The weather is gorgeous here today and my own bedroom is a mess and I’ve got spring cleaning and Mrs. Meyer’s on the brain (for the last day!) and so I took three minutes to pretty it up this afternoon.
I’ve found that the best place to start spring cleaning—especially when my house is in desperate need of a good tidying up—is in the bedroom. It’s easy to clean, but the payback is huge.
This is what my nightstand usually looks like:
And this is what it looks like after a quick tidy:
A few small splurges make a big difference in how this little room feels:
1. Fresh flowers. A sprig of something fresh gives the room a totally different feel. Cut something from the yard, or get a cheery $4 bouquet from Trader Joe’s. You can see I have literally two flowers in that little jar. It’s a tiny thing, but it makes a big difference.
2. A fragrant candle. My favorites are the soy candles from Grove Collaborative, in the orange thyme and cardamom scent.
3. A good book. You can even get it from the library—just put it by your bedside to entice you to get to bed on time!
These little things don’t cost much, but they make the room feel restful and inviting.
Bonus: the enjoyment I get out of my sparkly clean bedroom motivates me to tackle the cleaning in the rest of the house.
26 comments
I couldn’t agree more. Never underestimate the power of a beautiful vase of flowers. They make you smile when you walk in the room and as they bloom they smell lovey. For a book worm like me, the idea of a good book is just heavenly. Happy spring cleaning to you!
Flowers – check. Candle – check (although both the hubby and I are fans of lavender). Good book – check, check, check! 🙂 Yesterday it was so nice here, I had our bedroom windows open and there is nothing quite like the warm sun streaming in, a soft breeze coming through the open windows, and the smell of the fresh outdoors to clear out a winter of being closed up. Love it!
Check, check, check at my house too! There’s rarely just one 🙂
SO excited to read your ebooklet. Sharing with my readers. Hurray for you!!!
Yay! Thanks Sarah!
A thorough cleaning of the bedroom was my project when the DDH was out of town last weekend, and I bought a pretty live flower to put on top of the wardrobe as a reward. It makes me so happy to lie in bed and look at that silly flower!
Yay! for the e-booklet, too. ^_^
Our bedroom is usual the last to get cleaned. so sad. Thanks for the reminder that our place of retreat is an important one.
I love candles. I’ve never heard of Trapp candles before. The box is darling and the candle looks pretty and looks like it would be a great one! I like to light candles when I’m cleaning.
I like having my bedroom tidy and relaxing. It’s the one room that doesn’t have to have any of the kids things strewn through it! 🙂
Love fresh flowers too.
Thanks Anne. This is a timely e-gift. I need some motivation.
This morning I looked around and said to my kids,
“For heavens sake! Where’s the maid?”
They laughed and squealed: “YOU’RE THE MAID! Mommy!”
Oh yea. Right.
Darn.
Yup, I hear this 🙂
I can’t find the free e-book. May you please help me. Thank-you!
The link to the ebooklet is in the subscriber feed.
If you subscribe in RSS reader, look at the very bottom of the post. There will be a link there. If you subscribe by email, it’s at the bottom of the email.
If you subscribed today, you’ll be able to view the ebook in the RSS feed immediately, but won’t be able to see it in the email feed until you receive your first email update.
I’ll put up a post tomorrow with screenshots just to make it easy for everyone!
Thanks for that. I look forward to reading it. It’s greatly appreciated!
I love fresh flowers in the house! What a great idea…esp the part about starting in the bedroom…I couldn’t agree more that it feels like a peaceful corner of life when it’s all said and done. Thanks for the motivation today! 😉
Just wanted to say thank you for the free e-book on spring cleaning. I really do enjoy your blog. Keep up the good work!
You’re very welcome; I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading!
Yay! Can’t wait to download thanks for sharing!
Hi! Thank you for the inspiration to start spring cleaning, a necessary evil but once it’s done you can get on with life 😉
I wanted to make a small note regarding your suggestion to mop floors by mixing castile soap and vinegar by sending you a link to the Dr.Bronner website. http://lisa.drbronner.com/?p=292 (I’m in no way affiliated w/them just a friendly reader of yours and a fan of their products)
she explains that it’s actually not beneficial to mix them as they cancel each other out but gives some input on how to use them to clean floors.
I just used the peppermint castile soap on my floors and they are smelling glorious!
Thanks again for your ebook, a girl needs all the help she can get!
Thanks, Vanesa–I appreciate that link straight from the source. And I’ve never tried the peppermint scent but it sounds fabulous!
I was just reading another blog post about spring cleaning and feeling very overwhelmed by the whole thing. With two small children and a husband who is always at work I feel like I am already so overwhelmed by the day to day cleaning. Thank you for the reminder that spring cleaning does not have to be so overwhelming and can start somewhere simple! I am feeling much more confident about spring cleaning.
I enjoyed looking at the “before and after” pics of your spring cleaning efforts in the bedroom. I tried reading all of the book titles, but did get one that looked good and I already have it on hold at the local library (The Girl Who Wrote in Silk). Anyway, I do have a question for you and all the readers here. Do you have a special place where you keep a pile of books to read, and a separate place for journals and journal writing, etc.? I seem to have little piles of books all over the place in my tiny apartment, but if I put them away I’ll forget about them. Any suggestions?
My suggestion is if it’s working for you, don’t sweat it. Seriously. 🙂
Thank you 🙂
I love fresh flowers!
I don’t see the Grove candles on the website anymore – am I missing them somewhere?
I’m not seeing them either now. It’s possible we sold them out! Definitely ask customer service in the little pop-up chat box. They will know what’s going on.