Spring Clean Your Home

Spring has sprung so it's time to spring clean your home.  Now that we have decluttered our space first (checkout our Declutter Your Life Post), it's time to tackle and clean some of the dirtiest items in our homes.  Here are some tips on how to clean those dirt traps in your home:

1) Cleaning Tools: Before you clean your home, ensure that the equipment you are using is cleaned and ready to tackle the entire home.

• empty vacuum canisters of existing dirt and dust
• clean interior of canister & wipe down exterior with water and vinegar (1:1 ratio)

2) Beds:

• Remove all bedding & wash in hot water (wash weekly at a minimum)
• Wash pillows seasonally & replace every couple of years
• Mattress: Sprinkle with baking soda & vacuum, flip mattress and turn 180oC seasonally, finally sprinkle other side with baking soda & vacuum

3) Fans: Fans are a trap for dirt & allergens plus they move are around, depositing those allergens in the air your family breathes.

• Cover area below fan with sheet or drop cloth
• Spray with Water & Vinegar (1:1 ratio) and fully wipe down
• Clean seasonally at a minimum

4) Carpets:  Did you know that carpets can hold up to 4 times their weight in dirt? 

• Steam Clean your carpets seasonally
• vacuum at least weekly.  More often if you have pets & young children

5) Tooth Brushes: They can carry more than 10 million bacteria on one brush.  YUCK!!!

• Replace every 3 months
• Don't flush where you brush.  Ensure your brushes are at least 3' away from the toilet & ultimately close lid on toilet before you flush.
• Use products like Vio Light for smaller bathrooms

6) Cell Phones: In today's society, we are taking our phones everywhere and I mean everywhere.  They can carry up to 25,000 germs per square inch.

• clean daily with microfiber cloth (be sure to remove case often and wipe down)
• Spray lightly with water & alcohol and wipe down (weekly).  The alcohol is a drying agent so as long as you spray lightly & wipe down immediately, there is no concern for water damage

7) Handles & Switches:

• Clean often with water & vinegar (1:1 ratio)

Declutter Your Life

Now that spring is upon us, it’s time when many of us do a full spring clean of our home.  Before I tackle a full spring clean, I make sure I declutter my space.  A full spring clean is definitely more efficient once the space is decluttered. Did you know that 1/3 of all of our stuff isn’t used? And 1/5 of our home is used for storage!  Physical clutter ultimately leads to mental clutter and can increase stress levels, increase anxiety, and affect your overall health.

Clutter Culprits:

1)      Impulse Clutter:  We all have it!!!  These are the items we purchase by ‘impulse’ while out & about shopping.  These are the blouses you buy and when you get home, you realized you have a handful of similar blouses and ultimately all of them are not even being worn now.  These are the hand tools you buy because you can’t find the ones you currently have.
How to tackle this clutter:
·         Have a specific home for all items in your home
·         Discard or donate any duplicates of items (hand tools, clothing, kitchen gadgets, etc.)
·         Purge closets & storage area (check out our Spring Clean Your Closet post)
·         Maintain a 1 in, 1 out habit – when you purchase a new article of clothing, discard or donate one.  When you buy a new kitchen gadget or utensil, discard or donate the older duplicate.

2)      Disposable Clutter: These are the items we hold on to thinking that we might need it or use it in the future and never do.
How to tackle this clutter:
·         Discard any broken, damaged, outdated items
·         Electronics – sell or discard any old phones, DVD players, computers, cords, etc.  Check your municipal electronic disposal policy.
·         Paperwork – every year when you do your taxes, shred and discard any old tax years (in Canada save for 7 years).  Use your smart phone to make to-do lists, shopping lists, etc. in order to eliminate all of those post-it notes around your home/office
·         Go through your entire fridge, freezer, & pantry and discard any expired food items
·         Do not have a junk drawer – everything should have a place in the home.  “Don’t put it down, put it away” Peter Walsh, Organizing Guru

