My friends at Rubbish Works provide some more great tips on Spring Cleaning!
It’s that time of year again….time to spring clean! The early warm weather in St. Louis has posed a difficult decision: take advantage of the weather and outdoor activities or clean the house? If you’re like me, outdoor activities generally trump any cleaning projects; however, I know the cleaning has to be done sometime, right? Here are a few quick tips I use to help the cleaning process go faster to enjoy more time outside.
1.) Focus on eliminating stuff before organization. Don’t even think about how you wish to organize newly clean space. Focus on what you want to get rid of (donating or throwing away). Once you’ve purged the items in the area you are cleaning out, and then come up with an organizing plan of the items you have left.
2.) Start with the garage if it is not already cleared. We’ve worked with a number of professional organizers who utilize cleared space in the garage for staging. The idea is to remove items from inside the home and then create zones in the garage for donate and trash piles. Getting the donate or trash items out of the house will help you resist the urge to include them in the organizing process. Items you are keeping still remain inside the home to be organized after getting rid of items you no longer want.
3.) If you touch it, take action. If you pick up an item, decide what you would like to do with it then. Are you keeping it? Donating it? Trashing it? Don’t put it in pile to decide later.
4.) 6 month rule. If you haven’t use it in 6 months (excluding holiday and seasonal items), it is probably time to remove it from your home.
5.) 5 second decision. I spoke with a woman a few months ago. Her general rule of thumb when clearing space in her home: Within 5 seconds of looking at or touching an item, I should be able to decide why I have it and if I use it. If it takes longer than 5 seconds to decide, it’s time to get rid of it.
6.) Once you finish determining which items you would like to keep, it is time to organize it all for easy, convenient access! Not good at organizing? Look into hiring a professional organizer. Professional organizers offer a wide variety of services from literature, classes as well as onsite organizing.
Time to tackle those spring cleaning projects, and then reward yourself with time out in the nice weather!
Originally published March 19th 2012
P.S. Spring is here! It is never too early to start your home search or get your home ready for the market. This past year was the busiest year we had in home sales in 5 years. This year could be even better! There are large numbers of homes at below-market prices & the Interest rates are hovering around 3.5% !! Contact me for details today!
Leave a Reply