New Year Cleaning Challenge

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The holiday season is past already and while we clean, dust, mop, vacuum and do whatever it takes to keep the home clean, we figured now is a good time to brace for the New Year cleaning challenge. Think of it as a New Year resolution to have a cleaner more organized home. Now that you know what the New Year challenge is about, here are 5 challenges to rejuvenate your home in the coming year – oh and the best part is, if you get through Challenge 1, Challenge two becomes a lot easier.

Ready, Set?

Let’s get started!

Challenge 1: Downsize your home

Consider this post-holiday rule if you are looking to keep an organized home next year: for each new item, any member of your home gets, three old items have to be given away before the new one is put-away. So if your daughter gets new shoes, then three old shoes or dresses have to go to the “donation box”. Now take a good look at all that holiday stuff. Didn’t use some this year? Why? Chances are you might not get to use them next year as well. Throw them right in the donation box.

Declutter your closets and drawers – you don’t need a dozen jeans and a ton of cozy T-shirts for Saturday sports. You know who needs them? Yup! The donation box.

Oh and your collection of hotel shampoos from last year, give them away as well.

In a nutshell, if you haven’t used something from summer through winter, you don’t need it!

Challenge 2: Categorize now before next year

Yup! It’s called New Year Cleaning Challenge but you’ve also got to do some simple stuff in preparation for the challenge next year – categorize your stuff now! When you take down your Christmas decorations and tree, take out time to label every box. Put down what is in the box and also the category and a box number.

What this means is, the label on the box containing Christmas ornaments should say “Christmas Ornaments –1”. Categorizing each component would help you know whether you have all boxes next year. This way you save money as well, instead of losing your ornaments and having to buy new ones next year.

Now you can do the same for the rest of your house, categorizing stuff and storing them all in the garage, attic or basement.

Challenge 3: Keep a neater, cleaner home by scheduling

Now that your home has been decluttered, reorganized, and downsized, your New Year cleaning would be easy. Cleaning is not so hard, it’s all that clutter that gets in the way.

In fact, 80 percent of your entire home cleaning is actually picking up displaced stuff and putting them where they belong. This way you actually have a surface area to clean.

No matter how good the professionals are, tidying is a job that only you can help yourself with. The best way to make your task easier and keep your room tidy this new year is to have a schedule.

  • Laundry is Monday nights
  • Bathrooms are Saturday morning
  • Trash is Sunday nights, etc.

This way, nothing gets forgotten and the workload is spread out into easily manageable portions for the whole week.

Challenge 4: Stay Healthy

All the resolutions above are built around helping you take care of yourself. A cleaner, more efficient home is the first step to taking care of yourself. Try to disinfect your home regularly to kill all unwanted germs. No matter how hard you scrub with soap and water, some germs would only be killed by anti-bacterial chemicals.

Think about it… a well-organized home means you have time to exercise, eat healthfully, and get lots of sleep.

Challenge 5: Do-over

We get it, cleaning challenges are not exactly the easiest and while we have managed to highlight all the benefits in this blog post, we also understand that you could get through some while failing at others.

Don’t give up! Do-over! Try again.

The more you make yourself and your family complete this new year challenge, the better for you.

If you have any difficulty completing any challenge, contact Viola Cleaning to get started. Please call (206) 465-4103 for more information.