Simplify Your Spring Cleaning

Tips from the Marie Kondo of Traverse City

By Brighid Driscoll | March 19, 2022

Michiganders, pat yourselves on the back. We’re emerging from another long winter, and our prize is on the horizon. More sunny days are beginning to crop up on the forecast; thawed earth squishes under muddy boots; and the icicles melting off gutters provide a steady beat to the changing time. Spring is near.

So is spring cleaning, a tradition that people love and hate in equal measure. Northern Express turned to Jess Kellogg, a professional organizer in Traverse City, for guidance when it comes to refreshing our homes for the spring. Kellogg is the owner of Organize You by Jess, a service she’s created to help others in the way that she’s helped herself.

“My husband and I have moved a few times over the years, and I’ve always been the one to organize our home,” Kellogg explains. “I’ve been a pretty organized person my whole life, but [after] we had our son was really when I wanted to focus on building a system that would be easy to maintain.”

The Traverse City local wanted to spend as much time as possible enjoying her family and free time, and she knew that if she could organize her home in an intuitive way, she could drastically cut down on the dreaded end-of-week scramble to get everything cleaned up in one day. “When my home is organized, I feel like my mind is organized. I don’t want to feel cluttered in either,” Kellogg says.

Where to Begin
The best place to start is where there is excess. Our possessions, Kellogg says, are places where we store a lot of emotions. We hold on to a lot of items out of guilt or familiarity without justifying their use or the space they take up.

“A lot of it comes down to emotional attachment or guilt,” she says. “Someone gives you a gift, and you feel like it’s wrong to get rid of it. But when you accumulate all of this stuff, it turns into a daily battle of dealing with it. The best thing to do is to pare down to what you truly love and be totally fine with letting the rest go.”

Kellogg’s roadmap to navigating your spring cleaning involves asking yourself a few questions:
- Do I need it? I’m not very attached to my hand mixer, but I do use it.
- Do I like it? This is where people have a hard time because this is where emotions come in, but try to be realistic with yourself.
- Is it sentimental? Some things are meant to stay in your family.

Start Small
When getting started, it may be tempting to begin where people spend the most time: in the living room or kitchen. However, Kellogg says that the first thing people should do is tackle something small.

“You want to start with something you can have success with right away. Maybe it’s your utensil drawer or junk drawer in the kitchen. Take every single thing out, and as you’re putting them back, ask yourself those core questions we talked about earlier and see how much you can get rid of.”

Getting rid of low-stakes, smaller items, makes it easier to get rid of bigger items later on.

Organization tools that help:
- Compartmentalized storage
- Expand-a-drawer organizers

The Entryway
Envision what the entrance to your home looks like on any given day. Maybe you’re seeing lots of salt crusted shoes or old mail. Maybe you’re seeing piles of boots and coats and backpacks. Whatever you find, clear it up and out.

“[Entryways] get so dirty from the winter and tracking in dirt and snow,” Kellogg says. “I like to take everything out and deep clean it; put away all of our heavy coats, boots, mittens, and other winter things; and swap out for our spring stuff. The entryway is the first thing you see when you get home, so you don’t want to be bombarded with clutter.”

Organization tools that help:
- Entry benches or tables with storage space
- Shoe racks
- Coat hooks

The Closet
In her organizing experience, Kellogg has found that clothes are some of the worst culprits for clutter accumulation. People hold on to clothing that no longer fits out of nostalgia or desire to fit into them again. In reality, most people wear less than half of what they have in their wardrobe. Our emotional ties to clothing are particularly strong because of their proximity to what our self-image is…or once was.

But these pieces of clothing that we don’t acknowledge most of the time take up physical and emotional real estate that they aren’t worth. “Keep your mind in the here and now,” Kellogg advises. “Wear what fits now and get rid of the rest.”

Organization tools that help:
- Thoughtful use of hanging space, shelf space, and/or dresser space
- Group similar items together
- Organize clothes by color, use, or fabric type
- Transfer seasonal attire to another space or a storage box

The Pantry
Pantries, kitchen shelves, and cabinets can quickly become overstuffed. While looking for a box of spaghetti, you find you have three that are already opened and half empty, or when baking you discover you have multiples of the same spice.

“People have stuff they end up not using in their kitchens,” Kellogg says. “Shopping for groceries is different from shopping for something like clothes. It can be easy to get home, throw everything into the pantry, and be done with it. Some of that stuff ends up expiring and just taking up space. Other times people end up with several of the same thing.”

To avoid this, Kellogg says to take inventory after making up your weekly grocery list. Take your list with you to your pantry and cabinets and cross off what you already have. You might be surprised how much your list shortens.

Organization tools that help:
- Labeled jars and baskets
- Dedicating shelves to specific types of items
- Clear storage racks or boxes

The Future
Whatever your spring cleaning looks like, keep a few things in mind to stay clutter-free for the rest of the year.

“The biggest thing is changing your mindset when you’re at the store,” Kellogg says. “Just because something is on sale and it’s pretty doesn’t mean you have to buy it. If a family member gives you something you don’t love, you don’t have to keep it. Really ask yourself where you have a place for something before you bring it into your home. It saves you so much time in the long run and allows you to enjoy what you really love.”

Find Jess Kellogg at organizeyoubyjess.com and organizeyoubyjess@gmail.com.