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Spring has finally sprung (ish), which means it’s time for baseball, taxes and, you guessed it, spring cleaning. It\u2019s time to organize your home, declutter those spaces, and get ready for summer living.<\/span><\/p>\n Far from focusing on the typical scrub-and-dust spring cleaning tips, we\u2019re here to talk about dealing with a more nefarious beast lurking in everyone\u2019s place: STUFF. And if you\u2019re like us, you have a lot of it lying around.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve covered the <\/span>do’s and don\u2019ts of decluttering your life<\/span><\/a> before, but now we\u2019re going to move to phase two of that effort, which is how to act on moving all that clutter out of your house – moving the Stuff out of sight, out of mind<\/span>\u2014<\/span>forever.<\/span><\/p>\n Most decluttering and spring cleaning tips are too darn complex. When the mere act of planning to declutter overwhelms you to the point of inaction, something ain\u2019t workin\u2019. We\u2019re not going to walk you through the meaning of\u00a0<\/span>Marie Kondo\u2019s psychoanalysis of your belongings\u2019<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(props to Maria on her book. +A for effort). We\u2019re not going to give you comprehensive checklists for each and every room, and each and every item. No, this is about making your spring cleaning and decluttering easy, which, frankly, <\/span>starts with some hard choices.<\/b><\/p>\n So we’re going to make your choices simple: <\/span>Ditch<\/b> or <\/span>Donate<\/b>. That\u2019s it. <\/span>We\u2019re not asking you to organize anything here. Just focus on the core rooms you\u2019re going to tackle and to follow a system that will help you make decisions quickly. So grab two big boxes and label them, you guessed it: <\/span>Ditch <\/b>and <\/span>Donate.\u00a0<\/b>(And for the record, “ditch” also means recycle!)<\/p>\n We\u2019re going to focus on just three locations: Bedrooms, Kitchen and those pesky storage areas like closets, the garage, and your basement. Let’s get to it!<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with where you sleep. The places you sleep should support your efforts to get as much of it as possible, and excess stuff can get in the way of this. Your bedroom is not the place to bunk up with your clothes and shoe collection, spilling out onto the floor or stuffed into hastily purchased storage containers.<\/span><\/p>\n Your bedroom likely contains dressers and closets, which mostly contain…clothes. Let’s start there.<\/span><\/p>\n Clothes and shoes are the hobgoblins of any good decluttering effort, so there a good place to start. Time for radical acceptance – you can easily ditch most of what you have.<\/span><\/p>\n Damaged boots you haven\u2019t worn in years? leather jacket your girlfriend hates? The corduroy blazer with leather elbow patches that makes you feel like a novelist living in New Hampshire (and you\u2019re <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>actually a novelist living in New Hampshire?) Unless there\u2019s a true emotional connection, or you plan to wear it to work or date night, these are things to part with.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Forget you had it or haven\u2019t worn it in a year? Put it in one of the two boxes – that\u2019s the deal.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n But this is the easy stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n Next, go drawer by drawer and look at old t-shirts you swear you\u2019ll wash the car in one day, or sweet shorts you want to wear in your co-ed softball league. These items are typically tied to future, happy things you want to do and never get around to – <\/span>a skill at which humans are particularly bad<\/span><\/a>. Don\u2019t let these future plans in fabric form anchor down your dresser and contribute to room clutter.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n If you live in a climate where you swap clothes out during the winter<\/a> to account for changing weather, you can likely use that extra space from spring till late fall. This is the one break with Ditch or Donate you\u2019re allowed to make – one that actually allows for some extra storage (which we’ll talk about more in a bit). There\u2019s no good reason to store offseason clothes, boots, hats, gloves, and even\u00a0skis<\/a> in your bedroom through the warmer seasons. So set these aside and plan to find some high-quality storage bins.<\/p>\n We sleep in our beds and so we believe they hold some cosmic value over time (wait, could they <\/span>actually be worth more<\/span><\/a> than when I bought them?). If your mattress is old, and it\u2019s been through a particularly aggressive winter Netflix binge fest, it may be time to Ditch or Donate. Don\u2019t know which is best? <\/span>We\u2019ve got you covered<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Next, we\u2019ll move to where you store, cook and eat food. This is a busy place and, let\u2019s be frank – kind of a workshop of gear and tools and sharp knives and weird Christmas gifts from your grandmother who wants to pass all the family recipes on to you.<\/span><\/p>\n Blender you used once to make a smoothie, then realized you didn’t have enough milk and gave up? Food processor you bought after new years? A food dehydrator or grilled-cheese maker you swore you\u2019d use <\/span>every day<\/span><\/i> if you just had it? We\u2019ve all had them and they <\/span>all <\/span><\/i>take up valuable space. These are the first to go. If they’re gently used, you may be able to make up some of the profits by selling them online, otherwise they’ll need to be donated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Next, go through your drawers and cabinets. Keep an eye out for unnecessary duplicates, pantry items you’ve never used (and likely never will), and cheap cooking tools that barely function now anyway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The garage, basement, and those black hole closets are often just spaces for dirty, dangerous and poisonous stuff you\u2019re pretty sure can\u2019t be left in your living room, supplemented with holiday decorations and the occasional power tool. With the right storage options (tight closing lids that are free from damaging moisture, insects and temperature fluctuations), they can be your best stow-away spots. But that does not mean they\u2019re immune from the Ditch or Donate process.<\/span><\/p>\n A word on furniture. Every year, we seem to acquire more furniture, and yet very little seems to go back out the door to compensate.<\/span><\/p>\n We can also often keep furniture because, well, it\u2019s big and we don\u2019t know what to do with it. Can you donate it, throw it away? What do all those things cost? And, uhhh, how do I get it there?<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re considering swapping or adding furniture this year, consider the following:<\/span><\/p>\n There are going to be some things, in the end, that you don\u2019t want to ditch or donate, but also don\u2019t have a place for in the everyday routines of your life, like your fake Christmas tree and your collection of weathered winter boots. If there are items outside those practical, seasonal clothes you just can\u2019t bear to part with, resist the urge to just stuff it all back in the closet, junk drawer or garage (where fabric items can suffer damage from moisture and temperature changes, even when properly boxed). Instead, consider renting a secure, climate-controlled storage unit.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have space in your place and don\u2019t have a garage, even the smallest storage units can help clear your gear. Typically around \u00a05 x 5 – which can hold a dresser, a mattress, and a bunch of boxes for storing off season clothes – these tiny walk-in closets can cost just $50-60 bucks a month. All you have to do is figure out how to transport it.<\/p>\n Which brings us to: How the heck are you going to move all this <\/span>stuff<\/span><\/i>?!<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Glad you asked. <\/span>Turns out, we\u2019re experts in the area of moving help, and make it painless and affordable. <\/b>Now that you have your Ditch & Donate boxes full to the brim, you have some great options for what to do with them:<\/span><\/p>\nOrganizing the Bedroom<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Decluttering Clothes & Shoes<\/h2>\n
Switching Out Seasonal Clothing<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Dealing with Mattresses<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Ditch:<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Donate:<\/b>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Organizing the Kitchen<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Ditch: <\/b><\/h3>\n
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Donate:<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Organizing Your Storage Areas\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Ditch:<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Donate: <\/b><\/h3>\n
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Furniture<\/h2>\n
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Help Moving your Stuff: Storage & Transportation\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Storage<\/h2>\n
Transporation<\/h3>\n
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