Happy Earth Day, friends! Let’s celebrate by ridding our earth – okay, our homes – of some junk! For me, a good organizational purge feels like a soul-soothing, brain balancing, spiritual cleanse that leaves me with a sunnier outlook, an ability to find my stuff and, best of all, a home that looks neat as a pin. Pinterest is filled with pages and pages of great organizational techniques, so I know I’m not alone in my quest for neat, tidy spaces. As a Realtor, I also spend quite a bit of time advising new clients on how to showcase their homes in the best possible light. Sometimes, this involves a significant cash outlay. But sometimes, the only change required is an orderly vision, some muscle and a deep desire to lighten our load. The key to this process is being mindful about how we get rid of our stuff and utilizing the 3R’s as we clean, organize and rid our homes of clutter and chaos.
I know it is tempting, particularly when you are racing the clock to get your house listed quickly, to just toss everything you don’t need or want. The problem with this approach is that you make your junk someone else’s problem. Instead of adding to our landfills, how about making a plan to recycle and repurpose? All you really need is a staging area – garages are great for this — and some will power. Before you begin, identify three key rooms that you’re going to organize. If you’re cleaning and organizing in order to sell your home, I suggest focusing on the kitchen, family room and master bedroom. Deliver three boxes to each room and get busy.
Go through each room and commit yourself to filling those three boxes… one will go straight to the trash pile, one should be filled with recyclables and the final box will be repurposed or donated to a worthy charity. What goes into the trash box should be pretty obvious, but people often toss items that can be recycled. Did you know you can recycle electronic equipment by contacting your town hall? Most have convenient drop-off hours and are happy take computer monitors, old television consoles, old cell phones and more. Clothing and apparel should be taken to your local Goodwill or consignment shop. If you need a pick-up service, give my friends at ARC a call. They will be thrilled to pick up old clothing, books, dishes, linens… basically anything other than furniture and appliances! For those items, consider calling Habitat For Humanity’s ReStore.
Eliminating three boxes of “stuff” from these rooms should make you feel so much better and make your house look larger, cleaner and well cared-for… traits that potential buyers definitely want to see. If you have loads of extra energy, apply the same “three-box” principle to the garage… then, retire to your beautiful backyard and enjoy this gorgeous (Earth) day with a yummy beverage and a “green” sense of accomplishment!
