Okay, friends. It’s that time of year again – spring cleaning! If you find yourself motivated to whip your home into shape, but need some direction, you’re in the right place. The hard part about this yearly ritual isn’t so much the scrubbing, dusting, and vacuuming (since those tasks are necessary year round), but the opportunity it creates to really comb through our belongings, discard (i.e. donate!) what we don’t need, and organize what is kept. We’ve got some great tips to share today that will help you tackle even the trickiest of organization situations and all of them will upgrade your space while also helping your neighbors. How? Simply by supporting Goodwill! Eighty-three percent of collective revenues raised through the sale of donated goods support and grow Goodwill’s critical community-based programs and services. This helps to strengthen your locality, so as you donate and shop you are helping your hometown.
Image via facebook.com/MemphisGoodwill
If you truly have no idea where to start with spring cleaning I would suggest clicking the Zone In // Clean Out link shared on Memphis Goodwill’s Facebook page! This fantastic plan created by Lorie Marrero of the Clutter Diet includes multiple tips specific to each room of your house. My favorite piece of advice was for the storage room, which is a clutter magnet and a particularly horrible spot in our house. She notes that without a “skeleton” made of shelves, cabinets, and pegboards, stuff just gets shoved into the room and never sorted. As Lorie suggests, adding this skeleton will enable you to stash away infrequently used items while promoting order and ease of access! There are so many more tips available, like this and the one above, so don’t miss out!
Image via FamiliesThatStick.blogspot.com
Goodwill Industries of Western Missouri & Eastern Kansas (Kansas City, MO) also has some great input for organizing your home. Check out their Pinboard dedicated specifically to that task! A never-ending source of clutter in our home is the messy splay of receipts that somehow gathers on all of our kitchen surfaces. I love this suggestion I found in the Pinboard: grab two large apothecary jars from Goodwill for receipt organization. Label one jar “This Month” and the other “Last Month” and leave them somewhere easy to reach near where you will unpack any bags that come into the house. As you’re unloading groceries or other purchases, toss your receipts into the “This Month” jar. At the end of the month, discard the older receipts, swap the labels, and start anew!
Image via Goodwillista.blogspot.com
Finally, let’s talk a little about cleaning out that bedroom closet. Since spring cleaning is all about purging what we don’t need and straightening up what’s left, I wanted to focus a little on the versatile nature of our clothing. Pruning any infrequently worn pieces from your closet is the perfect start, and don’t be stingy! When you start to look at your staples with imagination, you’ll notice how many different ways garments can be styled! This dress (which was thrifted by Danielle of Goodwillista), for example, was worn throughout every season. Above are photos of the varied looks Danielle achieved, but if you read her whole blog post you’ll find that her friend did exactly the same thing! That’s eight completely different looks crafted around one versatile dress. Discovering how your clothing can achieve this flexibility will allow you to do more with less making your closet more organized and easier to keep clean!
I hope we were able to inspire your most thorough spring cleaning to date! Starting this new season on the right foot should help both your productivity and mood soar! Any tips for us? We can’t wait to hear!
