Chicago Tribune: How To Turn Spring Cleaning Into A Future Cleaning
Read Maeve's interview with the Chicago Tribune featuring spring cleaning tips.
As originally featured in the Chicago Tribune
One spring cleaning, enviable future neatness. Here's how to do it.
Ready for spring cleaning? Neither were we — until we got a little expert advice and came up with a method that will clear our present-day clutter, and set us up for a less messy future. Here's how to do it:
Get Toss, Donate and Organize baskets.
You'll use these annually for spring cleaning, said Beth Alcazar, author of The Neat Get Neater blog. "Just place all trash, loose items and other odds and ends in the appropriate boxes."
Carry the "toss" basket along as you clean, says Maeve Richmond, founder of the organizing coaching service Maeve's Method, to scoop up lingering holiday cards, catalogs, out-of-season magazines, never-read bedside reading, outdated event information and other accumulated clutter.
"Your home will feel lighter and more welcoming for your family," she says, "and you'll make room for spring and summer things."
Bonus step: Take note of those unwanted catalogs and remove yourself from mailing lists, stopping future clutter before it starts.
Start an outbox.
This is the box to store the items that are ready to make their way out of your home.
"You'll come across plenty of these as you spring clean," Richmond said. You can use a bin under your entryway table, a bag on a coat hook or a box in your front hall closet or a bag. "This will be used to hold items that need to be donated or taken out of the house," she said.
Even if you're not ready to start your spring cleaning, or get deep into organizing, you can set up your outbox to start thinking about what to pare down this season.
Clean the windows.
Cleaning the windows only takes 20 minutes, but it provides a huge impact, allowing so much extra light to enter your home.
Wash the inside of your windows with glass cleaner, and if you can easily reach the outside, then do those, too, Richmond said. Removing the dirt and the grime will bring bright light into your home, enlarging the space — and it'll motivate you to keep cleaning.
Use a Q-Tip.
Dirt collects in the tiniest places.
"Take five minutes to run a mild cleanser or rubbing alcohol-soaked Q-tip into the crevasses of your computer keyboard, phone keypad and electronic equipment power buttons," Richmond said. This quickly and easily removes the layer of dirt that has accumulated, and starts fresh. Your office equipment will feel like new.
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