I am only slightly neurotic when it comes to cleaning. I have a method to my madness, certainly, but of everyone in my home, I still have the most possessions. So how do I keep my home, my car, my desk, my digital life, my everything… neat and tidy?
- Go through every room, nook, cranny, and closet of your home and get rid of stuff! I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning, thanks to Dorian. He decided that all the necklaces hanging on my jewelry rack were cat toys and jingled me out of bed and into the kitchen for some coffee. In my coffee induced stupor, I decided, LET’S CLEAN ALL THE THINGS! So it happened.
The method to my madness in this case was to open every cupboard, drawer, closet, and cabinet, and get rid of things I was either a) surprised to find because I’d forgotten about them, or b) hadn’t used in the past 6 months and did not foresee myself using in the next 6 months. I managed to fill up 1 and a half carloads with a grand total of 15 boxes and bags of stuff!
I found myself getting rid of excess craft stuff I had not used, an overflow of holiday decorations, outgrown baby stuff for my niece, and clothing and costuming that was taking up too much room. I have designated spaces for things in my home, and if I had too much stuff for the “space” I assigned it to, I forced myself to get rid of stuff until it fit. If I had 2 boxes of costuming and only wanted 1, I made it so.
Pro Tip Need cleaning motivation? Put on fun music that makes you want to move, and get energy that way! Or watch an episode of Hoarders, and their messes will make yours seem much more manageable. - Back up your important Interwebz files and photos, and delete the old stuff! My C:/Leslie folder is a shameful shamery of chaotic cat .GIFs, photos of tattoos I want to get, pictures of my niece, bloggy nonsense, and my millions of other web projects. My method for this was simple.
I took every big important folder, and zipped it up nice and tight. Then I uploaded it to my Dropbox, and deleted the old one. Now my C:/ drive looks sparkling clean, and my old stuff is backed up! This makes sure my files are backed up, but the sensory overload can be taken down a notch. Seriously… you should have seen it before I cleaned it…
Pro Tip By the way, a majority of my important photos of vacations and important life events are all on Facebook – how can I back those up? You can do so right here by clicking “Download a copy of your Facebook data”
- Clean out your car, and try to keep it clean throughout the year! I’m one of those people with a color coordinated sock drawer and 17 cans of diet Pepsi in my back seat. So yeah, I’ll work on it.
But in the meanwhile, keep a plastic bag in your car, to keep trash in, and then take it out in 1 quick motion when it’s full!
- Delete old and unused social profiles, and freshen up your current ones! No use having random, outdated profiles of you with your weird green hair phase and trucker hat phase floating around the Internet. Keep you social profiles in a row, just like your ducks. Be aware of which ones you use, and delete the ones you don’t use! You can keep a running tally by using a service like About.me which funnels in many popular social networks onto a nice e-business card.
And for the ones you use, update the profile information, check over your old “likes”, and investigate your profile picture… make sure they are updated and that they reflect the current YOU! A refresh to your Facebook “About” paragraph can totally lift your e-spirits.
- Clean up the tools you use what to make your online life cool! Maybe that sentence made no sense, but see if I care! I touch my computer keyboard and mouse like – a lot. My keyboard accumulates a weird icky film as does my mouse, (TMI!) so every once in a while, and especially during Spring cleaning, I like to clean it off! Some keyboards are dishwasher safe, but what I do is take a paper towel or sponge, and some vinegar and water, and scrub a dub dub! While you’re at it, it doesn’t hurt to clean anything else you touch often.
- Re-do your work space. Make your desk adorable! After winter blues can put you in a rut, so take EVERYTHING off your desk and put it back in a new spot. You’ll be surprised at the spring it puts in your work flow. Make sure to have some fresh new photos of your friends and family. Their smiling faces will cheer you up! And make sure the photos are bright and colorful, to lift your mood.
