Spring is a popular time of year to clean and declutter. However, fall is just as an important as spring for cleaning! Fall cleaning gives you the opportunity to:
- Clear out your clutter
- Start the long Winter season in a fresh, de-cluttered space
- Begin your time indoors with an organized space
Here are Junk360’s tips for a successful fall cleaning!
Where You Should Clean
Start your fall cleaning by walking through your house room by room. This includes:
- Living Room: Clean the curtains, dust, clean carpets, wax floors, and wipe up all the cobwebs.
- Kitchen: Check your pantry for items that are outdated, remove all your dishes from their cabinet space and dust, wipe cabinets, wax floor, clean the stove, clean refrigerator.
- Bathrooms: Clean out under the cabinets, deep clean toilets and showers, and change light bulbs if need be.
- Bedrooms: Flip mattresses, wash your curtains, dust every surface, dry clean your comforters, and pull out extra blankets for cooler weather.
As you move from room to room, check all the smoke detectors and look around for clutter.
What Is Clutter?
We constantly accumulate “stuff.” This “stuff” isn't necessarily trash. It's torn out magazine articles set aside to be re-read later, gifts that haven't found a final resting place, and items that have been shoved to the side. In a word, it's clutter.
Clutter is also mentally exhausting. Psychologists have pointed out the negative impacts clutter has on our mental health. This includes:
- Increasing anxiety
- Reducing your ability to focus
- Creating stress and tension among family members
- Disrupting your sleep patterns
- Negatively affecting your mood and self-esteem
Since winter is the time of year most spent indoors, decluttering your homes goes a long way towards improving your mental health.
How to Get Rid of Clutter
As you go from room to room performing your fall cleaning, bring three cardboard boxes or bins with you. Label these boxes:
- Trash
- Recycle
- Donate
In each room, keep an eye out for items that do not have a place, use, or purpose. If an item falls into one of these categories, it is clutter and should go into one of those three boxes. This is especially true for items that you haven’t used, worn, or even touched in the past year.
We also recommend designating a “junk space” for bigger items, such as:
- Unused exercise equipment
- Broken furniture
- Old Rugs
- Rusty toys
