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.

For more tips and great ideas visit the homepage of Toronto Realtor Julie Kinnear!