Well we’ve reached mid-April. Now that the tax returns have (hopefully) been filed, there should be some time to complete some projects around the house. Once the pollen has been cleared, it’s a great time to complete a few projects around the home. If you don’t even know where to start, here are a few little projects that you can complete in a few hours.
1) Cull through the books and magazines. You can take this one shelf at a time, and at the same time, get some much-needed dusting done as you empty each shelf. Donate books you’ll never read again to Little Free Libraries around the neighborhood. If you’ve been hoarding magazines, there are plenty of art teachers out there who would would love to have them for class. Once you’ve edited it down, have some fun rearranging the books you’ll keep and your favorite object in a new way.
2) Get organized for summer. If you have kids, they’ll be around all the time soon, getting shuffled from activity to activity. Create a fresh activity board to keep track of trips, play dates, swim meets. If you don’t have kids get a calendar cleared for those BBQs, long weekend getaways and garden cocktail parties.
3) Create a place for everything, so you can put everything in its place. If you need room in your coat closet or mudroom, put that winter gear in the attic to make room for summer things. If a lake, pool or beach is part of your and/or your kids’ summer fun, organize bags, bins or cubbies for goggles, boogie boards, flip flops, sunscreen and towels. Same goes for sports equipment.
4) Tackle the pantry and refrigerator. I myself have a deep pantry with some scary things in the back. Who knew canned soup expired? You have to have it stashed back there for a REALLY long time to figure that out! If there are staples you planned on using after reading about some diet on GOOP but never made one meal and they are still fresh, pack them up for the food pantry. Otherwise, you’re going to have to do some serious tossing. Once the space is cleared, wipe it down and start over. Style it pretty and resolve to try and shop fresh — if you style your fridge and pantry you’ll be more likely to keep them clean and less will wind up going to waste. Glass jars and lidded containers are a great way to easily see what kinds of leftovers you have going on.
5) Clean up your technology. Oh man those spaces behind the TV and the cable box likely have dust tumbleweeds forming. And phones, laptop screens, keyboards, iPads — they are gross; give them a wipe-down. While you’re at it, look through that junk drawer. It’s time to get rid of that flip phone, that firewire that came with that iPhone that was on the Edge network and while your at it, the old cases that fit no phone in existence on the planet these days, old batteries and the boxes everything came in.
Please let us know what kinds of spring cleaning projects you are working on right now.
