With the #pandemic restricting social gatherings and the severe winter weather, many people have been spending a lot of time indoors — and it probably shows. To renew your space, give it a thorough cleaning. Good Housekeeping offers an “Ultimate Guide to Spring Cleaning” that can help with almost any household cleaning task, and its best suggestion is to go room by room. Start by refreshing a single, heavy-use room such as the living room or kitchen, and dust, wash, wipe and organize everything in it.
Author: Jordank
Editorial Coordinator
Clean Top-to-Bottom for Best Results
Now that you’ve gotten some of your household #clutter out of the way, it’s time to start a spring deep #cleaning in earnest. Pick a room and go top-to-bottom to ensure you get every surface, says One Good Thing. Dust the cobwebs from the ceiling, clean the fan blades, wipe down the walls and switchplates, wash the windows, dust the baseboards and finally, sweep, mop and/or vacuum the floors. Not only will the room sparkle when you’re done, it will be nearly free of dirt and allergens just in time for spring.
Declutter Before Deep-Cleaning
The snows of February are melting, and warmer weather is on the way. But before you can enjoy the outdoors in your shirtsleeves again, make time in your schedule to tackle the spring cleaning. To get started on a deep clean, sort out anything that isn’t going to be useful next winter, such as the sweaters nobody wore, the blankets that don’t match and the holiday decorations you didn’t put up. Bag them and schedule a free #donation #pickup from ClothingDonations.org so that a new home can enjoy them next winter.
The Difference Between Decluttering and Storage
#Decluttering isn’t easy. Even when you find the time to do it and prepare yourself to keep, donate or trash all of the clothes that don’t fit, tchotchkes and other #junk, you can quickly get bogged down in the decision-making.
Many of your possessions will carry memories that make you linger over the decision or leave it for another day. After a few of these quandaries, you may just throw in the towel, shove a bunch of random items in a box and “store” it out of sight.
That is not decluttering — nor is it storage. It’s simply putting off the inevitable.
Storage is for things you use. You may use such things infrequently but regularly, like holiday decorations. You can keep these things from adding to #clutter by sorting it into dedicated, labeled bins and putting the bins in a predictable out-of-the way location.
You also have things you use frequently that need to be stored. Think of your kitchen cabinets and closets; they already hold any number of items that you’ll usse this week, maybe multiple times.
When you have #stuff that doesn’t have a “home,” however (meaning its own drawer, shelf, bin, box or display), you have #clutter. And as a result, any serious decluttering is going to involve a lot of #organizing.
So your goal in decluttering is really twofold: to weed out anything that you don’t use, and to make sure that anything you do use has a place. This is a tall order, the Organizing Blog is well aware.
Start small with a single closet, kitchen cabinet or desk drawer. Figure out what kinds of things should “live” there, and separate out anything that’s broken, disused or just in the wrong place. You can toss, donate, and relocate or store these items, respectively.
Leave only what you know you use frequently in immediate-access locations — and if you don’t use something frequently in its current location, find a place where it can stay until you need it. Otherwise, it will just get in the way.
Once you’ve organized and/or stored the #stuff you use, contact ClothingDonations.org for a free, contactless #donation #pickup if — er, when — you want to get rid of the lightly used clothing and household items you don’t. We’ll help find them new homes, and help veterans at the same time.
Donation Pickups Continue
ClothingDonations.org had to temporarily suspend #donation #pickups early in the #pandemic, but we’re back and better than ever! You can still donate your extra clothing, baby items, small appliances, kitchenware, furniture and electronics from the comfort and safety of your home. Just schedule a contactless pickup online and place the boxed and bagged items in the designated location that morning. A masked driver will collect your extra stuff and leave a receipt for your records.