Minimizing The Clutter And The Cleaning For Summer!

Do you feel overwhelmed when your house is messy and cluttered? I think we can all say YES to this. When we're surrounded by disorganization our brains feel it too. When we’re busy enjoying the warm weather and all the fun things we often put our house and cleaning on the back burner. Pretty soon the sink is completely filled with dishes and you’re wondering why you don’t have a spoon to stir your coffee or why the kids don’t have anymore clean clothes to wear. Yep, summer is here! 

Instead of waiting for a rainy day to force you to stay inside and clean lets minimize that clutter and make clean up easier. You will need to set aside a day or a weekend to get yourself setup for success. We’re constantly telling our sellers how to declutter their homes to help them sell. Let’s use some of these tips for ourselves too. Give our homes a fresh feeling for summer! 

Ever hear the phrase, ‘keep, donate, store, trash’? It's pretty much what we’ll be doing.

First start by grabbing some totes, a donate box and a trash bag (or 5)! Start by going through all the clothes, donate what no longer fits or you haven’t worn in 6 months. I mean, are you even going to miss it if you haven’t worn it for that long? Go through the sock drawer and any socks missing its mate or has hole, out with it! Now the coat closet, put all the winter gear away. This includes heavy boots! Something we all know takes up so much space in Alaska. 

Blankets! How many have you bought between fall and now? You don’t have to answer that, we are just as guilty! With warmer weather coming we aren’t going to need as many blankets all over the beds. Grab a tote or better yet get some of those space saver bags to really shrink them down.

Let's move on to the bathroom. Empty boxes lurking under the cabinet, travel sized toiletries you haven’t used, old makeup, and probably some expired sunblock from last year can all go to the trash. 

One area we all dread going through… the kitchen.

Start with the fridge/freezer. Expired or mystery items. Old sauces you haven’t used or food containers that got pushed to the back. That freezer burn meat, trash! We accumulate so much in our fridges so this is a big one. Also, the pantry! Many of the same things will be in your pantry and need to get tossed out. Expired items, stale chips or cereals, you name it its probably in there. 

Your cupboards need a good overhaul as well. You most likely have excessive amount of plastic containers or maybe just the lids, let's get these organized. Toss what doesn’t have a match and can’t be used. Chipped mugs and unused cooking tools or appliances? Trash what’s broken and donate (or sell) what you don’t use. 

The medicine cabinet. Expired medicines or supplements need to go! This is also a good time to figure out what you do need to stock up on. Bandaids or cold medicines might be low after the winter so make sure you restock what you need just in case. 

Do you have a stack of magazines in the corner or maybe a junk drawer or junk mail? Clear it all out. This will be one area you can really feel accomplished by cleaning out! Basically if it's collecting dust then it's time to get rid of it. This is a good time to mention all those candles. Time for a new seasonal scent anyway right! Don’t hang on to the burned down candles. 

Feel free to get the kids involved to! Broken toys or toys they no longer play with can minimize clutter quickly. Donating toys they’ve outgrown is a great way to teach them about giving to others as well.

Now don’t forget to label your totes! Go get to work and see how great it feels to minimize and declutter! You’ll have so much more time playing and not cleaning!