Springtime means sunshine, outdoor adventures and spring cleaning! When it comes to spring cleaning, the best advice we can give is to start early and go at a pace that works for you and your lifestyle.

In this blog post, we offer additional tips for spring cleaning with meaning while paying special attention to decluttering.

1. Enlist Your Team and Have Your Tools in Place

While decluttering may be a solo project for some, others find that enlisting the help of children (and even grandchildren) makes it easier for them to achieve their decluttering goals; You may even consider bringing in a professional organizer to provide an expert hand in this ambitious endeavor. With a small team, you can now delegate tasks and work through decluttering faster than if you were on your own. You’ll be amazed at how quickly progress can be made when you have others working alongside you.

Additionally, before starting, be sure you have everything you’ll need to get organized. Tools that will come in handy include garbage bags, empty boxes, containers, labels, post-it notes and tape.

2. Have a Game Plan

It’s best to have a strategy before you begin decluttering. What is the timeline for completion? Which room will you start with? If you’re decluttering with friends or family, who will be responsible for what tasks? How will you organize items that you want to keep or do away with? The more you’re able to iron out these details beforehand, the better equipped you’ll be to start organizing with purpose. Plans work best when they are written down, and the satisfaction you’ll get as you check items off your list is priceless!

3. Color Coding Is Your Friend

One of the most popular spring cleaning tips is to use multi-colored sticky notes or stickers to guide your decluttering. Our professional organizing partners typically advise people to sort their items into four categories: Keep, Sell, Donate and Throw Away. Each category should be denoted with its own color.

The key to this tip is that, once an item has been organized into one of the four categories specified, it should stay there. This means an added level of thoughtfulness is required before making a final decision on each item.

4. Start With Hazards and Items You Definitely Don’t Want

As you begin decluttering, there are several items in your home that will immediately stand out as ones you no longer want or have use for. These are the items that will make this project that much easier for you. Damaged golf clubs, old prescription glasses, decades-old documents and electrical cords whose purpose you’ve long-since forgotten — these are prime candidates for the immediate Throw Away pile. Once you’ve gotten those items out of the way, you can move onto more thoughtful organizing of what remains.

Spring cleaning is also the perfect time to re-evaluate your home’s safety. Be extra vigilant for items that can cause someone to fall and throw them away if they are no longer necessary. For items that present a hazard, but are essential to the home, consider ways in which you can make them safer. For example, taping down loose electrical cords so that they remain in place.

5. Have Some Fun With It!

There’s no need to sit in silence while you’re decluttering. Whether playing your favorite tunes, holding a competition to see who can complete their checklist the fastest, ordering delivery from your favorite restaurant or something else, there are countless ways to have fun while decluttering.

Bonus Tip: Take Pictures of Cherished Items That Don’t Make the Cut

Letting go will be easy for most of your possessions, but difficult for others. More than likely, you’ll forget about the items you give away almost immediately. But for the items that you’re sure you’ll miss — knick-knacks, souvenirs and the like — we’ve found that taking pictures helps to ease the difficulty of parting with them. While you may no longer have use for these items, it helps to be able to refer back to pictures of them every now and then.