Clever Tips for Easy and Fun Spring Cleaning

By Kelly Turner on March 22nd, 2010

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Spring is just around the corner, (it officially began March 20th, in fact) which means Spring Cleaning is on everyone’s agenda.

*Insert your entire family’s groans here.*

Clever Container co-founder and organization guru Karen Eschebach is here to make the whole spring cleaning process as fun and pain free as possible.

Whether you completely overhaul your house every year, or just want to add a little something unique to your home, here are some clever and time saving ideas to organize and make the most of your home.

1. Turn your closet into your own boutique. The clothes in your closet should be the clothes you actually wear and that fit you.  Box up all your clothes that are too big or small, and revisit them next year. If they till don’t fit,  donate them and take the tax write off.  Take the clothes that do fit and try putting together outfits you’d like to wear and take digital pictures of them.  Don’t forget accessories such as jewelry, shoes, purses, belts and scarves.  Print off the digital photos; hole-punch each one and slide an “o-ring” through them.  Hang the “o-ring” from a hook or hanger and you’ll never be short on stylish outfit ideas for those days you are low on creativity or time.  Do the same for your children’s closets, so they can get creative and pick out their own outfits.
2. Go Vertical! Many people forget to use wall, closet, and door space.  We’re so used to binning everything that sometimes it makes sense to just hang it up.  For instance, hang pegs and hooks up to hang coats, backpacks, totes, leashes, and purses.  If used in a family room, these same hooks could hang your lightweight blankets your family cozies up to or your everyday towels in the bathroom.
3. Do some clever clustering in the kitchen. Cluster all the tools necessary to make lunches each day or cluster all the accessories required to do baking such as bowls, mixers, measuring cups and baking soda.  This will save you time by not having to search high and low.
4. Work clockwise. A whole room can be overwhelming so break the room down into twelve sections representing one o’clock through 12 o’clock.  Begin by organizing and cleaning just the 12 o’clock to 1 o’clock space and work around the clock.  If you can’t finish that day, next time you know exactly where what time to begin again.
5. Don’t forget your finances. Spring is also tax time, and keeping your documents organized can cut clutter and make everything a lot easier.  Decide which bills you want to keep on hand for historical purposes and box them up by year.  Most credit card companies, as well as your bank, will send you an end of year statement which means you can shred each of the individual statements you have on hand.  Purge as much as possible but be careful to shred anything with personal information on it.
6. If you’ve read it, toss it. Books, magazines and catalogs tend to gather heavily during the holidays.  For those of you who do not go through and purge them regularly, now is the time.  For books that you’ve read, but you’re not going to re-read, donate them to a school library, if appropriate, or make some money by selling them to a second hand store.  Magazines should be purged monthly or as a new issue comes in.  Same goes for catalogs.  Many catalogs are outdated within two weeks so, if you don’t order something immediately, let it go.  The Internet is usually a better way to shop: Web sites are updated frequently and often offer special deals not available anywhere else.

Get the whole family involved!  Make a list, and delegate tasks.  Spring cleaning can be fun, and great way to update your space.  Turn on the tunes, and get busy!