Have you completed your yearly cleaning yet? Are you going to embark on this yearly tradition of making your home neat and clean before winter? Although it doesn’t always have to happen during spring, spring cleaning is a big deal for some people because if they don’t clean things up on a regular basis – at least once a year – things get really messy and disorganized fast.
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If you haven’t started cleaning yet, it’s not too late. Winter hasn’t arrived yet, so you’ve still got plenty of time. Here are some tips to get your cleaning done before winter.
Rent A Dumpster
Renting a roll off dumpster is ideal when you have a lot of square footage to cover during your cleaning spree. Think about it for a minute. How much cleaning do you have to do? When was the last time you cleaned deeply? Have you made your rounds through the house getting rid of junk and donating items you don’t use?
If it’s been years since you’ve cleaned out your house to find junk and donations, you’ll definitely want to rent a dumpster. Although it’s a nice gesture to want to save and donate everything you possibly can, there will be items that just won’t be donatable. If you risk bringing them to a donation station, you could end up having to take them back home.
The other option you have is to take your items to the landfill. Depending on the location, you might be charged by a visual estimate of how many cubic feet of junk you have, or you might get charged by the weight of what you dump.
However, the worst part is having to load everything up and drive to the dump. It’s much easier having a dumpster stationed right on your property that will get picked up by someone else.
Declutter Your Home First
Before you start going on a true cleaning spree with gloves, spray bottles, and paper towels, declutter your spaces. Cleaning is easier when you have less stuff to move around. Of course, decluttering is a main part of spring cleaning, but the whole process is easier when you do it first.
You can declutter your space a little bit at a time; you don’t need to do it all at once if that feels overwhelming. Start with the big stuff, like furniture. Do you really need those extra tables in the living room or the stuff you’ve stashed in your garage? If you have any extra furniture that you don’t use, and it hasn’t sold at a garage sale, donate it to get it out of the way.
Once your big items are decluttered, continue with smaller things. For example, while you’re cooking in the kitchen, start going through drawers and toss the junk or create a plan to put items back where they belong. This brings up the next piece of advice: create a home for everything.
Create A Home For Everything
A big part of cleaning requires having a home for everything. Sometimes it makes sense to have duct tape in a few different places, but when it ends up in random drawers out of laziness, it’s time to get a tool box.
If you have kids or pets, they probably have a toy box, right? Do you have a box or way to contain your projects that tend to spread out across the house? Once you start creating a home for everything that can turn into clutter, you’ll notice you’ll have an easier time finding things, but you’ll also have an easier time vacuuming, dusting, and washing surfaces.
What about junk drawers? All those little things you keep in junk drawers can be organized in little plastic containers, either separate containers with lids or in a unit with individual drawers. When you use this method over the “catch-all junk drawer” method, you’ll find all the small things like glue, thumb tacks, and safety pins a lot easier.
Recruit Others For Help
When you’re used to being the adult in charge of your household, it’s natural to try to do everything by yourself, telling everyone else they don’t need to worry. However, that’s the fastest way to burn out.
Enlist everyone who lives in your household and give them a task. It doesn’t matter how small of a job they have, get everyone to share in the responsibility and it won’t be so stressful.
Don’t Wait To Start Spring Cleaning
It doesn’t matter when you start, just don’t put it off any longer. Start cleaning today, even if you have to take it slowly over the course of a month.
