Whether you have a big family to help or are flying solo, Spring cleaning presents a number of hurdles for people with chronic illnesses. Depending on your specific conditions, symptoms, and types of flare-ups, these Marie Kondo style sessions can be adjusted, augmented and otherwise adapted to fit your needs. The important thing is to recognize what you’re capable of if you’re trying to get your space clean and organized. With these tips, we hope it’s more than you think!

Spring Cleaning Planning is Hard Work

So often as a society we forget just how much mental labor and time goes into the planning stage. Simply keeping a running list of chores, like shopping lists, when the car needs to get serviced and how often A/C filters have to be replaced is a ton of work. Planning, orchestrating or delegating for Spring cleaning is no different. Build this into your plan as a set task to be completed at the beginning, and give it the respect it deserves.

This can also help prevent burn out before you’ve even begun!

Bring on the Entertainment Factor

This one is especially useful for anyone with chronic pain, as the distraction can be helpful to get your mind off the physical discomfort. Whether you’re on the phone with family or friends, listening to music or a podcast or watching an old favorite movie out of the corner of your eye, there are plenty of options.

We’d stay away from Cinderella though, you might end up entirely too envious of her animated chore-doing mice.

Schedule Breaks (And Actually Take Them!)

Yes, you may be on a roll with the vacuuming, and if this were a normal cleaning session we’d say working with your spurts of energy is a great idea. If you’re really trying to do a bigger session though, try not to just go until you’re exhausted. Figure out the work/break split that works for you and try to stick to it.

This will hopefully help you avoid the sudden energy crash.

Enlist (High-Tech) Spring Cleaning Help

Now is definitely not the time to turn your nose up at the newest gadgets if they’re useful to you. From Roombas to claw hand sticks to fancy cleaning spray that lets you scrub less, there are plenty of options out there to make your Spring cleaning just a little bit easier!

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Photo by Elena Ferrer on Unsplash