Ep 7: Organizing Your Home and Spring Cleaning

Hi there, friends, and happy May day to you all. Here we are on another gorgeous spring day in sunny South Jersey and I don’t know about you, but the pollen is KICKING my keester! Sniffling and snuffling and sneezing, with this constant tickle in my throat... I feel like a walking Dayquil commercial… and it doesn’t help, feeling all self-conscious due to COVID, ya can’t even make sick jokes anymore!Walking through my kitchen to grab yet another Kleenex and there’s just this layer of green pollen powder on my countertops and all over the furniture. My car is coated in it. My dogs go outside and come back in with pollen on their noses and paws. It’s enough to drive a person crazy! As if Covid hasn’t already successfully driven us to madness?It almost makes me want to unleash a firehose on any and all surfaces within a two mile radius of the house! But in order to adequately remove the pollen and dust and dander and dog hair from every square inch of my home, I first have to get over this nagging sense of overwhelm that seems to accompany even the smallest of tasks…. Ironically, spring cleaning actually MAKES a mess, doesn’t it?! I mean, taking off and laundering the slip covers, dusting off the blinds, dry-cleaning the draperies, rolling up the area rugs and dragging them outside to beat the dust out and disinfect in the sun…. Mopping the floors, sweeping the cobwebs off the porch, bleaching the tile grout and purging the closets… like do I even NEED a gym membership? I’m exhausted just talking about it.Spring Cleaning… some people live for it. Others detest it. But as with most things in life that we prefer to avoid, there remains good reason to do it anyway. Not only does it help with the godforsaken allergies, cleaning and organizing is also proven to help with our mental and emotional health. But more on that later. For NOW, I’ve got THE expert here in the studio with me today to tell you and me and everyone listening just HOW to do it!Jenna Tickner is here with us today… and she is a professional organizer and vacation home investor and trust me when I tell you, she is the QUEEN of CLEAN! She has been creating home efficiency systems and effective family command centers for years now with her proven organizational methods. I personally have hired Jenna to help me organize and systematize MY home and she is my go-to resource when I have buyers and sellers who need help organizing their homes. So please join me in welcoming my lifelong friend and guest, Jenna Tickner! Welcome Jenna!So we’re talking about spring cleaning and organizing today…. First, let’s get your take on all this before we launch into the listeners’ questions.Tell me, Jenna, HOW… perhaps more importantly WHY did you get into this business and what would you say ignited your passion for organizing?I think getting into the business of organizing was the result of the perfect storm: my type A personality, mixed with my years of being a math teacher, and then throw in my years of being a stay-at-home mom.  As a kid AND a teacher, I always LOVED the start of the school year...fresh new school supplies, organizing my folders, labelling the notebooks - some people know what I’m talking about (and I’m sure many cringe at the thought of this!).  Well, when I stopped working to raise our children, I had a really hard time just being home all day with two babies - yes, I know my new “job” came with a huge responsibility, but I am a busybody who needs to be actively checking off tasks!  When the kids were napping, I’d organize the pantry, linen closet, kitchen cabinets...you remember that movie “Sleeping with the Enemy” with Julia Roberts?  The one where she lived with her crazy husband...that scene where she opens the kitchen cabinet and knows he was there because all of the cans were facing the “right” way?  Well, my husband would come home from work each day to find that I’d organized yet another space in our house!  I think the act of organizing spaces in our home became my way of keeping myself sane amongst the chaos that we all know comes along with the baby phase of parenting.  Then, when the kids were toddlers and we entered the “playdate” phase, I’d organize my friends’ playrooms and pantries while the kids played.  So I started with friends and then the word spread!  So we all know people who love to spring clean… and of course, we know plenty of people who hate it. What does it even mean when we say “spring cleaning?” I know some friends and family members of mine look forward to and LOVE to spring clean their homes. So let’s talk about what, exactly, spring cleaning is and where that expression even came from.I think spring cleaning just goes hand in hand with coming out of “hibernation” all winter.  We start shedding the hats, coats, and mittens.  We might even have a dedicated closet for “off-season” clothes and coats.  We open our ...