When we hear "March" we start to dream about Spring, and Spring equal, well… Spring Cleaning :-) If you have followed my monthly checklist from January on you are already ahead with your Spring Cleaning and this month we will continue with the Organizing and maintenance of your home. NOTE – Days are not all numbered by actual date so you may pick and choose based on the amount of time you have on a specific day. Some tasks will take longer than others, so I left some blank days at the end. You may copy/paste this into a blank document and print so you can have it handy and check mark the tasks already accomplished. Day 1 – Microwave – If you haven’t cleaned it properly in a little while use the boiling water and lemon technique, you can watch videos on YouTube about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdFxcfH-05w Day 2 – Room Clutter – A way to address that clutter is to have 1 place (in each room if necessary) to collect random stuff that needs to be returned to its proper home. If you have multiple floors place a basket at the bottom/top of stairs to collect stuff that belongs to another floor. This is your task for today! Return this clutter to its proper home. Day 3 – Linens/towels – Go through your linens and towels, and get rid of what is old, yellowed, stained, damaged or it is not a full set. You should only keep what looks and feels good, it will improve your mood, it is not a good feeling having to dry your face with an old, stained and rough towel. Pamper yourself, you deserve it. It is better to have less but good quality, than lots of lesser quality. Day 4 – Bed and Mattress – In the old days people used sunlight to sanitize their beds, linens and even rugs. When did you flip your mattress last? It is recommended you do it 1-2 times a year. While you are at it, vacuum under the bed, bed frame, corner and crevices. You will sleep better tonight. Day 5 – Feng Shui – Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art of arranging objects and space in an environment to achieve harmony and balance, one of the rules of Feng Shui is to eliminate clutter. More small tips to create a good energy flow in your home can be found all over the internet, try to apply what you can. Day 6 – Dishwasher – Once in a while your dishwasher needs maintenance as well. Read your manufacturer instructions, there should be a cycle for it, or look up videos online. An alternative is to buy a product made to specifically clean/sanitize your dishwasher, AFFRESH dishwasher cleaner is one example. Day 7 – TO-DO Basket – If you have space close to your door that would be the ideal spot, if not place it where it is easy to see on the way out. This is a basket to collect things you will need to take care of while outside. Packages to return, items for dry cleaning, pharmacy prescription pickup, anything borrowed and in need of return, donation bags, or anything that needs to go OUT, or taken care of while you are OUT. Having to see these things will motivate you to take care of them. If you hide them you will forget. Day 8 – Car Emergency Kit – Every vehicle should have an emergency supply kit. Kits should be checked every 6 months, expired items should be replaced. For a list of what your kit should include check this link to the National Safety Council website. ttps://www.nsc.org/home-safety/safety-topics/emergency-preparedness/car-kit Day 9 – First Aid Kit – You should have one in your car and one at home, in the even of an emergency it will be a quick grab, rather than having to search multiple locations for the items needed. Keep it well stocked and check every 6 months for expired items. Check online for items needed in a Kit. Day 10 – Declutter/Donate – The focus for today is to find items you no longer need but are still useful and Give Back. Find out if there are still Coat drives in your community, maybe Food drives for families in need or Homeless shelters/animal shelter you can donate to. If there’s a DSW nearby donate your gently used unwanted shoes, they will be redirected to Soles4Souls. Here is a link with more info: https://www.dsw.com/en/us/content/soles4souls?cm_xm=philanthropylp-20210402-editoriallist-d-soles4soulslp-dswgivesshoedonation-2 Day 11 – Give Back Box – To continue with our decluttering and donating, here is another option to make an impact and donate to a good cause while making space in your home. Give Back Box is a non profit that allows you to donate gently used items for a good cause with Free shipping and give every carboard box a second life by REUSING them. So you are doing double-Good. If you want to read more here is the link: https://www.givebackbox.com/works Day 12 – Window Treatments – Dust all your blinds thoroughly, if they are light enough take them down and wash them in the tub, especially the kitchen ones, they need more than dusting. I know there are gadgets out there but a simple kitchen tong with a microfiber cloth wrapped around will do the trick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezx_0brpHss If you have curtains, proceed as you usually do to clean them. Day 13 – National check your Batteries