Organizing Your Spring Cleaning

We are enjoying some wonderful Spring weather! It's been 70 degrees the last few days and for most of this week. It's made me start thinking of Spring Cleaning. We live in Upstate SC so I can't do the biggest part of my Spring Cleaning until after the yellow pollen is over with. Otherwise, I've wasted my time. But I can begin to plan my Spring Cleaning!

Take a cup of coffee and a spiral notebook somewhere quiet and begin making lists for your Spring Cleaning. I have made lists for each part of the house to remind me and you are welcome to use my lists. Other people have lists on the Internet so do a Google search and check out their lists. This is the Research & Development and Brainstorming part of this job.

What are the things you want to do in each room? Do you have closets or cabinets in the room that need cleaning, organizing, purging or painting? Are there things you need to repair? Are there things you want to purchase to help you in each room such as new bedding for the bedrooms or new towels for the bathrooms or new drawer organizers for the kitchen? Begin making lists.

Also start scheduling and planning on your calendar for when you want to do the jobs and who you need to do them. For instance, schedule a Saturday for you and your husband to clean out the garage and schedule your children to spend an afternoon or weekend in helping you clean out their closets and rooms. Let them know ahead of time, put it on the calendar and remind them as it comes up. As the manager of your home, you have to learn to delegate and train your "employees" (your family). If they can't do something then plan to hire the help you need. You can hire teenagers from your church to do some stuff like pressure washing the patio and porch or washing down your walls. Or hire a business to clean the carpets and upholstery. Or hire your out-of-work cousin to clean the gutters. Etc.

Now that you've gotten some ideas there are 3 things to focus on:
1) Make a List For Each Room/Yard of things that have to be done during the Spring Cleaning and Repair.

2) Use your Calendar and Schedule.

3) Make a To Do List so that you have everything scheduled, planned and items purchased and lined up for the big days.

Here are the links to my lists:
Part I Closets
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2007/04/spring-cleaning-part-i.html

Part II Bathrooms
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2007/05/spring-cleaning-part-ii.html

Part III Bedrooms
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2007/05/spring-cleaning-part-iii.html

Part IV Dining Room
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2007/05/spring-cleaning-part-iv.html

Part V Kitchen
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2007/05/spring-cleaning-part-v.html

Part VI Living Room
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2007/05/spring-cleaning-part-vi.html

Other postings of interest:
Organizing your closets
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2008/04/organized-closets.html

Organzing under your kitchen sink
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2008/03/organizing-under-kitchen-sink.html

Organizing your garage
http://sharonscrapbook.blogspot.com/2008/04/garage-ideas.html

Household Plastic

With the push to be more "green" I did a Google search on plastic wrap and bags with the idea of finding ways to store and re-use plastic. You can keep your plastic food bags and wraps organized. That way you aren't purchasing duplicates.






















You can wash and dry plastic food bags. Some people use a small clothesline and clip the bags upside down. Or take some wooden skewers and a couple of small glasses to make your own dryer.


You can use wooden dowels to make your own dryer for the plastic baggies.



You can re-use plastic baggies or plastic grocery bags and household plastic containers. Here are some great ideas from imaginative people that I found on the Internet about new uses and re-uses of household plastic.

Twelve plastic food bags can be used as a quick filing system for monthly receipts. Hang this up at your staging area (as you go in and out of the door) and slip receipts in it as you come home.



For holding game and puzzle pieces.



Keeping makeup together. If you use certain makeups together then use a plastic baggie to keep them together. For instance, you use certain makeups for your blue outfits, then keep all blues together in a baggie.



A tip! When you freeze your food, freeze it flat and then stack them.



Freeze homemade baby food, herbs, concentrates, broths in old ice trays. Once they are frozen, toss them in plastic freezer bags for the freezer.



Grate all your cheese into a food baggie so that it's easily available when cooking or garnishing.



Place a cup hook near an appliance and put the manual, schematics, parts lists and leftover pieces in a plastic baggie and hang from the cup hook. That way it will always be handy.



Fill an empty bottle with water and place it in your commode tank to save water.



Use to make a mini green house.



Use to hold computer cables. Organize your cables and keep like ones together.



Use baggies to keep stuff together in your diaper bag, picnic basket, gym bag, purse.



Keep your leftover change in baggies.



Use baggies to hold nails, screws, nuts and bolts, picture hangers, etc.



Place your recipe in a baggie to protect it from spills splatters while cooking.



Using a clear plastic bottle to make an attractive vase.















Using a plastic DVD spindle package to hold a bagel sandwich.



Making a sprinkler with a plastic bottle and used plastic pens.



Using green plastic bottles, cut up and made into this neat mobile.





Using a plastic lid for a spoon rest.



Use plastic baggies to protect your iPad, tablets, and other electronics. This can protect it from spills and splatters while you snack, eat lunch or drink coffee as you read.



A device that allows you re-use plastic grocery bags for recycling.



Crochet plastic grocery bags into shopping bags and other things.













You can make your own food storage bags without having to purchase plastic bags to begin with. You can also purchase these bags. They have to be laundered so I don't know how much you really save but it's a thought.














One tip that of mine is to save the wax bags that our cereal comes in and use it for our sandwiches.