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HANNIBAL, MO. -- The calendar still says winter but your internal clock may be screaming “SPRING!!” (By the way, remember to spring forward your clocks this weekend!)   ;)

This is the time of year industrious people start to think about spring cleaning. Other folks prefer to bury their heads in the mounds of stuff that has accumulated over the winter. For most of us, it's a probably a bit of both—you'd like things to be clean, but you don't have the time or energy to make it happen. What you need is a magic wand.

“Spring cleaning is just a good feeling,”  Debbie White, owner of White Glove Maid Service in Hannibal, said. “You feel renewed and refreshed. You even seem to breathe easier.”

The need to spring clean grips me like a compulsion around this time of year. That feeling of looking into a room that positively beams back at you makes me giddy. I'll go-go-go until I completely run out of gas, but by golly it's a feeling of accomplishment. It's honest work with an honest reward.

Spring cleaning can also feel like an insurmountable chore, a job that cannot be finished, a task too daunting to even attempt. If you fall into that category, White suggests tackling the project a room at a time.

“Room by room is the best way to do it,” White told me. That way, when you walk into that room and it sparkles, you have instant gratification and hopefully the motivation to move on to the next room.

White suggests starting at the outside of a room and working your way left around a circle until you get to the center of the room. With a starting and ending point, it breaks down the task even more, and you can reorganize the room as you clean.

While spring cleaning has its rewards, don't guilt yourself if it's not your thing. This rite of spring was more necessary when houses were heated by coal and cooled by the breeze. Still there are psychological bonuses to a clean and organized home—and it doesn't hurt to get rid of all those dust mites, dead skin cells and allergens that accumulate over time.

I've searched the web for you and found the clearinghouse of all websites when it comes to spring cleaning. Click here to take a look. It is a complete checklist of chores—enough to keep you busy this spring, and into next winter.

Take care ~Sarah D.