How to End Clutter and Make Home Organization Easier
I’ve spoken to quite a few people over the years who say they have very nice clothes they love but the don’t wear them anymore. But my question is this: If you value something so much…then don’t you think you should be wearing it?
The reality is we are a society who likes to accumulate and, dating back to the Great Depression, we tend to keep everything we believe has monetary value when, in reality, it really doesn’t.
For example, a pretty dress or a nice suit you bought ten years ago went for what can be considered a lot of money. And the problem is you haven’t touched it in nine years because, as most clothes do, it went out of style. Could it come back in style someday? Maybe. Styles do often return. But this is not a reason to hold onto things you don’t use…”just in case.”
You feel like, because you spent “good” money on it, you are throwing money away. But ask yourself this… is it putting money in your pocket sitting there in the back of your closet with dust on the shoulders? Is it giving you anything? Do you benefit at all from keeping outdated outfits? Now ask yourself one more question… will you gain anything by getting rid of it and donating it to charity? Of course you will!
The benefits?
More space to be able to keep the clothes you are going to wear (we only wear 50% of the clothes we own, by the way.) I might even suggest buying a new outfit for every three to five you get rid of.
The purpose?
Because new clothes make people feel good. I don’t recommend buying new clothes for the sake of buying new clothes and throwing away your money. But you’ve got to admit putting on a new pair of pants that make us look better is a nice, uplifting feeling. The thing is the items taking up space, yes, you paid for them. But by keeping something you no longer wear or use you are not getting anything in return but more clutter and a lack of storage space you could be using for something else.
Here is something you should do right now with items (they don’t have to be clothes) you are holding onto because you paid good money for them.
1. Go find ten items you own for one reason and one reason only… because you paid for it.
2. Grab a piece of paper and make three columns.
3. Write the items you are having trouble getting rid of in the left column. In the middle column, write “why I am keeping this item” and in the third column write “what will I gain by getting rid of this item.”
My guess is you will have a lot more in the right column than you will in the middle. Be specific with both. If you can honestly fill up the middle column with more reasons of why you should keep it, and they are good, legitimate reasons, then maybe you shouldn’t get rid of it. But I’m willing to bet that won’t be the case.
For the typical pet owner there are likely to be several times when you start wondering if it would be a wise idea to look towards a steam cleaner as the perfect solution to your problems. However, it s extremely important that you realize that a steam cleaner has a specific place when dealing with pet odors. Knowing these limitations and how to improve the results and ultimately remove the odors is extremely important and will help you to ensure that your home is not in a position of smelling bad, or looking strange.
You need to first understand that pet odors are terrible to deal with because of the amount of enzymes that they contain. Choosing a cleaner, whether for a steam cleaner or not is going to require looking for a cleaner that includes ingredients that will cut the enzymes. Without these required ingredients, it will be virtually impossible to remove the pet odors no many how many times you use the steam cleaner on the areas. Choosing the right cleaner will find you with a lot more time to enjoy other activities and typically only requires a single treatment.
You need to also ensure that you have thoroughly vacuumed the entire area you are going to steam clean before you get started. This will help you to remove any dirt, debris, and hair that might be present on the carpet. By removing this from the carpets you will free up a significant amount of time in which you would be capable to quickly and easily continue cleaning the carpets, rather than having to stop and continuously remove the hair and fur from the brushes of the steam cleaner.
It is also extremely important that you look for a good high-powered steam cleaner. Not all cleaners are created equally. The small cleaners that are designed to handle spot treatment are simply not effective enough to handle large areas and will typically not provide the powerful results that you need for excessive pet odors. In order to really combat these odors you will need a very powerful steam cleaner.
You can also treat areas with a mixture of white vinegar and warm water. By combining together a quart of water with only 8 ounces of white vinegar, you will have a very powerful odor remover that can be used. However, this also removes stains as well. In order to use this you will need to carefully spot test an area to ensure that it will not strip the colors out of your carpet. Without checking this ahead of time, you could quickly find yourself facing a rather significant problem.
