Symptoms of #spring fever include the urge to exercise, eat light, sleep less and smile more, says Bustle. But the concept of spring #cleaning is so deeply embedded in the culture that it may be one of the earliest warning signs. Give in to the urge and scrub your house #clean of the dirt and grime that have accumulated over the winter. Many cleaning products will be on sale, and you can always look to The Organizing Blog for advice on making specific areas of the home such as the garage, bedrooms, kitchen and garden more #organized and clean. #SpringFever
Tag: organization
Declutter by Category to Make Organization Easy
#Decluttering and #organizing go hand-in-hand, according to organizing expert Marie Kondo. Decluttering by category (clothing, books, papers, komono or miscellany, and sentimental items) allows a person to get an accurate picture of their entire inventory of #stuff, The Creative Cottage says, helping avoid duplication. Once you pare each category down to the essentials and #organize them so you can quickly find anything you need, keeping even a small space such as an apartment or condo #clean will no longer require a lot of effort. Just don’t fall into old habits and buy things that don’t bring you joy — or allow any new possessions you bring in to build up, uncategorized and untidied, over time.
Marie Kondo for Condos and Small Spaces
Marie Kondo’s bestselling how-to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up can offer advice for dwellers of small spaces such as condominiums and apartments. To KonMari a 215-sq.-ft. apartment, one of The Kissters bloggers discarded everything she didn’t need and #decluttered entire categories (i.e., clothing, books) of stuff instead of areas (i.e., hall closet, dresser drawer). Figure out what still “sparks joy” and thank the rest for their contributions, she says. And finally, learn to look at your home as a sanctuary in order to keep things #neat and #tidy long after the initial #purge and #oganization is done.
Show Your Valentine You Care by Decluttering
You and your romantic partner probably have different #organizational styles and skills. And that’s OK — relationships demand compromise. But what can you do to meet in the middle this #Valentine’s Day?
Whether you consider yourself more the #hoarder or the #neat freak in the relationship, you must learn to respect their stuff, their attachments to it, and the ways in which they #sort and #organize it (or don’t).
“It’s rare that my clients have the same thought process, emotions and vision about the things that they own,” professional organizer Tanisha Lyons-Porter told The Washington Post magazine last year.
COVID-19 has only exacerbated these differences. The neat freak may have used their extra lockdown time to scrub down and organize every nook and cranny, while the #clutterer may have stockpiled canned goods and toilet paper.
Assuming that your differences are within the normal spectrum of neat vs. messy and not the indicator of a genuine psychiatric disorder, Valentine’s Day presents the perfect opportunity to join your partner in an effort to get more #organized.
Frustrated with your partner’s clutter? Have an honest discussion about the situation and dedicate a few hours of your time to help them get things sorted. If you are the #clutterer, ask for their help or make an attempt to rein in the #junk in an area you both use.
You can also hire a professional organizer to give you both a crash course in #decluttering — or if getting things #clean and #sanitized is the challenge, hire a maid service. Either service makes a great #Valentine’s Day gift that shows you care.
ClothingDonations.org is here to help! Once you declutter, we’ll pick up any lightly used items you decide not to keep with a free #donation pickup — and leave you to celebrate #Valentine’s Day in a more organized, clean home.
How to Use an ‘Extra’ Hour
Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 7, when most U.S. households turn their clocks back one hour. That means people will be able to take adavantage of an “extra” hour to do whatever they see fit.
In actuality, the hour isn’t “extra” at all, having been borrowed from the clock earlier in the year to provide more daylight in the warmer months. You may feel like like going to bed earlier for a few days, but plan now to make the most of that extra time.
Dreamed up by a New Zealand entomologist and an English golf aficionado who wanted longer daylight hours for their pursuits, DST has long been championed as a way to conserve energy. Its first widespread use came during World War I as a strategy to conserve coal.
Most of the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and France never completely abandoned the practice, although it remains unpopular among dairy farmers. DST has become so popular among retailers and the general public, in fact, that four U.S. states have advanced proposals to make it permanent.
So what will you do with that “extra” hour? The first, most obvious option is to sleep though it in order to adjust to the new schedule faster. If you wake up early instead, you can use the hour to do some of the household winterizing chores you’ve been putting off.
Alternatively, you can take that extra hour and use it to #organize, #decutter and #clean a single spot in your home — a drawer, desktop, shelf, closet or room — and benefit from a newly streamlined space throughout the winter.
If you really want to thrive through the darkest months, consider making this a practice every week. Take one hour — any hour in the week — and use it to organize. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish if you set aside the time and make #organizing a part of your routine.
If you find any articles of #clothing, small appliances or other household items that have some life left in them, bag or box them and take one of your extra minutes to contact ClothingDonations.org for a #contactless #donation pickup.
Time is the most precious commodity we have. Take advantage of your “extra” hour this week, no matter how you choose to spend it.