Any Spring Cleaning Plans?

bmo88 · March 2017

It's a little slow, so figured I would start a thread.

Spring is officially 9 days away (March 20) and a lot of people see the Spring as a time to clean out closets, sell off a few items and tidy up.

Any plans?

als1982 · March 2017

We cleaned out the basement this week, which meant sweeping up the bugs and dust and wiping down the two storage shelves we keep down there that hold (ironically) cleaning and laundry supplies, toilet paper, paper towels and toilet paper. I did end up throwing away a few boxes I had kept from when we remodeled our bathroom and bought a new washer and dryer.

Other than coats, scarves and boots, my wardrobe is pretty multi-seasonal, but I will eventually pack those away.

I was able to rake and bag the rest of our fall leaves and dead winter grass last month when it was so warm. I'd like to buy and lay new mulch, but I've learned to wait until after my trees shed their spring pollen and seeds (I have 60+ year old "whirligig" trees).

vlagrl35 · March 2017

I decluttered last year so not much to do on the inside of the house. I will need to go thru DD's toys after her birthday next weekend. DH will need to clean out the garage this spring as he didn't do it in the fall. I would like to go thru the basement this spring. I'm debating wether or not to donate all of DDs little clothes to make more space in our basement and little toys that don't mean much of anything. I know DH will want me to keep them in case we ever have another baby but either way I need to pick up the basement and make it look more organized.

csuave · March 2017

I'm doing a Lent challenge to find 40 things to donate. I'm actually not Catholic but I saw it on Facebook and figured it would be good motivation to get rid of some clutter.

So far I have cleaned out 3 closets and organized two dressers in the process. I'll probably get to do all of the closets this month at my current pace.

I would like to do some additional cleaning but will probably just pick a couple of rooms instead of doing the entire house.

The basement needs some major cleaning and organizing. Ideally I'll get that done by the end of summer. It is really cold down there now so not the best time to get started.

smerka · March 2017

My moms group's resale is Saturday so I've been purging the kids stuff. I have a goal of having nothing on the floor of my closet. I still have a lot to go. Once tax season is over, I'd like to get some walls cleaned/repainted.

LillibetteV · March 2017

We have already started! We are still in declutter phase and then once it's warmer I'm going to move on to deep cleaning EVERYTHING. The basement is going to need a lot of attention soon too. The nesting instinct is strong and all I want to do is clean.

We have a few bins filled for a family yard sale in May, DH is working on selling a bunch of board and video games online, and the rest of the stuff is being given away through Buy Nothing Project or donated to Savers.

It's amazing how much crap two people can have in one house.....

labro · March 2017

I did a lot of de-cluttering last year so I don't have QUITE as much to focus on this year. The focus right now is on the basement. I just finished repainting the laundry room which required disassembling a plywood shelving unit we made that was full of bulky Costco things but also a bunch of random junk. So basically that's forcing me to grow through it all, check that nothing is expired, and toss/donate anything we don't need anymore.

Next step is repainting and organizing DH's office which is our other basement room. It's where we keep all of our files so it tends to get cluttered with papers we're too lazy to stick in the filing cabinet...oops.

jtmh2012 · March 2017

We haven't started a dedicated spring cleaning, but I have started doing little things when our son is down for his nap. It's funny how just going that makes the clutter seem less. I need to find out how this area handles its electronic waste. I don't like the idea of just tossing it in the trash can (you're not supposed to anyway, but people do). Might donate some of it to Goodwill. Probably not worth trying to sell any of it.

I'd do "free to a good home", but not worth that trouble either.

csuave · March 2017

@jtmh2012 Best Buy will take a lot of ewaste. Not tube TVs though. Those are hard to get rid of.

LillibetteV · March 2017

jtmh2012 said:

We haven't started a dedicated spring cleaning, but I have started doing little things when our son is down for his nap. It's funny how just going that makes the clutter seem less. I need to find out how this area handles its electronic waste. I don't like the idea of just tossing it in the trash can (you're not supposed to anyway, but people do). Might donate some of it to Goodwill. Probably not worth trying to sell any of it. I'd do "free to a good home", but not worth that trouble either.

I don't have a kid yet, but I try to do a little in between my own naps and it helps SO MUCH. I did a 10 minute sweep of the dining room yesterday and came up with another decent sized pile of stuff to get rid of - it really doesn't take much. I like to use those small chunks of time for the low hanging fruit. I can't go through sentimental items in 10 minutes, but pulling out all of the candle holders and vases that haven't seen the light of day in a year? Easy peasy. And I probably still kept too many, but I cut the collection by at least half.

cbee817 · March 2017

We did a bit over February break and will do more over April break in a few weeks. DH can usually get through stuff during the day while the girls are playing. We are supposed to have a big snow storm this week too so everything is still in winter mode anyway.

jtmh2012 · March 2017

LillibetteV said:

I can't go through sentimental items in 10 minutes, but pulling out all of the candle holders and vases that haven't seen the light of day in a year? Easy peasy. And I probably still kept too many, but I cut the collection by at least half.

