Spring break can be a time to go on vacation, enjoy the spring air (or winter air, it’s Nebraska), catch up on favorite Netflix shows and sleep, or get hours in at work to make extra cash. It’s the perfect  little taste of no school, that gets students through the rest of the year.  

While most students are doing one of these things it’s important to remember the popular phrase, “spring cleaning.” This might sound like another groaning chore list. However this list is designed towards the reward of coming back to school feeling organized with the motivation to finish the school year strong.

Car

While not all high schoolers have the freedom of taking themselves to and from places, or the responsibility, it’s important to keep your ride clean. Start off by taking all the trash out, and then clothes out. If your car is anything like mine, there’s a whole closet in there. Then vacuum it. There’s vacuuming units specified for cars at the gas station that cost about 25 cents.

After the inside of the car looks clean put a favorite scent of air fresheners as a reminder for the accomplishment completed.

Room

There is a certain strategy to cleaning your room and keeping it clean. First start off with making your bed. Once you’ve done this the room automatically looks better.

Then go around the room with a trash bag at hand, and pick up all the trash visible. Continue on going around in a circle around the room, creating a pile for dirty and clean clothes. Then don’t just leave them there, and put them in the appropriate places.

Now that floor is visible consider to vacuum it. This puts a great finishing touch on the final product.

After all that hard work, if there is still any motivation, organize drawers, desks, and the closet.

Backpack

Carrying a backpack around can be a rigorous task. So let’s make the load a little lighter. Clean out all folders and take out the things that there is no need for. Lightening up folders can make a huge difference. Make sure there is no paper left behind and that it each has its own folder to be inside of. Throw away all trash. Come Monday when it’s time to haul over the backpack and get on the way to school, the lightness of the backpack will add some positivity to the morning.

Phone

Let the “no storage available” notification be no more. Take the time to delete old messages, unnecessary pictures and any apps that are no use any more. This can be a tough one, holding on to a blurry photo that you took in the summer of 2015, but it’s time to move on. I’m sure there will be more to come.  

I would like to thank anyone who was willing to get up from their couch or go away from their activities to follow this list. I would also like to thank my mom for preparing me for this moment to give others advice to do the thing she has been begging for me to do for weeks.