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The spring season arrives with nice warm weather, lots of sun rays, and more time spent outdoors. But as fun as that sounds, spring is also the season associated with one particularly tedious job – spring cleaning. The process requires us to show our best cleaning skills, going through every room of the house and making it spotless from top to bottom.
Like that’s not hard enough, but there’s also the matter of sorting through piles of stuff we’ve collected over the past year in a desperate attempt to free some space and, hopefully, bring some order to the house. And let’s be honest… the house decluttering alone can be a whole weekend job at best.
But before the desperation settles in, let’s think of an alternative. Is there an easier way to declutter the place without investing too much time?
As a matter of fact, there is and we’ve created an easy decluttering checklist with the main areas of the house where clutter loves to gather most. Focus on them when you want to get rid of clutter quickly and effectively! Let’s check them out!
Home decluttering checklist:
Kitchen cabinets
Kitchen cabinets are an essential part of every cooking space. Still, they are often neglected for months. We keep stuffing them with kitchen accessories, plates, and spices, but we rarely remember to take a look in there, clean the dust a little and maybe arrange and organise for easier use.
Deep cleaning this important area is a good starting point, as by decluttering the cupboards you’ll be covering the most clutter-rich space in the whole kitchen.
Here’s how to organise and clean kitchen cabinets quickly and efficiently:
- Take everything out of the cupboard.
- Divide everything into two groups – items to keep and items to throw away.
- Check all spices, pay attention to the expiration dates and whether the spice is in good condition (sometimes these things catch air and become useless).
- Remove spilled spices, pasta, and everything else using a dry cloth or a table broom.
- Wipe on the inside with wet wipes designed for wood or with a clean cloth covered with appropriate spray cleaner depending on the cabinet’s material. This will lift any leftover dirt and dust.
- Leave the cabinets open to dry afterwards.
- Organise the items in a comfortable way and place them back in the cupboard. For the spice and ingredient cabinet, you can consider placing the different items in small labelled jars or containers, to prevent future spills.
Bathroom cabinets
Just like with the kitchen cabinets, we like to pile all kinds of things in our bathroom cabinets. From countless almost empty shampoo bottles to razors we meant to throw away, and small leftover soaps which are uncomfortable to use, but we keep for decoration purposes.
You get why the bathroom cabinets in particular should be next to declutter on your list. Here’s how to do it in seven easy steps:
- Throw away those almost empty, expired or unused items over the past year.
- Now is a good time to consider getting new soap holders, toothbrush holders, brushes, and other accessories that look worn out or are broken. Getting rid of the old towels and buying new ones is also a good idea.
- Wipe the inside of the cabinet with a clean cloth dipped in soapy water.
- Because of the high humidity, mould can start growing inside the cabinets, too. You can treat the mould with a vinegar and baking soda solution with just a few drops of essential oil.
- Dry the surface off and place the remaining items back.
- Leave the cabinet open for a while to breathe and dry completely since bathrooms are usually poorly ventilated and moisture encourages mould growth.
- Empty the bathroom cabinets completely.
Medicine cabinet
This one cabinet is extremely important because the health of your entire family depends on it. Spare some time to empty the entire cabinet, check every medicine separately and make sure it’s still good.
Throw away everything expired or suspicious-looking, nothing is worth risking your health over. Place the remaining items back in the medicine cabinet. Keep the ones you use most often up front. This way they’re easy to access any time and you don’t have to ruin the good order just days after you’ve created it.
You should also make a list of all the generic medicines and supplements your family needs, but are missing, and get everything from your local pharmacy. Don’t go overboard, though. Stick only to the ones that you know you’ll be using soon and get an amount you will be able to use over the next few months. This will help prevent future cluttering of the medicine cabinet.
The closet
If your closet or wardrobe is overflowing and the doors can no longer keep all those clothes contained, then something needs to be done right away. It’s understandable that we love all our clothes and don’t want to part with them for different reasons, but an annual decluttering can give you a new perspective. More often than not, it helps us realise that we have a lot more than we need.
A change of season is also a good time to bring out the right kind of clothes. So why not use the occasion to organise the space and declutter these clothes a little. Let’s be honest about what we don’t really wear!
Here are a few tips to help you declutter your wardrobe:
- Get three boxes – one for the things you will throw away, one for the things you could eventually donate, and one for the things you want to keep.