Day – this year is March 13th. Celebrate this day by learning about how to maintain and care for your smoke, carbon monoxide, random alarms, remotes and other electronics like baby monitors etc. Remember your smoke alarm should be replaced every 10 yrs. Day 14 – Facebook Clean up Day – Fun and easy activity for today. Your goal is to clean up as much as possible, unfriend people you never interact with, maybe you don’t even know who they are! Leave groups you joined a gazillion years ago and never visit, maybe your interests changed. Streamline and clean your Facebook account by removing anything you no longer need, unfollow pages that make you feel like you are not up to par or make you feel unaccomplished, or those with lots of click bait. Day 15 – Light Fixtures – While it is easier to dust/clean floor and table lamps, ceiling fixtures are often forgotten. The task for today is to take care of those, including fans if you have ceiling ones. If your floor lamps need maintenance try to get that done as well. Day 16 – Spice cabinet – Collect all your spices, wipe clean if needed, consolidate if you have doubles especially if they are both ½ full. Check for signs of aging, since they usually do not have expiration date, but after a while they are no longer fresh and fragrant. Discard what you no longer use. Return the ones you keep in the cabinet in an orderly fashion, either on a lazy Susan, a bin, or however you store them. If you are cooking tomorrow it will be a breeze to find what you need. Day 17 – Saint Patrick’s Day – If you celebrate it dig out all your Grandma recipes. Day 18 – Cooking Utensils – How many spatulas does one need? Some people have way more than they need. Go through your utensils and discard what is old, burnt, stained, melted (yes I found melted spatulas) and keep only what you actually use, for example if you lack space a garlic press is not necessary, you can use a knife. Ideally all your cooking utensils should be in 1 location. Day 19 – Tupperware – If you have lots of them what you need to do first is match containers with lids and discard the rest. If they are plastic check for stains and wear and tear, plastic ones should be replaced after a while. Even better transition to glass ones, they can go in the freezer, over and microwave with no problem. Also remember plastic in not earth friendly :-( Day 20/21/22 – Clean Out your Closet Week! Every year we celebrate National Clean out your Closet Week on the 3rd week of March. You observe this day by taking on 1 closet per day, maybe 2 if they are small, depending on how many you have you may need more than 3 days. The process is the same for all, EMPTY the closet, clean the shelves, vacuum the floor, go through items and discard what needs to go, return items possibly in categories in your closet. Try to be honest and ask yourself when was the last time you used an item, if you didn’t even know it was there, you did not miss it, let it go. Day 23 – Clean out your Social Media – Let’s alternate from physical labor to mental work. How many social media platforms are you on? Chances are at least 3. Time to clean out a bit. Go through the list of friends and unfriend those you don’t even know in person and never interact with, unfollow pages that you lost interest in, leave groups you never visit, by removing what is no longer relevant the focus will be on what you are actually interested in and probably enjoy. Try to keep the focus on what really pertain to you Today not 3 years ago Day 24 – Clean out your phone – Since we addressed Social Media cleanup, we might as well continue with your phone, you use it everyday for multiple reasons, but how often do you perform maintenance on it? Check through your text messages and delete obsolete ones, do the same with emails, clean your spam folders as well, and what about pictures? How many are stored on your phone? Move to alternate storage and keep only those that are important, no need to have multiples of the same 2 people in similar poses, just keep the best. GOAL is to reduce the amount of stuff on your phone. Day 25 – Pots and Pans – Take them all out and check for damage, burned ones have to go, non-stick pans with damaged coating have to go, they are not safe to use, pots with broken handles or without lid can be discarded as well. You can use pans without lids but pots not so much. Try to really think about what you use on a regular basis. Those rarely used can be stored in harder to reach places. The rest of the month is for you to catch up with whatever tasks you left incomplete as some may require more than 1 day. If anything try to get your Clean out your Closets Week done, closets can accumulate huge amounts of clutter and dust! Spring is near and so is allergy season, dust will just make it worse.
Most of all try to have fun with it if you can, play music if it helps!! Happy Organizing. |
AuthorHello, my name is Vicky and I am a Professional Organizer in NYC. I am passionate about anything related to organizing and most of all I fully believe in the benefits of it. Archives
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