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4 decluttering tips for the best spring clean ever

27 Sep 2016

Spring has sprung and what better way to welcome the season of sunshine and flowers than with a good spring clean? Here are four tops tips to help get you started.

1. Start small

Before attempting to tackle the whole house, start with something small, like that bottom drawer in the kitchen filled with random junk… everybody has one of those. From there, move to cupboards and begin to work through a room in sections. It’s also a good idea to set a time limit, such as allocating a couple of hours per room over the space of a week - that way, the task won’t seem so daunting.

2. Space bags are your new best friend

With the warmer weather comes a change in bedding and your wardrobe. Space bags are an ideal way to pack away winter blankets, quilts, heavy wool jumpers and jackets, then shrink them down to half their size. They also work well for storing guest towels, linen and pillows, which can live neatly under the bed all ready to roll out when your next guests knock on the door. If you can face giving the garage a good tidy, consider using space bags to store any camping or caravan bedding too – it will make life a lot easier the next time you decide to hit the road.

3. A good cull is cathartic

There’s a fine line between holding onto items of sentimental value and becoming a full-blown hoarder. Your child’s first teddy bear is worthy of being tucked away for safekeeping; your collection of VCRs from 1985 is not. Four things you can immediately add to the skip include:

·      Wire coat hangers They’re not kind to your clothes and create an impossible web of metal to untangle in the back of the wardrobe.

·      Newspapers and magazines Fair enough, keep those iconic front pages from major world events gone by if you’re a bit of a history buff, but there’s no need to collect towers of print material, it only becomes a safety hazard.

·      Old paint tins Unless they contain the paint that’s currently on your walls, and will therefore be handy for any required touch-ups, get rid of those old paint tins. They’ll only team up with the towers of newspapers to create havoc in the garage.

·      Old clothes and shoes There’s nothing quite so invigorating as having a good wardrobe clear out. Keep that leather jacket from festival days gone by if you must, but it might be time to part with fashion trends that won’t be making a comeback anytime soon.

4. Invest in a label maker

The day you buy your own label maker will be up there as one of the happiest days of your life, trust me. This handy tool coupled with a collection of plastic crates from Bunnings will instantly transform your world, keeping your prized possessions safe, secure and organised. Use it to label under bed storage, linen press possessions and boxes that have been allocated to the ‘safe keeping’ pile up in the attic. It’s also worth its weight in gold when it comes to the kitchen pantry.