Have a large home that’s difficult to clean all at once? Take it room-by-room. This will help make a big job seem smaller and more manageable, and you won’t lose motivation to keep your home clean!
Tag: closet cleaning
Love Your Home This Valentine’s Day—Keep it Organized!
With the first month of the new year coming to a close, are you finding yourself struggling to keep your resolution of maintaining an organized home? We hear you, we do! Just when you thought the holiday madness was over, and it would be easier to keep your house clean, Valentine’s Day crops up, right around the corner. While this is a time to buy your partner flowers or chocolates, help your children make valentines for school, or simply pamper yourself, it’s also a perfect time to show some love to your home!
Much like some couples renew their wedding vows, it might be time for you to renew your clean-home resolution. Remember that by keeping your home organized throughout the year, you will have less cleanup to do on an ongoing basis. The time it takes to pick up your clothes and hang them at the end of the day is nothing compared to the deep-cleaning that’s necessary when you don’t keep things tidy.
Keeping your home organized doesn’t have to be all work and no play, though. You can try to make a game out of cleaning, by sharing these activities with your family. Consider having a competition to see who can pick up the room the fastest. Not only does this keep you from doing all the work yourself, but setting a timer will help you all clean up faster. Plus, the most competitive among us look forward to any kind of challenge!
Since it will soon be Valentine’s Day, give your home (and yourself!) a present to motivate you to keep your home organized. This could be a new picture frame or lamp to decorate your living room, a new dresser for your bedroom, or some other piece of home decor you’ve been wanting. Treating yourself (within reason!) is a great way to keep moving you toward the clean, organized home of your dreams.
Of course, when you buy new additions for your home, don’t keep those old items lying around your home. If you’re replacing a dresser, home decor or clothes from your closet, donate them to ClothingDonations.org! Schedule a time for us to pick up your donations, put your donation goods in a bag or box marked “for donation, ” and we’ll swing by to take care of the rest.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your home!
Taming Your Closet—Keep it Organized All Winter Long!
We’re reaching the end of January, and we know what you’re all thinking: is it spring, yet? With the east coast just digging out from the snowstorm of the century, the answer to this question is, unfortunately, no. If you’re getting tired of putting on three or more layers each time you want to leave the house, we feel your pain.
If you’re tired of trying to shove all of those layers back into your closet, you’re not alone. When we talked about preparing for winter, we emphasized the importance of having a system to keep your winter gear as organized as possible. Now that we’re in the midst of winter, you might have found it easier to just toss coats and boots every which way instead of putting them away.
We found a Huffington Post article that really helps reinforce the idea of closet organization. If you feel your sanity slipping away at the expense of your unorganized closet, don’t fear. Browse these ideas and solutions in Korinne Kubena Belock’s article “6 Creative Tips for Organizing All That Winter Gear, ” where she offers creative solutions for trying to optimize space in your closet this winter!
One suggestion: organize items with bins. Bins can be stacked on top of each other on the ground, or they can sit side by side on shelves. Having certain items in a specific bin will make it easier to find gloves or hats when you’re in a rush to leave the house. It’ll also keep clutter away, which will keep your home clean and stress-free!
Another solution Belock offers is to use an over-the-door shoe hanger. While this might not be exactly right for your winter and fall boots, it can be a great solution for storing ballet flat-styled shoes, slippers, running shoes, high heels, and more. Keeping your shoes off the floor or off your shelves frees up space for you to either walk into your closet, or use shelving for sweaters, coats, and more. Plus, having your shoes put away will keep you from tripping over them because they won’t be lying around the house!
When you’re going through and organizing your bins, or placing shoes in your new shoe hanger, keep an eye out for gently-used clothing, jewelry, shoes, and winter gear that you haven’t worn in months or years. If you get the sense that you’ll never these items again, it might be time to donate them! ClothingDonations.org will be happy to come by your home and pick your donation up for you. What’s even better is that your donation will help fund our veterans programs!
Have winter closet organizing tips of your own? We want to hear from you—share your closet cleaning secrets with us!
Don’t Let the Clutter Take Control—Donate Your Items to Us!
We’ve all been there. We’ve all had one or two items that we don’t actually need but can’t bring ourselves to throw away. For some, these one or two items expand into three, ten or 25. Pretty soon you’ll have desk drawers, or even a closet, devoted to these unneeded, yet strangely powerful things.
This is when it’s time to start letting go of emotional attachments and clearing the clutter out. You may think a box of notes you passed with your friends in middle school, the old coin collection gathering dust, clothes from five years ago, or old textbooks from college are absolute necessities. However, if you don’t use them and they’re taking up valuable space, chances are you probably won’t miss them if they’re gone.
When it comes to item that are sentimental, ease into it. You don’t have to get rid of everything, and not all at once. Consider keeping one old sweater that means a lot to you and one or two college textbooks that may help in your career. Then, donate the rest of these items to us. Fill out our form to schedule a pickup, put the items in a box marked with the word “donation, ” and then set them out by your mailbox.
We also found this article by Maria Gracia to be very helpful with tips on how to fight your pack rat urges. One tip she provides that we love is to take pictures of the items that hold sentimental value to you. That way, you can “keep the memory, rather than allowing the memory to take up space.”
Take our advice: De-clutter your home today, and remember to donate anything you don’t need to ClothingDonations.org!
It’s time to transition—goodbye, summer and hello, fall!
It seems like we were just having our garage sales and greeting our kids as they got off the bus, ready for summer. While some of us are scrambling to get in that last minute vacation, many children only have a few days left before a new school year is underway! Translation—fall is upon us.
If you checked out our back-to-school tips, you’ll remember that we talked about the clothes shopping excursions that typically accompany a new school year. Sure your children (and yourself!) may only have gotten a few new items for their wardrobes, but you’d be surprised by just how much space a couple pairs of jeans, some sweaters, and new coats will take up in your closet. Not to mention, you have summer clothes you still need to keep out—where do you put it all?
Our friends over at The Huffington Post have some great tips for helping make that summer-to-fall closet transition a little easier. Here are their suggestions:
1.) Go through your summer clothes. Now that the season is (almost) over, try on everything. If you don’t wear it or it doesn’t fit anymore, put it in a plastic bag for donation. Then go to our website, fill out a donation pickup request form, and we’ll pick the items up for you!
2.) Don’t pack it all away yet. The weather is still warm for the rest of August and most of September, so only pack up a few items. Keep any pieces that can be worn in the fall easily accessible in your closet.
3.) Evaluate old fall clothes. Just like your old summer clothes, try on these fall items. If they are too big or no longer fit your style, donate them to us! We’ll be happy to help those pants and sweaters find a home in a new closet.
4.) “Hang fall clothes, organizing by type.” By keeping flannel shirts separate from the big sweaters and jackets, you’ll be better able to see smaller items. It also lets you see all of the pieces you own, to keep you from buying things you don’t need!
Now that you have the knowledge you need, start getting your closets prepared for fall today!