Spring Cleaning Projects

Spring weather has finally taken ahold of the Baltimore, Northern Virginia and Washington DC areas. The trees and flowers are in bloom and the weather is finally warming up! Springtime also signals the time to do cleaning and renovating projects around the house that were put off during the winter months.  It’s the season to open up the windows and let the fresh air in and let the musty winter air out.  It’s the time to get motivated on projects to freshen up your home by de-cluttering, reorganizing, painting and repairing. If you aren’t sure where to start with your cleaning projects, there are many online lists that can help: Reader’s Digest, Better Homes and Gardens and TLC. In the winter months, you attended home improvement shows  and got some great suggestions for spring and summer projects. Now is the time to put these projects into action. Spring cleaning, reorganization and remodeling projects are quite a daunting task. The most important thing to remember is to start with a plan and a goal for your project. If you are just doing your annual spring cleaning projects, make a list of what you want to accomplish in a day or a weekend and work towards that goal. You don’t have to do all of the projects in one day; it is okay to pace yourself on the tasks. Space out what you need to do, check off your “To Do” list and then move on to the next task. It is even okay to give yourself (and family members that could be helping you), small rewards for a job well done. Decluttering and reorganizing desks, closets and rooms comes along with spring cleaning projects. It is nice to freshen up a room with new accessories, either handmade or bought. But, if you are putting new items into a room, you will need to remove the “old” decorations. Sort through all of the items in the room that you are cleaning and categorize them as follows: keep in the room, place in storage, donate, sell or throw away. Don’t be afraid to really limit the amount of stuff in your rooms. If needed, purchase decorative storage bins or baskets to store items that are needed to be kept in a room. These storage options will help the room look more inviting. As you do your spring cleaning, it is also a good time to gather items to donate or sell in a garage or yard sale. Once you have sorted the items that you want to sell or donate, make sure that you move them out of the room as soon as possible. If you will not have a garage sale for a few months, rent a storage unit to place the garage sale items. ezStorage has month-to-month rentals for storage units, which makes storing items more convenient to a customer. ezStorage also has packing and moving supplies at every location. There are a variety of box sizes to fit any packing need. There is a sense of accomplishment when you cross off the spring cleaning project list. It can be a daunting project, but if you take your time, plan your projects, break down the projects into smaller time allotments and allow rewards, then the list can be easily accomplished and you can then spend time enjoying your new de-cluttered and clean rooms.