Deep cleaning and organizing are important parts of keeping your household running efficiently no matter the season. While spring cleaning is the popular term, it’s important to take those same steps year-round.
The process of cleaning and organizing your home not only benefits the space itself but can take the stress off of your shoulders — by helping you prioritize the items in your home and rid of excess clutter. In most cases, we tend to hold onto items that are no longer serving our household and letting them go can help make way for new essentials or help you streamline your spending.
When you’re ready to organize your home, you may be wondering where to even begin. You’ve likely thought about the recycling process of materials or discarding some of them and may have even begun to search scrap metal near me to find the closest recycling services in your area.
Before you make any calls, let’s take a look at some of the items you’ll want to keep an eye out for as you begin to declutter your home.
Old Electronics
It’s not uncommon to swap out your old cellphone or laptop for the latest model, but it’s important to know what to do with your old electronics once they no longer serve you. Since you’ll likely never use these items again, it’s essential that they’re appropriately recycled to avoid ending up in landfills.
Recycling electronics is a valuable way to repurpose these items into new consumer products, which reduces the need to develop new electronics — which can have a significant environmental impact.
Receipts
While you may keep your receipts for a few days after your purchase, for budgeting purposes or taxes, they don’t serve much of a purpose past that date. If they’re essential purchases, consider storing them in a folder in a desk or file cabinet. Non-essential receipts can be recycled, which will often clear out drawers and declutter kitchen or dining room tables.
Unused Kitchen Supplies
Everyone has at least one kitchen utensil or piece of equipment that they’ve never used. Keeping these items in the home creates unnecessary clutter. Rather than holding onto them in case you decide to use them, why not donate or sell? With donations, you can help someone who may be in need of kitchen supplies but unable to afford them. If you decide to sell, you can use the extra money for essentials in the home or add it directly to your savings.
Expired Skincare
While we regularly check the expiration dates on our food, it’s not uncommon to miss items in and around the home, including your skincare. Your skincare, from lotions to makeup and sunscreens, comes with an expiration date that tells buyers when to discard these products. This is often because they lose their potency after a set time and require a fresh, new bottle or package to ensure they’re performing the way they were intended to. Not only does disregarding expired skincare protect your skin but removing such is a useful way to rid your home of unnecessary clutter.