Proper care for pet stains and odors really is possible. However, in order to achieve these results you need to know what you are looking for, and be ready, able and willing to combat them anyway possible. In order to get the very best results possible, you need to know and understand that you are not going to get the best results the first time unless you are using only the top cleaners as well as the very best steam cleaner on the market. Be prepared to treat and clean any area that has pet odors at least 2 times in order to really remove all traces of the odor and ensure that your pet does not return to the same place again.
A fresh water fish tank requires about 30 minutes to an hour of work a week depending on the size of the tank.
What you will need:
1. You will need a clean 5 gallon bucket that has never had chemicals or soap inside of it.
2. A hose or gravel cleaner
3. A bag of natural or synthetic sea salt
I have split the work into two parts the tank which needs to be cleaned ever week on the same day and the filters which can be cleaned every 2 or 3 weeks.
The very first thing you have to do before you start cleaning your fish tank is to unplug your tanks heater if you have one. The heater can not be allowed to be removed from the water while it is hot so make sure to leave it unplugged at least 20 minutes before attempting to remove it. The water help cool the glass on the heater if removed it could crack, or the glass could totally shatter. You should also remember to never stick your hand inside of any fish tank before making sure the heater is not only off but unplugged from the wall. A small crack in the heater could be more then enough to cause a shock to you that can be fatal.
After the heater has ha time to cool you can safely remove the heater from the tank or it the heater is submersible you can just push it down to the bottom of the tank.
Now take any decorations you may have placed in the tank, so all you have are the small gravel at the bottom, this will allow you to get any dirt that those decorations may have been covering up. Now if you do not have a gravel cleaner you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands wet. You will need to stir up the gravel to get the dirt that has settled between the gravel into the water, and start removing the water into the bucket with the hose. Do not throw out the water you will still need it to clean the filters.
If you have a gravel cleaner, push the plastic tube into the gravel until it hits the bottom of the tank, then start a siphon into the bucket, every second or 2 move the gravel cleaner over an inch or 2 and repeat this process until either you have removed 15 percent of the tanks water of you have cleaned all the gravel.
Now at this point you can clean the Aquariums filters. The insides of the filters are used to grow bacteria, that help break down the nitrites and nitrates that are in the water from fish waste and uneaten food. To make sure we don’t kill all these Aquarium friendly bacteria, we clean the filter materials and sponges in the dirty water that I also full of the bacteria. Take everything out of the filters and rinse them of in the bucket of dirty Aquarium water, then give the sponge a couple of squeezes in the bucket and reassemble the filters, and put them back on the tank.
Now before adding the water sea salt must be added to the tank. All water has some amount of salt in it and to replicate the natural habitat of the fish there must be salt in your tank as well. Add approximately 1 cup of sea salt for every 50 gallons of water.
Now you can add water to the tank, but you must make sure the water is the within a degree or two of the temperature of the water in the tank. A drastic change in the tanks temperature suddenly can throw the fish into shock and kill them or weaken their immunity and help give them a fish disease. I recommend filling the bucket with hot water and checking it regularly till it is the same as the tanks temperature, then slowly add the water to the tank, start the filters and the heater.
Cleaning the filters only needs to be done once or twice a month, but the water in the tank must be cleaned on the same day every week.
One of the most annoying things about moving house is the cleaning – and removing stubborn stains and marks is one of the hardest things to do when prepping your house for a move. Its always important, when using these tips to spot test and ensure that you won’t be doing more damage than good. You should also always take your cleaning items with you – a box of your most commonly used items or a checklist can save you time and effort in the long run. Some of the most common stains and marks can be removed with ease – with every day household items.
Scuffs and marks on woodwork can be removed with a pencil eraser – these marks, from shoes, wheels, or rubber bumping against things are hard to remove any other way, but come off with ease with a rubber.
