You may be surprised to learn that spring cleaning is a long-held tradition which stems from the days when homes were heated by indoor fireplaces. According to BT, the practice began as a way to clear out the soot and dust which accumulated from a long winter of roaring fires. Today, the tradition continues as central heating systems disperse dust throughout the home.

Now that the days are longer, we also have more time for cleaning. This year, you can ensure things stay tidy over the summer by rearranging areas of your home that are prone to clutter.

Why tidiness is a worthwhile goal

Having a tidy home isn’t only about impressing guests or maintaining appearances, it can brighten your entire life. When your living space is clean and organized, you’re less likely to feel stressed and anxious. In fact, a linguistic analysis conducted by researchers at the University of California found that women who described their homes as clean, organized and restful had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

As part of a healthy lifestyle, an organized home promotes rest and relaxation, thus improving your mood and preparing you to take on everyday challenges. With this mind, changing the layout of your rooms has the ability to improve your mood for the better.

How to identify common causes of clutter

If you clean your home only to find things piling up again a few days later, you’re not alone. Busy schedules can get in the way of a regular cleaning or there may simply not be a permanent solution for all those stacks of paper or dirty laundry.

As you open your home to the spring sun, shed some light on the problematic areas of your living space. For instance, is there a desk that’s constantly cluttered with junk mail? A corner that always seems to be filled with items that don’t have a proper storage location? These areas may not indicate a problem with your cleaning schedule, but rather an organizational issue.

Here’s an example: Let’s say your home office is constantly cluttered with documents, some important, some not. Rearranging the space so that important documents get filed into a specific cabinet could help you prevent papers from piling up each week.

Look around your home and try to identify the most cluttered area of each room, then ask yourself how they become messy. Clothes piling up on the floor may indicate that your clothes hamper needs to be placed closer to the wardrobe so you can easily toss worn items where they belong at the end of the day.

Why spring is the ideal time to try a new room layout

In many homes, early spring is often the only time that heavy pieces of furniture get moved out of the way for vacuuming. While these pieces are shifting around the room as you clean, why not try out a few different arrangements, keeping in mind those problem areas you already identified.

For instance, if one of your chairs is more often used as a place to stack coats and jackets than as a seat, that’s an indication that the chair is not optimally positioned. Removing the chair to another part of the house might provided a needed seat elsewhere while simultaneously encouraging everyone to hang their coats in the appropriate place.

As you rearrange your rooms, you’ll likely notice new opportunities to refresh your space. To make your home interior beautiful, relaxing and organized, call a design consultant from Decorating Den Interiors today.