3)      Emotional Clutter: These are the items we hold onto for sentimental reasons but end up taking up so much space that mentally it affects us in a negative way.
How to tackle this clutter:
·         Gifts – if you receive something that you don’t use, don’t like or don’t have the space to store, don’t feel bad by donating them.  I personally would not try selling an item I received as a gift, donating to a better home is my only option here.
·         Collectables or items you inherited – there is no need to keep the entire collection of collectables.  Select your favourite pieces of the collection and discard or donate any ones in disrepair and/or ones you have no connection with.  Take pictures of entire collection for future memorabilia.
·         Kid’s crafts & drawings – I recommend picking your top 5 favourite pieces per year and display or place in journal.  Take pictures of all the other wonderful creations your children create and then discard.  Sort all these pictures on a key drive and can be easily viewed for future memorabilia.

4)      Digital Clutter: In this day and age, we spend so much time on our computer & phone so doing a spring declutter on these items is equally important.
How to tackle this clutter:
·         Unsubscribe to ALL spam, junk, unwanted emails.  For the next couple of weeks, instead of just deleting all unwanted emails, be sure to click on email, scroll to bottom, and click on 'unsubscribe'.  This might take you a couple extra minutes over the next couple of weeks, but will save you a lot of time and mental stress in the future.
·         Social Media – Unfollow any negative nellies on your social media platforms.  Negative energy on your feed just allows that energy to come into your life.
·         Phones – clear photos off your phone at least monthly, organize and delete unwanted shots.  Also, delete any unused apps on your phone.
·         Computer Files – have minimal folders on your desktop.  Break in to main areas and subdivide within the folder e.g. home, family, personal, business. 
·         Create non-digital times/boundaries with your family e.g. no phones at dinner time, family time, movie night, game night, etc.  And be sure to put down your digital device 1 hour before bedtime.

Spring has sprung so it’s time to get our space & mind decluttered and cleaned.  For any assistance or questions with regards to decluttering your home, please contact us at (416)262-0609 we would be happy to help!  Happy Spring!

Spring is in the air

Spring is definitely in the air, especially in South Western Ontario. This recent spring-like weather can be a motivator to get you into your garden. Although it’s a great time to take advantage of the weather, it’s still a little early to do anything significant in the garden. Never the less, it’s a great time to get a jump on the season and your curb appeal. Especially if you are listing your home this spring, curb appeal is the most crucial thing you have to lure home buyers to your home.  Here are a couple of stylicious tips that can give you a head start:

1. Clean Up Your Garden – This is a great time to clean up any debris in garden, cut down any dead growth to allow new growth to come through, rake out your grass, and trim back any dead branches on shrubs and trees.
2. Pull Out Your Gardening Journal – It’s a great time to remind yourself of the goals you set last season for this coming season. This will allow you to schedule your time over the next couple of months to provide adequate time to complete these projects. Also, doing these projects early in the season will allow you to enjoy it throughout the gardening season. Your journal will remind you of any to-do items that you have recorded for March/April. Finally, if you don’t currently have a gardening journal, we encourage getting one now so you can record your tasks to do each month, and future hopes and dreams you have for your garden.
3. Sowing Seeds Indoors – With the new 100 mile diet trend encouraging everyone to eat locally grown, what better than having veggies and herbs at your finger tips, right outside your back door? This is the time of year to start planning and preparing your seeds. Most seeds require 6-12 weeks germination/growth before you can transplant them outdoors. Check your local weather trends for the average last frost date. For most of South Western Ontario, it is usually May 15-24.

