Spring cleaning/clearing out? Try these tricks of the trade!

With everyone practicing social distancing, now is a perfect time to check off your spring cleaning list or just tackle some long overdue sorting/clearing while inside anyways. This is especially important if you’re still in your own home and thinking about moving into a community in the near future. Tackling the clearing out process in advance can make it easier and a ton less stressful.

Cierra Olmstead of A Move Handled With Care recently shared some of her handy cleaning and clearing out tips with our Holly Creek Life Plan Community. Check out some of the ideas she shared and tips we’ve gathered for our current and future residents!

Some Simple Tips for Clearing Out:

• Make yourself a plan of attack with the 4-step WADE formula!
  1. Write it down: Write all activities in your planner
  2. Add it up: Estimate how long each task will take
  3. Decide when: Designate when each task will be completed
  4. Execute your plan: Put your plan into action
• Clear out before cleaning – Choose a section or drawer at a time (i.e. one per day) to clear out. Start in areas you don’t use on a daily basis and use a sticker or tape to mark off what you accomplish!
• Give away things you don’t need to have. These include duplicates, excess, undesirable and irrelevant items.
• Create and organize items by destination piles. Try these categories:
  • Keep
  • Friends and Family
  • Sell
  • Donation
  • Trash
• If you’re moving from your current house to a community, assign items you’re keeping to a location and organize them in boxes or totes labeled with where they should “live” in your new home.
• Don’t feel that you need to sort all on your own! Enlist family and friends to help you (after you’ve checked that they’re feeling well – health and safety first!).

Some Simple Tips for Cleaning:

• Consider arming yourself with a mask and hair net along with gloves if you have bad allergies.
• Clean your equipment first:
  • Run a washing machine cleaning cycle with special detergent.
  • Make sure your dryer and vacuum are cleaned out of previous dust and debris.
  • Clean your brooms and dusters with warm, soapy water.
• Always work from top to bottom—start with using an extendable duster to clean fans, light fixtures and ceilings before moving to walls, etc. so that dust and debris are forced to the floor before you vacuum.
• Wash your windows and window blinds—it’s easy to focus on floors and counters and forget that windows need some love too.
• Use or get a vacuum with HEPA filtration that can not only remove dirt and debris but also invisible particles like pet dander and allergens.
• Curtains: Air dry window/shower curtains in your dryer to rid them of wrinkles, and change out your shower liner or clean it in your washing machine’s delicate cycle with several towels.
• Kitchen (a.k.a. one of the toughest places to clean):
  • Run some lemon rinds through your garbage disposal to freshen your sink.
  • Try microwaving 1 cup water with chopped lemon/lime/orange or several tablespoons of vinegar for several minutes to clean your microwave. Let the water/lemon or vinegar sit and cool for 15 minutes before removing and wiping out the microwave’s inside with a sponge.
  • Use a de-greasing cream to clean cabinets, especially around your stovetop.
  • Run your oven through its self-clean cycle to clean racks and grime inside.
• Properly dispose of old meds by following Colorado Household Medication Take-Back Program guidelines. DON’T flush them down the toilet. Throw out cosmetics as well as food with labels out of code.