The minute the sun peeps out and warms up, we think of spring cleaning. Even untidy people can often look forward to flinging open the windows to the crisp spring sunshine and dumping out some junk prior to decorating!

Color schemes have changed drastically in the year and many homes look 'dated'. If you tackle the bathroom first, you will have a chance to see if you like the 'new trendy look'.

If you are planning a garage sale,  this is a great way to  prepare for the sale. We all know that excess 'stuff' inevitably gets hoarded in the back of cupboards, but it can be daunting to think of sorting out the whole home all at once. Tackling the bathroom can 'break you in' to that messy business  of decorating again!

This is a small room and to some extent it is impersonal. Many of the toiletries that you stashed  can be bought again at any pharmacy. This makes a bathroom easier to clean out than a bedroom - it can take ages  deliberating over every piece of clothing you ever owned.

Look around for every bottle and container you can find, including emptying  out all the drawers, medicine cabinet and cupboards. Put everything  into a box, and put the box outside the bathroom door. Leave the box for now. Grab  a large garbage bag for expired or empty bottles and put that in the box, too.

Get rid of any dust or cobwebs that may be attached  to your soon-to-be  painted walls. It will just take a few minutes to go into the corners and over the ceiling  to remove cobwebs and dust.

Wash thoroughly all vents and fans, and take down and wash or dry clean all draperies, shower curtains, etc. Scrub the bath, shower and toilet, inside and out.

Launder bathroom rugs and  matching towels. Wash out all cabinets, cupboards and drawers, including the medicine cabinet. Wash the swept floor. That took 20 minutes. (HA!)

It is very inexpensive to change the color scheme of your bathroom. To finish up with a bathroom that looks bang up to the minute,  you need to clear absolutely everything out of the bathroom, ready to decorate. This means that now you can paint the insides of your bathroom cupboards and drawers so that they will look completely clean and new.

White and neutrals together is the color scheme of  the moment. A bathroom with walls newly painted in white  will instantly look more spacious and  more modern.      Defining detail can be picked out with  beige or gray, whichever you choose. Turn a fan on in the bathroom, to help the paint dry quickly.

Do not skip painting the ceiling, even if you think it will be okay. If you leave it, it will really look stale compared to the new white paint. Before you paint the walls, scrub everything that is scrubbable. In a bathroom that probably means absolutely everything.

Use sealant cleaner to remove the grubby look of old sealant. If it is really bad, scrape it off and  replace it when you will know that you will have 24 hours in which to let it dry.

While the sealant and paintwork is drying,  go through everything in your box of bathroom 'stuff' that you emptied from the cabinets. Throw out (or combine) duplicates,  trash out of date prescriptions and expired vitamin pills. Do you 'bulk buy' the large sizes of bathroom goods? If you need extra space for large items in your bathroom, hang a shelf high above  the bathroom door, on the inside of the bathroom.

The new trend for bathrooms is simplicity of design and color, and for the ambience to suggest that it is a 'haven'. This means that after the functional morning rush, when evening comes, you  can add soft music and a candle for  the bathroom to be turned into a haven.

Do you have room near the bath tub for a small table on which to rest a magazine  or a glass of wine? This can further the haven theme, but keep other clutter  to a minimum.

It is tempting with all this whiteness to add a brightly colored bathroom mat, but resist! The trend is for silver gray mats and towels, or a medium  beige color scheme. If you really must have a color, then a very pale fresh apple green is acceptable. If your floor is dark you can pick white towels and bath mats.

For maximum cheapest effect,  splash out (no pun intended!) on  a modern faucet - and enjoy.

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