I love the change of seasons because it’s an opportunity for a fresh start. With morning temperatures dropping slightly, I’ve been inspired to tackle a few fall cleaning projects. I consider cleaning a self-care ritual. Having a refreshed, organized home always boosts my mood and leaves me feeling happier. Of course, as a mother, my house is never completely clean all the time but tackling little projects here and there helps to keep it manageable.

Here are the fall cleaning projects I’ve tackled so far:

Closet Cleaning

I clean out my closet and drawers regularly and I still manage to come up with bags of clothes to discard and donate. I got into the habit of doing this out of survival when I lived in tiny NYC apartments with very little storage space. To this day, I still clean out the closet every season. Not only did I clean out the clothes but I added fresh cedar hangers to every closet to prevent our clothes from being destroyed by moths. There isn’t a better feeling than having all your laundry washed, a closet filled with clothes you actually wear, and everything neatly in it’s place.

Sock Drawer

Just throw out the socks without a matching pair. They’re not coming back.

Dishwasher + Washing Machine

I noticed a significant amount of grime and odor coming from my dishwasher this past week. There’s an easy trick for getting rid of this. Place a dishwasher-safe measuring cup with 1 cup of water on the top rack of your dishwasher and run on the hottest setting. No need for the heated dry setting. Your dishwasher will be brand new.

Do something similar for your washing machine. I have a top loader and I add 2 cups to the washing machine, including the middle cup, and run it on the hottest setting without any clothes in it. It’s a super deep clean without having to do any scrubbing.

Hood Range

I cook a lot on my stove top and the filter in the hood can get really gross. I’ve tried cleaning it numerous times but the grease is baked in. I ordered replacement filters on Amazon for $15 and gave the whole hood a good wipe-down. No more cleaning up dripping grease.

Pantry + Refrigerator

A simple fall cleaning project can include giving your pantry a little detox. Throw out the near empty bags, group similar items together, and have proper storage containers and clips to keep things fresh.

Toss the rotting and expired food from the refrigerator and give it a wipe down.

Mudroom

Do you have a catch-all room in your house where the dirty beach towels get thrown, the amazon boxes pile up, and any other annoying tasks that you don’t want to deal with at the moment get stored? We have a small mudroom that collects anything and everything. I took some time to clean it up you can actually walk through it now. Feels so good.