- Go through all your clothes and decide what to keep and what has to go. Some questions which might help you decide are:
- When was the last time I wore this?
- Does it fit?
- Do I look well in it and would I wear it again?
- If the answers are “I don’t remember” or “No”, then you know what has to be done. Some clothes are tough to throw away, but this is an important step in decluttering your home.
- Dust the inside of the closet, wipe all the shelves, replace any broken hangers or hooks, get new freshener sachets and make sure there are no cracks, signs of mould, water damage or any moths inside.
- Arrange all your clothes into categories, such as work, training, party, etc. You can also go for pants, t-shirts, long-sleeves, etc. Whatever works for you. If possible, keep those that are not for this season properly stashed away so they do not take up valuable space.
- Fold the clothes neatly and place them in their predetermined shelves or hangers. Some of the hanger items could also probably use some preliminary ironing. This way you will save time later when you need them.
Desks and paperwork
Nowadays everything is digital, but there are still things that come on paper, such as important documents. And let’s not forget the favourite magazines that can get piled on the coffee table before you even blink.
Such items can create large messes that start to take over, making it harder to concentrate and work while in the home office, as well as enjoy a guest’s company in the living room with all that magazines around.
As part of your decluttering efforts, you can go through all your paperwork and magazines, pick the oldest ones and throw them away. Take a look at your shelves and get rid of anything that doesn’t have sentimental or monetary value. The fewer items you keep exposed, the faster and easier any future cleaning will be.
You should also empty the shelves completely and clean the dust from books with a damp cloth, as dust loves to settle in places like that.
We can sort out your spring cleaning!
We cover all the major cities in Australia including Melbourne, Sydney, Perth & Brisbane
And now for the bonus round…
Depending on the size of your home and organisational skills, it is possible to cover everything from the list so far and declutter your house within a day. Still, this means taking care of just the most “problematic” areas in the different rooms. We classify that as a fast home decluttering project. However, if you have the time, energy and want to go the extra mile, then great because we’ve prepared some extra tips for you!
Basement and attic
Basements and attics are a real dread to declutter because we usually use these places like storage rooms for all the things we don’t use or don’t fit anywhere else in the house. Also, for all those things that we don’t want to deal with at the moment… Until it’s time to deal with them.
As difficult as it is, not decluttering these spaces for a long time can lead to pest infestations, mould build-ups, and various other unpleasant consequences, so it’s best to get it done as soon as possible.
How to declutter basements and attics:
- Prepare three bags or boxes, whatever you have close by.
- Name one for the things that you want to keep, second for the things to throw away, and the third is for donations.
- Go through all the items. You will likely be overwhelmed by emotions when you see some things, but the faster you make a decision, the better. No emotion, just rational decisions.
- When you get everything out, vacuum the place, dust it, remove spider webs and inspect the place for cracks, pestholes, cracked pipes, water damage, mould and mildew.
- Place the items you will keep back and make sure they are properly labelled and stored.
If you want to donate some of your old items, but you’re not sure where to do it, you can check these great places in Melbourne and Sydney for ideas.
The garage
Another unfortunate place, which is used as a storage space for items we rarely use. In other words, a real magnet for clutter, dust, spiders and other crawlies.
Decluttering the garage is similar to cleaning out the basement or attic. You have to go through all the things you own and decide what to keep and what to toss. You should also sweep and dust the place, as well as clean any oil marks from the floor and furniture. A commercial cleaner or a paste of baking soda and water work just fine for these.
Also, any tools you might keep in your garage could also use a good cleaning and organising, so you can easily find them when you need them. You can use commercial degreasers, mineral spirits, talc or kerosene to remove all the oil and grease from them.
Takeaways
- Decluttering can be a tiresome and long process, but if you think like a professional cleaning technician and focus on the most problematic areas in each room of the house. You can still achieve good results without feeling desperate and losing days in cleaning.
- When going through your kitchen cabinet, remember to check not only the spices’ expiration dates but also the content, as moisture and air can ruin a product.
- Mould loves humid places and will grow in your bathroom cabinets given the right conditions. So, allow the cabinets’ surface to dry completely before closing the doors.
- Store socks, bras and the likes in shoe boxes, so you can keep them well-organised and do not lose any of them.
- Do not allow yourself to get emotional about old stuff you come across while decluttering. This will take up a lot of your time and the whole project can extend way over the time you’ve invested in it.
Get your home spring cleaned by professionals!
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