It’s time to emerge from winter hibernation and prepare to greet the spring season. Along with the usual change in weather comes a change in daily activities and, often, a desire to clean-out or clean-up and move our focus of activities outside the home. Here are some suggestions to help:
Gardening tools (rakes, shovels, clippers, etc.): You’ll be using these throughout the spring and summer so you want to store them in one place. If you don’t have outdoor storage, pick a corner in your garage. The smaller clippers, gloves, etc. can go into a carrier or hang on a pegboard within easy reach. The larger tools can be stored in a large plastic trashcan or a commercial corner tool stand, depending on space and number of tools.
Power Tools: Keep all manuals for your outdoor power equipment together, stored within easy reach for reference when it’s time for cleaning, maintenance or repair.
Sports Equipment: Organize your outdoor equipment by sport. Dedicate another area for all sports gear where it will be easy to grab what you need and go. There are many different types of sports equipment organizers on the market to suit your specific needs.
Lightening Up (the fun part of spring organizing): Here are some “just toss them away” ideas that will make you feel 20 pounds lighter when finished. Toss-out, donate, sell anything that is broken or outdated and any duplicate items. Don’t keep things you no longer use no matter what you paid for them. Go through those piles of paper and shred the expired coupons, out-dated schedules, calendars, scrap pieces of wrapping paper, old greeting cards, vacation brochures, recipes and clippings as well as outdated insurance policies, warranties, service contracts and all non-tax deduction receipts you haven’t referred to in the past three years. Get rid of newspapers older than one week and magazines older than three months. Keep only the classic books and CDs that you enjoy on a regular basis. Donate the rest to a library or other organization.
Misc.: Other items such as old tax records, school papers, extra furniture, keepsakes that are not used regularly that you still want to keep, put them in off-site storage. You don’t have to get rid of them now and it gets them out of your home. Recheck that storage unit in six months and donate the items you discovered you can live without. Your goal is to gain space for things you really love and use and save time.
If you have questions for “The Mess Doctor” or if you need professional assistance to get organized, contact Barbara Ricketts at MessDoctor@Mac.com or call 661-263-0124.