It’s April and yes, spring cleaning and the season for a whole lot of activity. Whether it’s cleaning out the kitchen for Passover, preparing for friends and family on Easter, stuck inside because it’s raining again or you choose to celebrate Earth Day, it is most definitely time to get our homes in order! Where to begin???
- Don’t go it alone! If you share your home with other family members, it’s just as much their responsibility as it is yours. If you do not, then call in the reinforcements, inviting friends or neighbors over and offering to reciprocate. Pick a date, put it on the calendar, and stick to it! Discuss or brainstorm ways to make it more fun – music, chocolate, and a whole lot of high-fiving go a long way towards motivation.
- Come up with a plan. What room or space is THE most important one? Who uses it? What works and what doesn’t? How do you want it function? If you don’t want the master bedroom to be a playroom then relocate the toys out of there! If you do need to have toys available for the kids while you get ready, then great, they stay.
- Do NOT go running out to buy all your favorite containers and pretty baskets. First of all, you may very likely have a good supply already on hand. Even so, the proper procedure is to group all like items together, purge the excess, decide where the keepers will live and THEN get the right storage items. If you buy on the front end, I can promise you will end up with all the wrong shapes and sizes and have to go return and buy again.
- Know where the items that will be leaving are going. If it’s trash or shred, then set up boxes for that. Need a trash removal company or dumpster? Arrange for that. Have a list of donation organizations available and find one that the family can agree on. Everyone purges more when they feel like their items will go towards a good cause. Caution, don’t give yourself too many options. If you have trash, give to the neighbor, give to Aunt Jane, give to Cousin Joey, give to the school, consign, I might use one day, donate and more, then you will only hold up the process and many items will stick around until such time that you see the right person to give it to them. Simplify and make the process as easy as possible!
- Label, label, label! How do you maintain it moving forward? Labels go a long way and cause everyone to think twice before putting crayons in the Lego bin or sports equipment in the gardening area of the garage.
While this post is written for the spring cleaning and holidays, these tips work all year long!
Good luck and go get your homes nice and organized!
This post has been updated from an article from April 9, 2017.
Loving your home and organizational systems