Spring Clean Your Closet

It’s the time of the year to change over your wardrobe from winter to spring/summer. Having a well organized, seasonal closet space not only saves you money, but clears your mind space anytime you get ready.  Follow these stylicious tips and you will be well on your way to perfectly organized closet spaces in your home:

1) Start.  Often starting is half the battle.
2) Purge any torn, worn, or out of style articles of clothing. Be sure to donate what you can and save some for rags for any future renovations/painting jobs.
3) Sort clothes into like items (e.g. blouses/dress shirts, sweaters, pants, blazers, casual, etc.)
4) Sort by colour (e.g. black, white, colours, etc.)
5) All blouses, dress shirts, pants, blazers, etc. should be hung on identical type and colour hangers. We recommend wood, grey or white.
6) All other items can be folded neatly into like piles.
7) Are you confused which items to purge and what to keep? Hang all hangers backwards and when you wear and clean a certain article of clothing, put the hanger back in the correct direction. Any items that are still pointing backwards in the fall...PURGE!
8) If you have the space and prefer to store your shoes in their box, take a picture of the pair of shoes and place the picture on the front of the box.
9) Use slide out hangers/hooks for scarfs, belts, ties
10) Use the valuable real estate on the back of the closet door for shoes, accessories, hooks, and/or a full length mirror.
11) Use baskets and/or drawers for small items like accessories, hand bags, socks, and underwear
12) Store any winter/fall items away for the season into baskets and/or plastic bins under the bed or into a cedar closet.

The picture above is provided by House and Home Magazine, which is a closet I, Karen Wardell, designed while working for California Closets.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

This week in South Western Ontario has been quite rainy but our gardens need the watering to bring us beautiful flowers come May. After the rainy period, it’s a great time to get into the garden and continue the clean up. The moisture in the soil makes it easier to remove unwanted items in the garden. Here are some weekly stylicious tips that you can do to continue preparing your garden for an enjoyable summer:

1) Many of us treated ourselves to an Easter Lily this past weekend. Be sure to enjoy it inside until the last frost date in your area and then transplant it outdoors to enjoy next year.

2) Remove any maple saplings, grass, and weeds from within you perennials before their root structure has time to develop. This allows the perennials more breathing room and as well, makes it much easier to remove the growth before your garden is in full bloom.

3) Fruit trees and bushes (e.g. raspberries) only grow fruit on second year growth and will not produce fruit on branches that produced fruit last year, so prune back any non-fruit bearing branches.

4) Turn over your compost – take good soil from your compost and top up the gardens after you have weeded them well. Bury remaining soil with new garden clippings and start adding food scraps on top. Be sure to continue to turn over your compost throughout the spring/summer. Layering your deposits (small branches/food scraps/soil) will help produce a healthy, nutritious compost.

5) Fertilize your lawn – Since grass is coming out of dormancy, it’s time to feed your grass. We recommend fertilizing with a corn gluten fertilizer at this time of the year since it will coat any seeds from weeds and prevent them from germinating. However, do not seed your grass for several weeks after application since the corn gluten will coat those seeds as well and prevent them from germinating.

Happy Gardening!

Spring Forward

Spring is definitely in the air, especially in South Western Ontario. This recent spring-like weather can be a motivator to get you into your 2012 garden. Although it’s a great time to take advantage of the weather, it’s still a little early to do anything significant in the garden. Never the less, it’s a great time to get a jump on the season. Here are a couple of stylicious tips that can give you a head start:

Clean Up Your Garden – This is a great time to clean up any debris in garden, cut down any dead growth to allow new growth to come through, rake out your grass, and trim back any dead branches on shrubs and trees.

Pull Out Your Gardening Journal – It’s a great time to remind yourself of the goals you set last season for this coming season. This will allow you to schedule your time over the next couple of months to provide adequate time to complete these projects. Also, doing these projects early in the season will allow you to enjoy it throughout the gardening season. Your journal will remind you of any to-do items that you have recorded for March/April. Finally, if you don’t currently have a gardening journal, we encourage getting one now so you can record your tasks to do each month, and future hopes and dreams you have for your garden.

Sowing Seeds Indoors – With the new 100 mile diet trend encouraging everyone to eat locally grown, what better than having veggies and herbs at your finger tips, right outside your back door? This is the time of year to start planning and preparing your seeds. Most seeds require 6-12 weeks germination/growth before you can transplant them outdoors. Check your local weather trends for the average last frost date. For most of South Western Ontario, it is usually May 15-24.

Check for our next entry on How to Sow Seeds Indoors. An easy way to get ahead this season!