Spring cleaning and planning of housing expenses, all at once!

Are you the spring cleaning type? The kind to polish the house from top to bottom every year? Wash curtains, carpets, lampshades, etc.? For my part, if I do not plan a time X to do it, I tend to procrastinate. Here we have set up a “spring cleaning” ritual. We not only rub and polish these little bits of the house that we never take the time to clean, but we also take the opportunity to do a little inspection of the house. We assess what needs to be changed or repaired in order to plan for spending on the "housing" category for the current year or the years to come.

Spring cleaning in 5 steps!

Here are the 5 steps to make spring cleaning a cleaning and financial planning ritual.

Depending on your schedule and the help you can receive from your loved ones, make a room or two a week using ourSpring cleaning guide.

1. Distribute the tasks to be done to family members.
2. Run everyone's tasks together.
3. Identify what needs to be repaired or changed urgently, what will need to be repaired in the medium term and what you want to add or change to your decor.
4. Prioritize repairs, additions and / or changes.
5. Determine the budget required for each modification and set up a savings plan.

See coming to avoid debt or cancellation of other projects

It is always frustrating to have to put an end to a project that is close to our heart like a trip, because we have not foreseen certain expenses related to the house. Nor is it wise to put it all on the credit card and increase our debt ratio. That said, with a little organization, changing appliances, redoing the roof or repairing the stairs that have aged can be expected. Here we have ritualized the famous spring cleaning so that in addition to cleaning everything, we inspect the house, we plan and budget for future expenses.

Before, we tended to spend on unnecessary things, desires, when we should have planned for larger and more expensive repairs. This year, we found that the roof of the shed must be redone by summer and that the insulation of the basement would allow us to make great savings on our electricity bill. I also have desires like everyone else. I would love to change the bathroom ceramics, which I find ugly. I dream of changing my electric mixer to a stand mixer and buying new bedside tables and lamps.

Unfortunately, our bank account has its limits and I will have to make choices. When making the budget I will certainly realize that certain accessories such as bedside tables and lamps as well as the stand mixer will have to wait until next year.

Involve children

Here children participate in the height of what they are able to do. They help us clean up in exchange for a few "task" tokens from theGeneral store. Since last year, 9-year-old Louis has been very curious about our way of doing things and inquires about what needs to be repaired in the house, the priorities we have set for ourselves and the associated costs. He slowly assimilates the notion of need and desire and also the value of things. It’s a great learning situation for him. There is nothing better than learning from real life situations!

Ready for your first spring cleaning ritual and budget forecast?