Spring is nearly here, and as Halton and Peel start to thaw it becomes time to engage in the age-old tradition of spring cleaning. Spring cleaning offers a whole list of benefits, including a healthier home. It also is a great time to take stock of things that you need and don’t need.
Cleaning and de-cluttering can be overwhelming, but a checklist for each room can make the process much more manageable.
This checklist is designed to help you break your cleaning process into bite size chunks, and show you the progress you’re making on the mammoth task of cleaning your home. As you go from room to room, take three boxes or large containers labeled “Donate,” “Keep” and “Trash/Recycle.” For larger items, just use sticky notes with one of the three categories on them.
Taking every item in a room and sorting them into boxes will also give you a chance to do a deep cleaning of your house.
On top of making your house a better place for yourself, Habitat HM sees the benefits of spring cleaning in our ReStores. Every donation that is sold in the ReStore goes to another home in the community for a great price. The proceeds of the sale also help us build more homes for families and individuals in our community.
Bedroom
The Bedroom is one of the places you spend the most time in your own house. It’s also home to a lot of clutter. Here are some of the more troublesome areas for junk to accumulate in the bedroom.
Surfaces
Examine items on all flat surfaces – the tops of dressers and nightstands, for example – and make sure it’s all something you use regularly.
Closet
Take stock of all your clothes and shoes. A good rule of thumb is that if you haven’t worn it in a year, you probably won’t wear it again. The closet hanger experiment is a great way to examine how often you wear each item.
Under the bed
You never know what’s under the bed, until you look!
Here are some items our ReStore accepts:
Bed frames
Dresser drawers and nightstands
Home décor
Kitchen
Cabinets
Go through your cabinets. Match containers and lids. Identify all the dishes you need. Remove expired items and be sure to check that all spices are fresh.
Refrigerator
Clean out any old or unused items in the fridge and the freezer.
Drawers
Is the infamous “junk drawer” located in your kitchen? If so, take out every single item and decide what you really need.
Here’s a list of the kitchen items our ReStores accept:
· Sinks
· Refrigerators and other appliances
· Dinnerware, glassware, bake ware, etc.
Living Room
Entertainment center
Sort through any physical media you have and donate any you no longer watch or want. Recycle any empty cases you find.
Drawers
Go through any drawers to remove trash and other unneeded items.
Shelves
Organize all shelves, getting rid of any unneeded items.
Living room items accepted by Habitat HM ReStores:
· Furniture
· Antiques
· Media Centres
· Records, CD’s, DVD’s
· Rugs
· Wall art
Garage/basement/shed
Everyone’s garage, basement, or shed in a different way, but they’re all in the same category because this is where extra stuff piles up. This can be a closet, a finished basement, an outdoor shed or any place in between.
Donation piles
These spaces can seem overwhelming, so start with the easiest of all: donation piles. You’ve spent all year collecting items you need to donate, and it’s finally time to load them up and take them to the various donation centers around town.
Categories
Divide everything left into categories. Tools, building materials, cleaning supplies, sports equipment, etc. Get rid of anything that’s broken, or anything you have two of–make sure to donate or recycle if possible!
Reorganize
For everything that you are keeping, organize by the same categories to help keep them organized year-round.
For a complete list of what our ReStores accept, follow this link.