Yeah, that's my problem. I'm either to sentimental about some things and others I know are still potentially useful and I hate to part with them.

jtmh2012 · March 2017

csuave said:

@jtmh2012 Best Buy will take a lot of ewaste. Not tube TVs though. Those are hard to get rid of.

I actually looked up our areas information. Apparently, Goodwill will take most computers/accessories through a Dell Reconnect program and our local landfill will take it at their recycling center, but there's a $7 fee unless you go on their amnesty days which there's one coming up in May.

Just checked BestBuy's page. There's a $25 fee per item. That's just not going to work with the amount of stuff I'm purging. I'm an old IT geek......lots of stuff.

julieanne912 · March 2017

I need to do some actual good deep cleaning. But part of me wants to just wait to do it until after we get the landscaping finished this summer. Right now the yard is still just dirt, and the dogs bring so much of it inside, especially since we've had hardly any snow, so it's very dry and dusty out there. One dog likes to literally roll around in it and then come inside :-/ I keep up with the basics, but we really need to do stuff like clean the carpets, scrub the baseboards/walls, that kind of thing.

I'm pretty good about purging on a regular basis, I just donated 2 garbage bags full of clothes, and have another I need to ship off to ThredUp. Also H keeps saying he's going to shop vac the entire basement (he actually carried the vac down there, so that's a start LOL), but we keep running out of time on weekends while he's still travelling. Hopefully that's done in the next couple weeks.

smetter04 · March 2017

We've been 'spring cleaning' since the new year pretty much, but it's involved pretty major reorganization of our house so it's a work in progress. This weekend we shampooed the carpet in the basement office room and moved H's computer desk down there, and will eventually move the futon in there but it needs to be vacuumed off first...etc. etc. We also are waiting for warmer weather to finish rehabbing the work bench that will greatly aid tool organization and open up a couple junk drawers upstairs. There's so much more we're organizing/cleaning as we go but I'll spare you the details :P

LillibetteV · March 2017

jtmh2012 said:

LillibetteV said:

I can't go through sentimental items in 10 minutes, but pulling out all of the candle holders and vases that haven't seen the light of day in a year? Easy peasy. And I probably still kept too many, but I cut the collection by at least half.

Yeah, that's my problem. I'm either to sentimental about some things and others I know are still potentially useful and I hate to part with them.

I used to be the same way about useful items until I finally realized that an item WAS useful and wasn't being given an opportunity to do its job. I kind of personified my items and thought "well I wouldn't want to sit in a cupboard all day when I could be doing something useful for another family" so I felt better passing stuff along. Joining my local Buy Nothing Project helped with this feeling a lot - I get to see the actual neighbor who needs the item I don't use anymore and know it isn't just getting dumped in a landfill.

formerlyjessica490 · March 2017

We are cleaning our whole house top to bottom as of the last few weeks. We have one room left to go. We wash walls, curtains, floors, the whole 9 yards.

jtmh2012 · March 2017

LillibetteV said:

jtmh2012 said:

LillibetteV said:

I can't go through sentimental items in 10 minutes, but pulling out all of the candle holders and vases that haven't seen the light of day in a year? Easy peasy. And I probably still kept too many, but I cut the collection by at least half.

Yeah, that's my problem. I'm either to sentimental about some things and others I know are still potentially useful and I hate to part with them.

I used to be the same way about useful items until I finally realized that an item WAS useful and wasn't being given an opportunity to do its job. I kind of personified my items and thought "well I wouldn't want to sit in a cupboard all day when I could be doing something useful for another family" so I felt better passing stuff along. Joining my local Buy Nothing Project helped with this feeling a lot - I get to see the actual neighbor who needs the item I don't use anymore and know it isn't just getting dumped in a landfill.

Sadly, I think most of mine is going to meet an e-waste recycler. I have parts here for computers that are long past their prime. Even most of my computer friends have moved on to newer stuff. It's just time sadly...

mmabe · March 2017

Yes. I worked on my closet this weekend and got rid of several bags of clothes. I have held onto clothes that no longer fit me after two pregnancies for too long. I assumed that if I ever get back to my old size, I'll want new clothes anyway since these are several years old now.

I also plan to declutter the basement and will try to sell some of the old toys on a mom's Facebook group. The problem is that I need a good chunk of time to work on this when my kids are not around. There are several toys, which I know do not sell, so have been saving those for our junk away days in April.

I am also trying to organize our basement storage room. My goal in Lent was to spend 30 minutes each day organizing, but it has been tough with sick kids and everything else I have to do in the short time I have at night.

short+sassy · March 2017

We did some deep cleaning over the two previous weekends. But not really any purging. I need to get better with that.

AprilZ81 · March 2017

I did a lot of organizing and purging last summer so there isn't a lot to do. We are doing a bathroom remodel this summer so I feel like it is pointless to do a super deep clean when in a few months the house will be a construction zone.

That being said, our house is a mess and we need to get it picked up. We are hosting small group this weekend so that will force us to get the downstairs spotless.

vlagrl35 · March 2017

I've started deep cleaning the house before DD's spring break next week. Once she's back in school I'll deep clean the 2nd floor and then move on to the basement.

Any Spring Cleaning Plans?

Re: Any Spring Cleaning Plans?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards