The sun is out (for now) and the sky is blue, and it’s highlighted the many cobwebs and dusty areas of my house. Spring cleaning sounds old school, but it does actually make sense. After doing the rooms (top to bottom, left to right-if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it properly!) I like to have a proper bathroom sort out-toiletries and make-up need a good clean and tidy up too!
This takes a good hour or so, with some baby wipes, (for cleaning drippy bottles) at least one bin bag, (for lotions and potions that don’t make the cut) a notebook and pen so I can write down any products that I’m running low on. It works better if you can offload any small children while you’re doing your spring clean, or they’ll try to ‘help’/drink the shower gel, and it just won’t work.
I keep my toiletries and cosmetics in plastic baskets on shelves (not attractive, but functional). I do one basket at a time, and work top to bottom, left to right. Like products are stored with like (dental stuff, make-up, soaps/shower gels, moisturisers, baby toiletries, hair stuff-they all get separate baskets)-if you don’t have a system like this, it might take you a bit longer (and will be harder to see if you need to stock up on anything). Each basket gets emptied onto the floor, wiped or washed clean, and left to dry and air on the window sill. I check all of the products and decide if I like them, still use them, roughly how long they’ve been open (yes! make-up and toiletries have a shelf life too-look for a number in a circle, often on the bottom of the tub they’re in-a 6 means they should be disposed of six months after you first opened them) and keep or chuck accordingly. Anything being kept is cleaned thoroughly and put back in the clean dry basket. When I’m all done, I have a quick look and see if I’m short of anything (I like to have at least a couple of bottles/packs of shampoo, razors, soaps and moisturiser in reserve) and make a quick note on my shopping list. The basket goes back to its shelf, and I move on to the next one.
Makeup is slightly different-I like to move from using my winter foundation (latest favourite is Barbara Daly’s moisture foundation) to something with a bit more glow (I have just bought some Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation, and have very high hopes for it!) so will swap them over in my basket. Benefit Dandelion blusher goes out, and Posietint cheek stain comes in instead, and neutral nail colours make way for something brighter.
It’s odd, but I genuinely feel lighter and happier once the spring clean is done, and I’m ready to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts
minimumthebare 