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27th March 2021
10:00am GMT
2. Sort your kitchen drawers
Start by emptying the drawers, wipe them clean of crumbs and dust, and clean things like drawer organisers or other inserts you might have. Then sort through your utensils and kitchen bits – remember; nobody needs 11 spatulas. Toss anything broken, take stock and make notes if there is anything you need to put on your shopping list to re-buy.
If you have a junk drawer in your kitchen, tackle that too – and be ruthless. Keep only what you genuinely need.
3. Water (and re-pot) your plants
Take a walk-through your house and water all your plants that are thirsty. Got any plants that have outgrown their current pots? Take a trip to your local Tesco or Lidl for more soil (or wait until garden centres are back open), and re-pot those plants to bigger pots. Make sure to add some plant food or fertilizer too, your green plants will thrive because of it.
4. Organise old photos
If you have a ton of actual printed photos, take time to go through them, and then put them into an album in order. For most of us, the issue is all the thousands of digital pictures we have stored on old phones, tablets and laptops. Go through them, spend time keeping only the ones you really want, and delete everything else. Sort into folders, save onto a hard-drive and make sure everything is also stored in iCloud, just as a back-up.
5. Go through old baby- and children's clothes
If your children's wardrobes are anything like children's wardrobes, they are filled to the brim, both with clothes that currently fit, and also clothes they have long-since outgrown. Going through clothes like this is such a time-consuming task, I am very prone to always putting it off until some day when I 'have the time.'
And now, coincidentally, I have nothing but time. Take everything out, wardrobe by wardrobe, or chest-of-drawer by chest-of-drawer. Everything that still fits can be folded nicely and put back, but everything else has got to be dealt with. Sort into different bags – things you want to donate, stuff that is so worn-out is can be binned (like socks with holes in them, underpants that are too small etc.) and items you want to hang onto – whether for a future baby or for sentimental reasons.
And here's the most important bit: Finish the task. The bags for donation – take them out to your car and drive to your nearest clothing bank straight away. Stuff that is ready for the bin, bin it. And everything in the 'don't fit, but I still want to keep it' pile, store it away in a box in the attic or garage or spare bedroom or wherever, just don't put it back into your child's wardrobe.
6. Go through your fridge and pantry
Take everything out, clean out the shelves and compartments, polish any glass and let it all dry before starting to put things back in. Check expiration dates on everything and toss anything expired. Move things with shorter expiration dates to the front, so you remember to use it up first.
And lastly, make a list of staples you need to remember to stock up on the next time you go to the shops.
7. Declutter your devices
Go through your phone, tablet and laptop. Delete apps your aren't using anymore. Go through the photo folder and edit heavily, keeping only the images you want to keep. Go through your inbox, delete as much as possible, flag e-mails you need to reply to and file away things you want to keep.
Last, clean both your phone and tablet with an antibacterial wipe, and you can even do the same with your laptop, especially the keyboard. And while you are at it, give charger cords and headphones a clean too.
8. Deep-clean your bathroom
I always give my bathroom a bit of a scrub down every Friday (I tend to multitask and do this as my kids are in the bath!), but right now is the perfect time to give that bathroom a much deeper clean. I am talking scrubbing down shower, bathtub, sink, presses, hooks and the toilet – even taking time to clean the grout between the floor- and wall tiles.
As well as this, make sure you toss your bath mat into the wash on 60 degrees – it definitively needs it.
9. Tackle that paperwork
I don't know about you, but I am notorious for letting stacks of paper build up in both my handbag, as well as on a sideboard in my living room where I often leave post/warranties/receipts/instructions/etc. The problem? I then leave it for so long that when it comes to dealing with it, the task seems so overwhelming I put it off again and again.
But now is the perfect time to tackle this mess, I think. Gather all those papers you got lying around, be it bank statements, old receipts, tear-outs from magazines with recipes you want to try – everything. And then start organising. Make several different stacks, one for rubbish, one for 'deal with' (for anything that requires action or a reply) or another one for 'file away.'
If you really want to feel organised, use plastic folders to file away anything that belongs together, label them and keep together, so you can easily find things again if needs be, such as warranties, instructions or those recipes.
10. Sort out your kids' artwork
Anyone with kids will be able to tell you that, my lord, the amount of artwork they produce really is on another level. So use this time to really sort the 'keeps' from the 'recyclables.'
Get everything out and separate into two piles: recycle and keep. Then file away or display the ‘keep.'”
If you really have time on your hands and want to take things a step further, how about starting a family art gallery wall...?
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