When is Spring Cleaning 2021 and What Does This Mean for My Skin?
If you’re anything like me, the idea of ‘Spring Cleaning’ actually excites you! After a year of accumulating more ‘stuff’, it’s nice to give the home a spring clean and declutter all the unwanted things that are only taking up space. And, let’s face it, there are cupboards and shelves that we know if we stood on tippitoes to have a closer look will be found to be covered in dust and grime! It’s time to start thinking about when is spring cleaning 2021? But spring cleaning can also come with some unpleasant skin side effects that, luckily, you can avoid!
What is Spring Cleaning?
Depending on where you live, winter can feel like a period of hibernation. We spend more time in the home because of the colder and harsher weather outside. Being at home and using our home to its full potential also means that we create more dust and more dirt – as well as having accumulated more things over the past year. While we usually get on with our regular cleaning routines of vacuuming or cleaning regularly used surfaces, there are lots of places in the home that we probably haven’t cleaned since last year! Enter the spring clean!
If you want an official definition of spring cleaning, Cambridge Dictionary defines it as, ‘to clean all of a place, especially your house, very well, including parts you do not often clean.’1
Historically, the idea of a spring clean has come from a variety of cultures that have a cleaning ritual as part of their traditions. Cleaning is linked to Passover in the Jewish culture. The Persian New Year, Nowruz, is also accompanied by cleaning rituals, as well as the Chinese New Year in February, just to name a few.2
In the Western society, a Spring Clean has been adapted to being the time in spring when we simply give our homes a proper cleaning – yes, this means actually moving the furniture and cleaning things that aren’t in your direct line of sight – so that you can start the new season off in a fresh and decluttered way. While there isn’t an official time that you must do your spring cleaning, in general most people do it in March or April, near the start of spring.
How Does Spring Cleaning Affect My Skin?
Even if you are someone that enjoys giving your home a good clean, one thing that doesn’t enjoy it is your skin. Doing an in-depth clean can often lead to dry, itchy, irritated and inflamed skin and can cause eczema or psoriasis flare-ups for many reasons:
- Increased use of harsh cleaning products
- More handwashing
- Increased contact with dust, dirt and grime
- More friction
- Wearing cleaning gloves for extended periods of time
For all these reasons, it’s even more important than ever to take good care of the skin on your hands to prevent it from being damaged during your spring clean this year. Avoid irritating your skin so that your clean home doesn’t have to end up with damaged skin.
One simple way to protect your skin is by applying Gloves In A Bottle Shielding Lotion. The shielding lotion will protect your skin from external irritants like the dust and grime, as well as water and soap when washing your hands. It will also protect the top layer of skin from the increased friction as well as the cleaning products that you are in contact with. Even wearing gloves can irritate your skin – from rubbing, making your hands sweat, the material that the gloves are made of – so the shielding lotion will help to keep your skin’s moisture and hydration locked inside while keeping all the nasties out.
You can also think about what products you are using and choose more gentler products that still get the job done but aren’t as damaging to your skin.
Clean Home, Happy Hands
By prioritizing the health of your skin, you’ll have your clean home as proof of your hard work without damaged skin. So the next time you ask yourself ‘When is Spring Cleaning 2021?’, your hands won’t be quivering with dread because Gloves In A Bottle will be right there to keep them protected.
1 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/spring-clean