts of wear (everyone’s got a favorite spot on the sofa, yeah?).
If you notice any stains as you’re going, treat them tonight. And if you notice any tears or snags or other fabric fixes you can solve right away, take a moment to get them done. (My sofa is covered in fabric that pills like wild, so I keep this “sweater shaver” pill remover handy in the living room.) If you spot anything that needs a more major repair, you can add it to your future projects list.
Once you’re through with the vacuum-and-flip routine, drop your blankets and throw pillows back into place, giving each pillow a quick fluff.
If you’re feeling really inspired, you can move on and repeat the routine on any other sofas or cushioned chairs in your space. Or set a calendar reminder to do the same thing again in a few months from now. Or just stop here—that’s great too.
When you’re done, settle in to your new, clean, and comfy sofa and drop us all a comment to let us know how the Cure “sofa day” went for you!
Download the printable PDF calendar: January Cure 2019
Share your progress on Instagram: #thejanuarycure