Toothpaste isn’t just great for cleaning teeth – you can use it to remove stubborn ink, crayon, or scuff stains from any surface – be careful to test it on wallpaper first in an inconspicuous place. You’ll have to remove most of these stains from walls before painting as they can show through several layers of paint.
Toothpaste is also good for removing crayon from radiators, or glass – just rub lightly with a non abrasive cloth, or for tough stains, leave to sit for up to one hour before scrubbing gently.
You can remove unwanted paint from most woodwork by carefully scouring with a brass scourer – not too hard though, or you’ll scratch the other paintwork.
Scum stains, dried toothpaste and lime scale come off with liberal application of an oxy based paste – you can get any ‘oxy’ based cleaner (one that fizzes and heats up the water slightly) in most supermarkets.
You can remove moldy or damp smells just about anywhere with bicarbonate of soda. Simply apply to the smelly area (or leave a tub open in a cupboard or fridge) and the smell should be vastly diminished or gone within 24 hours. The same goes for activated charcoal, or a few drops of vanilla on a cloth. Baking soda is good for a whole month, so can be used continually, not just for cleaning for a move.
If you’re washing textured walls, use a nylon sock to do so – it means you won’t leave fluff in your wake – and always wash walls from the bottom up to avoid streaking, applying any cleaning solution you’re using (once tested to ensure paint, or wallpaper fastness) in small patches whilst you’re cleaning.
You can remove wax from carpets, floors or curtains simply by using an absorbent cloth and a hot iron – the wax should stick to the absorbent cloth and peel away easily.
Finally, don’t mix cleaning products – most contain either ammonia or bleach and when combined the fumes are deadly. Care should be taken when cleaning any are that has been spot treated with a different solution than you are mopping with, because not only are some mixes deadly, but others can react with one another and cause spotting, or ugly marks.
As more and more people worry about the state of the planet, many are now actively advocating about the need to conserve, and wisely use our precious natural resource. Recycling is one of the most popular conservation programs today. It involves the re-processing of old and used materials into new or reusable products. A lot of materials can be recycled.
Apart from metal, glass, plastic, aluminum, textiles, paper and electronics, organic wastes can also be composted and made into fertilizer. Rubber tires can now also be shredded and turned into insulation, erosion barriers and other unique products. Here’s a review of the popular and widely-accepted recycling programs of today.
In the US and elsewhere around the world, recycling and waste-recover programs take different forms. The United States recycles as much as thirty percent of its solid waste; European countries like Sweden, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands however have recycling rates of as high as 60 percent. Here’s a look at the most popular recycling programs today.
• Drop-Off Centers For Recyclables
A drop-off center refers to a central location that’s established to accept different types of recyclable materials. Even if a town or city has special curbside pick-up points, consumers may wish to transport their used materials here, especially if they have hazardous or toxic materials at home, and don’t know how to safely store these.
• Curbside Pick-Up Points
In a curbside recyclable pick-up program, specially-fitted trucks with separate containers roam the streets just like garbage trucks. Garbage-disposal crews then sort the materials that are thrown into the truck. However, some towns and cities require their residents to first sort the recyclables themselves, to make it easier for garbage crews to handle the recyclables.
• Refund or Deposit Programs
This program is popular in the US, especially for buyers of canned or bottled beverages. The beverage bottles or cans have a deposit added to the purchase price. Consumers may return the empty can or bottle to a collection facility, and redeem the deposit, which usually goes from one to five cents.
• Buy-Back Centers
These recycling centers operate in the same way as drop-off centers. However, these pay homeowners or consumers a price that’s based on the market value of their items.
Recycling offers a wide array of economic and environmental benefits. Recycling can help save millions of dollars from city or municipal budgets, because there’s less demand for landfills or new garbage collection trucks. Recycling can also generate as much income per ton as a landfill, and also generates six times as many jobs. A wide array of used consumer items are also collected and converted back into raw material, and are remade into new items or products.
This generates considerable savings for both manufacturers and consumers, and significantly reduces the volume of trash disposed in landfills.
