Spring officially hit us last month and summer is a little over 2 months away, so that means it’s time to do some spring cleaning to prepare for the upcoming months! Most of the time, I really have no idea where to start but I find the following is a great guideline:
Sort out your clothes. With winter behind us and summer coming up on the horizon, it’s time to go through your piles of clothes sitting in your closet or on the floor. You don’t need your sweaters, large coats, thermals, scarves, etc.. Invest in a storage bin and set these clothes aside. If you’re like me and have empty luggage sitting in your closet, use that! It’ll take up the same space, but now you’ll have your winter clothes set aside for later on this year. While you’re putting away your winter clothes, look for clothes you don’t wear any longer. As your style evolves, the number of clothing items you have will most likely grow. I may not follow my own advice because I’m a hoarder, but you have to remember: you’re not going to wear that crop top anymore so donate it, sell it, or send it to your cousin(s) overseas and hope someone fits it.
Shred your old paperwork and junk mail. Remember when I said I was a hoarder? Well i’m much worse with paper and junk mail. But I’m definitely not alone. I was returning a somewhat pricey storage bin and the cashier lady went on a little rant about using storage bins for her old papers. She even found something from 10 years ago. Unless the paperwork can be used as evidence for something later on down the road, get rid of it. If you’re too lazy to shred your papers yourself, look for local shredding events or companies that will do it for a little fee. And don’t forget to sign up for paperless billing.
Manage your monthly bills. Obviously, this is something you should always pay attention to, but if it’s not something you are currently doing, now is a good time to start. After all, you gotta save up for that summer vacation you’ve been pining after. Take a look at your regular monthly expenses and weed out what you don’t need or use. For example, I wasn’t using my Netflix subscription, but I kept paying for it. It’s not hard to resubscribe so when I’m ready to binge watch some TV, I just sign up through the app for a month or so. Also, look at the data usage with your wireless company. 80% of the time I am on wi-fi at home or at work, so I went from an unlimited data plan to a 2 GB data plan. Verizon also has a safety mode so when I go over 2GB, I just get slower data speeds or I can choose to add more. Stop spending on things you aren’t using.
Clean out your phone. If you don’t clean your phone and open up your storage, that can have a great effect on your mobile device’s performance and speed. Plus, i’m sure you don’t want that dreaded “Not enough storage” message when you’re trying to take a selfie with your favorite actor at your local grocery store. Transfer your photos onto a USB/external drive or upload them to the cloud (but make sure you keep it clean if you know what I mean). Make room for new pictures from your upcoming trip. Delete apps that you aren’t using anymore. That includes games – you stopped trying to beat every level of Candy Crush a long time ago. And finally clear your mobile browser history for obvious reasons.
Clean/organize your space. This should be your top priority. There are days when you just grab something and instead of putting it back where you got it, you throw it somewhere out of the ordinary. Stop doing that! Whether it’s at work or at home, take a few minutes and envision how you want things to be organized and then take baby steps. You don’t have to finish everything in one day. I like to start with one section and once that’s done, move on. Make lists and reminders if you need to. Just like organizing your clothes, figure out what you need and don’t need. Keep a pile for trash and recycle if needed. Oh, and don’t forget to clean out your refrigerator. That sour cream expired last year.
What are your spring cleaning must-dos?
Feel free to share your tips with me as well!
xoxo,
Adele
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xoxo, adele 