It’s a new year. Lots of people like to start the new year off by a good cleansing. But how about your house?

You can absolutely cleanse your home with your normal methods – sound, smoke, energy, or whatever you use. But one of the best ways to clear out stale energy and get yourself off to the right start in a new year, is combining cleaning and cleansing.

Spring cleaning might be more common for some people, using the mild weather as a chance to air out the home without losing precious heat or inviting the wet chill. But I prefer to do deep cleaning on my house at the new year instead, saving the spring for the garden.

Before you continue, this whole list may take a few days to get through, depending on how cluttered or disorganized your house is and how much energy you have to spare. Work at your own pace.

Here’s my order list on getting a good cleansing/cleaning done.

1) Keep a notepad and pen nearby these piles or located in a central area (like by the fridge) so you can write down other chores as they come to you.

2) Arrange locations for the following piles. These locations can be piles on your dining room table. It can be cardboard boxes, totes, bags, or whatever. You might need more piles or less.

Homeless stuff – is for things that don’t have a place. Maybe it’s a pair of gloves or a decor piece. The items are things that have no specific location, but you still want to keep them.

Donations – stuff that is in good condition that can be donated to local shelters, community centers, donation bins, etc. If you plan on donating stuff via the internet, like facebook marketplace, keep that stuff in the same area but slightly separate. You know it’ll take time to upload that stuff online.

Trash – stuff that is broken or is simply trash.

Recycling – your recycling program may be different from mine. Check your region’s recycling program and see when/if they do pick ups or where you can drop off your recycling. They may recycle things like old electronics, holiday lights, tires, mattresses, fridges, and so on. Sometimes they’ll charge you, other times they won’t. If that doesn’t work for you, you may be able to list stuff online for people to come and take away. Junk companies may also be available in your region. They come and take away all sorts of things and you usually have to pay by the weight of the stuff.

Special disposal – some items can’t just simply be tossed. They must be recycled or disposed of in a certain way. Paint is famous for this, but so are many chemicals. Many community centers or recycling centers will have special days every few months where they’ll take on those special disposals. The services are almost always free. I’ve even been to some where it was completely no contact and no speaking. I just waited in line for my turn in my car, they took all the stuff out of my trunk, and I drove away.

Shredding – if you shred your sensitive documents, but have inevitably fallen behind on it, this is that pile. If you don’t shred, maybe you should consider it. If not, your community might have shredding available during certain times of the year.

Family and Friends – this is stuff you want to give to certain people. Or return borrowed stuff.

Returns – stuff you need to return to stores but keep leaving the house without grabbing said item.

Fixing box – this is a box of stuff that’s broken in some way and needs fixing. It could be a window frame that needs a new screen, a shirt without a button, a bag without a zipper, etc. It’s stuff that you think “I can fix that!” and you never do.

3) Pick up stray items and put them away. If they don’t have anywhere to go, dump them in the homeless stuff area for now. This includes your kids’ toys, your craft project, your pets’ toys, the weights you keep tripping on, the dishes in the sink, and the laundry that needs to be put away.

You may wish to make special note of things that constantly appear in the same location. If your roommate constantly throws their coat on the stair rail, then maybe put up a coat rack or coat hook nearby to fix that probably. Is it as aesthetic? Probably not, but it won’t be as annoying.

4) Open a window up a bit, if possible. If not possible, turn on a fan. Clean your fan before you turn it on, if it isn’t already clean.

5) Dust and clean the ceiling fixtures, ceiling fans, the tops of doors and windows, and anything above your head. Do this before the floors to avoid cleaning the floors twice.

6) Dust everything else.

7) Sweep every floor. Do a really good job of this. Pull furniture from the wall if possible to sweep under it, break out the vacuum cleaner, get the trim work too. This is BY FAR the most important cleaning step. You can skip EVERYTHING else on this list, but sweeping is a must. You’ll be surprise by how just cleaning the floors of dust will make a massive difference in your spaces, regardless of the amount of magic used.

8) Rearrange furniture as needed. Consider the best layouts for energy flow and what’s the best flow for you. This is also the time to make the bed and generally make the place look as neutral as possible. It doesn’t have to be showroom ready, but it shouldn’t be piled with stuff yet.

9) Wash the floors. I tend to add a bit of magically infused water into my mop water to clean the floors.

10) Wash the windows (yes, really.) I use magically infused water for this too.

11) Wash the laundry. By this point you may have a heap of clothing dirty from cleaning, but you may have also noticed that the curtains need washing, the couch’s throws are furry from pets, and somehow, you’re out of clean socks. Do a few rounds of laundry as needed. You can add some magically infused water into the laundry too.

12) Go through storage areas. Tackle that junk drawer, closet, etc. You might not need to deep dive here or you can slowly go through every box in your basement. The choice is yours. Re-home things into the various places it needs to be in or the piles.

13) Do something with those piles of stuff. Put the stuff in your car to donation, recycle, etc. (You will absolutely do it more readily if it’s in your car). If you don’t have a car, put it next to the door as much as possible, so you can grab it more easily as you leave. Bags, like shopping bags, make this much easier.

For some piles, you’ll need to decide what to do with it all. For the homeless stuff, find a place for it or sit and think about why you don’t have a space for it. For the broken stuff, figure out if you’re really going to fix that thing or if you’re just holding onto it because it’s too expensive or sentimental to throw away. Maybe learn to fix it yourself or put it somewhere in a storage space for when the opportunity to get it fixed is available. Do that with intention. Don’t just shove it in a closet.

14) Take a cleansing shower.

15) Cleanse your home in your preferred method.

Afterwards, I tend to bring home a bouquet of cut organically grown flowers or a new house plant to bring new life into the space. I’ll also cook a good dinner for myself, making sure to clean up entirely afterwards.

Robot cleaning is common these days. If you want to do a cleansing / cleaning, give the robot a break and do it by hand. If you can’t/want, that’s fine. Create a cleansing and uplifting powder and sprinkle it in the corners of each room to have your little robot friend clean up. Alternatively, placing a cleansing sigil on top of your robot can do the same thing.

This may not be entirely easy with roommates or housemates in the way. If all you can do is one room, then that’s better than not doing it at all. If you can’t do a whole room, just clean and cleanse your sleeping space and your working space (like your bed and desk).

You may also want to cleanse your car, but I tend to wait until spring for that one.