Cleaning and Cleaning Supplies

1. Do it regularly - decide how often do you want to declutter a zone of you house. I recommend doing it every day, but only for a little time. Use a timer if necessary. Don’t try to do massive cleanup days and then nothing for months, work on a way to systematically improve your home. Don’t worry, in a couple months the house will be clean.
2. Assemble a decluttering kit - You will need medium sized boxes, garbage bags, a dust rag, markers and labels. Mark the boxes as “Give Away”, “Trash” and “Put it back where it belongs”. Now you want to line the “Trash” box with plastic garbage back
3. Have a direction - Determine a clear direction you’re going to work through your way in the current decluttering zone. Start at the entrance of the room or garage and work counterclockwise if you’re right handed (you can grab items with your right hand and hold the boxes with your left).
4. Be ruthless - don’t be afraid to eliminate as many things as only possible in your house. Follow the “When in doubt, throw it out!” guidelines - if you’re not 100% sure you need it, you probably don’t. It’s hard in the beginning but gets to be a real fun later on. Once the Trash box gets full, just place the whole thing in the trash can or wherever you keep your garbage for disposal. Donate clothes you don’t want to wear.
5. Batch - collect things in your “Put it back where it belongs” box and put them where they belong at a set time, all at once.

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1. Locate the place where the ants are entering the house. You can do this if you follow their trails.
2. Buy Diatomaceous earth at your local hardware store and apply it to the holes or cracks where the ants enter. If you have trouble finding it, get baby poweder as some contain this material. Check back regularly and if they’re still there, apply some more. Ants will not get close to this place, because they almost immediately die if they touch it.
3. You can get rid of the remaining ants by spraying baby powder mixed with water on them. Make sure you sweep the floor after you do this.
4. For a more animal friendly way of getting rid of ants, try to spray them with a peppermint essential oil / water mix. You can also soak a long piece of string in peppers or cinamon and put it around your home.
5. Consider planting mint plants along your house. It will keep them out

For more tips about buying and selling homes or housekeeping, visit Vancouver Real Estate.