Get A Head Start On Your Spring Cleaning Chores With These Five Steps
1. Tackle your papers
Organizing your paperwork is a huge undertaking and a very important one when it comes to getting on top of your household clutter. The best way to get organized? Sort, purge, and file. Toss anything that’s more than seven years old as well as anything that can be found online (hello, appliance manuals!). Once you’ve purged, meticulously file what’s remaining. Pick up a standing filing cabinet, a box of hanging file folders, a box of regular file folders, and a permanent marker. Then, sort by creating categories that start big (bills, insurance, travel, et cetera) and get smaller (credit card, year, family member), putting file folders within their larger-category hanging file folders and labelling everything.
2. Make a “magic number”
How many empty yogurt containers do you need? What about black t-shirts or dark skinny jeans? The right answer: fewer than you think! Try creating a “magic number” for your house (maybe three), and make that the maximum number of duplicate products you can have. Then, when you buy a fourth black t-shirt, you’re committed to getting rid of one. One in, one out.
3. Do one room per week, top to bottom
Once a week, lock yourself in a room of your choice — and don’t come out until you’re done! Purge, sort, tidy, and clean. Look up, look down, and look in, catching every nook and cranny. Your goal is to pare down, organize, systemize, and clean.
4. Replace and upgrade
Towels that your dog chewed? A bedside table with chipped or dented corners? It’s time to send your well-loved items to household heaven (or at least send them to a second-hand shop). You don’t need to spend a fortune re-buying everything, but be honest with yourself about what’s acceptable around your home. You really should toss that chipped bowl in your cupboard.
5. Clean the things you never clean
Put aside some time every night to scrub down one thing in your house that you’ve likely never done before — or haven’t done in years. Your foyer chandelier, the legs of your dining room chairs, the lint catcher in your dryer, the cupboard under your kitchen sink: clean it, and sleep better at night!
Image Courtesy of: MarthaStewart.com
Denise Wild
Author
Denise Wild is a sewing expert, magazine editor (including ANOKHI’s former Beauty Editor), media personality, author, and entrepreneur. Denise founded LoveSewing & The Sewing Studio, North America’s largest sewing school for 10 years, with locations in Toronto and New York City. Yo...
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