New Year’s Resolution for Your Home

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You might be thinking of going to the gym more often, cutting down carb intake, and spending less time on a dating app for the (new) year ahead as a New Year’s Resolution but have you ever made a resolution that involves your home? I think not. Maybe it is time we actually do what we promise to do in the New Year and it should include improving your home around your lifestyle. Keeping your den clean all year is one hell of a pledge. But it is quite easy, you see. Just make it a habit.

Here we are going to discuss some of the best resolutions for your home that will surely leave your space clean as a whistle!

Starting the year, clean the space you utilize more. Decide which area in your home is the most lived-in. You spend more active time in the living room for example — so gather all the items in this space and evaluate whether each item is for keep or bye, Felicia! You can either trash them out or donate them to friends or institutions.

Patronize the rule “One thing in, one thing out.” You do not need a lot of items in your home. Never fill your storage with the same item if you are not going to it anytime soon. Make sure to finish every existing item first before adding new items up. Get the idea of making the most out of everything at your home; be it a cooking oil on its last drops or the last dying embers of a candle. Use what you have before purchasing more. This will help you waste and consume less. Voila! Habit change.

The flat surfaces are usually the haven of clutter. We tend to place almost everything on flat surfaces even if they belong somewhere else. Talk about desks, dressers, countertops, and coffee tables. At the start of the year, clear the surfaces off and free yourself from stress of the eyesore it gives.


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Admit it, we like to toss our clothes on the nearest chair do deal with it later (we say). Make it habit to put them away, especially when you are hitting the sack. If you are the type of person who does not repeat clothes, put them away in your laundry basket at once. If you feel like your clothes are still clean and are still good for your next activity, hang them neatly to a designated closet for repeat clothes. Do not just put the rest on a storage or shelf. Take the extra time to fold them. Do this frequently and acquire the ingrained habit quicker. If you do not have closets for your clothes, there a lot of brilliant ideas you can copy for clothes storage.

Purchasing new items can create a pile of nonessential clutter. I mean, letting new items in your home is inevitable and the idea being unavoidable, let them have their proper space and do not place them where you feel like putting them.

Cleaning your room before leaving it is probably one of the most basic cleaning responsibility. Make your bed before anything else. Place your morning routine beauty products after using them in the bathroom. Some say the situation of your bedroom reflects your personality. You do not want to be perceived dirty, do you?

If you still have a lot of items at home after decluttering and you just cannot find any reason to let them go just yet, you might want to consider storing them in storage facilities. They will pick your items up and transport them to their storage facility. So much convenience for someone dealing with so much clutter.

There you go! So before you lie about doing exercise regularly or putting an end to your obsession with shoes, clean your home first. And make it a habit.

Have Yourself a Merry, Clutter-Free Christmas

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Christmas is around the corner and it’s one of the most awaited days of many people around the world. Children look forward to this special day and adults, too. The cool breeze, colorful lights, and festive ambiance are some of the things that make this day wonderful. A lot of family reunions also happen during Christmas. All the loved ones gather to celebrate it together.

Sure, Christmas is considered to be the happiest day of the year but will you still be excited to deal with the post celebration cleaning? I’m sure we all are aware of what we deal with during the holidays; gift-giving, Christmas decorations, and gatherings. All these activities should be fun but the amount of clutter after is terrifying!

The rubbish is unavoidable, almost impossible to prevent! But though trash is inevitable and you would not want to skip Christmas to avoid the big pile of clutter you are about to conquer, there are ways to at least lessen the chaos. There are different types of clutter you would encounter during the holidays but we will tackle a few of them which are commonly run into.

Wrapping Paper


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If you haven’t asked Santa yet, maybe tell him to give you a gift without a wrapping paper. Hold on! Before you start reacting negatively, hear this one out. We go by the tradition; gifts should be wrapped with a wrapping paper because mainly it adds an element of surprise. I could not agree more. But have you thought about how many trees are cut down just so you could open a surprise gift? We should go with the unconventional way of going paperless. While you happily gift someone, gift nature the act of being a responsible citizen of this world. This approach is very important as it helps save our trees and above all, you do not have to worry about the wrapper clutters. There are many ideas and inspirations you can find and make them as a reference in going paperless with your gifts.

But if you still want to push with the traditional way of giving gifts and do not want to deal with the clutter, get this: During opening of presents, make sure to get enough bin bags, cardboard boxes, or even your trash cans near the activity. While someone opens a gift, make sure to tell the person to put the wrapping paper in the bin at once. Or better, ask the kids to do the job! I am sure they will enjoy opening the gifts (even if it is not theirs) and make them put the paper in the trash. You can also recycle some wrapping paper that are still in good condition. This is also a part of the green agenda. It will help you save money in purchasing gift-wrappers for the next year.

Food


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What is Christmas without food? And it is easy to be very enthusiastic for Christmas in terms of stocking up. With all the supermarket sales and special offers, it is impossible not to get tempted to buy even if the items are not necessarily needed in your Christmas menu. And since we are amidst pandemic, you also have the choice to just shop online to avoid temptations! It is best to stick to a menu plan before going to the supermarket. List down all the stuff you will be needing for the menus and never go beyond the list! Remember that. Make it a mindset that you have a budget to follow as this also helps you deal with future clutter especially with the items that are irrelevant.

Make sure to know that the food you are catering will accommodate everyone you are expecting or you have invited. Say you are only planning to cook for six people, do not cook a dish for fifteen because you do not want to get too much leftovers and food waste. Try your best to estimate the amount of each dish for the number of people you are catering. It is estimated that around 27 million tons of food are thrown away in US alone. And at Christmas we eat more and waste more food. So much food clutter in a Christmas household, isn’t it?

Time

Remember that Christmas is one special day where you spend precious time with your loved ones. But Christmas is also a time when you are bustling with so much errands and other commitments. Think this, you get so preoccupied with decorating the house with Christmas decorations that you forgot to plan about the Christmas menu you are going to prepare. How about the gifts? You get so busy trying to keep up with the supermarket chores for your menu that you forgot to purchase all the gifts for the kids and you found out that they already ran out of stock! That can be too frustrating and somehow chaotic like the film Home Alone. This is when you get the time clutter. Time clutter has many forms. But their common cause is the lack of planning. You better plan ahead of time. In your available time, think of a thing that needs to be accomplished first before heading onto the next one. Make sure to allot enough time for each activity as you do not want to compromise the time you have for the succeeding tasks.

Decors


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It gets overwhelming when the Holiday season come about. Most people are excited about the decorations and some can get a little too far! Although Christmas decors are pleasing to the eyes with all those colorful lights and statement-making Christmas trees, the clutter they make can really be stressing at one point. It is mainly because of the space they take in every corner (mostly living room). You do not have to over decorate your home with bits and bobs. Make a minimalist approach when decorating. Less is more! You can find inspirations for Christmas decorations at home without needing to utilize a lot of items.

When the time comes that you already need to remove the decors, find large cardboard boxes where you can store all of it for the next year. If you feel like changing themes on the next Christmas, make use of this phrase: One thing in, one thing out. New items will just add up to the space provided for your old Christmas decors and you do not want to overcrowd your storage. So if you are planning for a new Christmas decoration idea, donate the old decors or better yet sell them.

When Garbage Disposal Reek of Something

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Kitchens are without a doubt, one of the most important areas of our home. It is where we store, prepare, and cook food. Additionally, we complete related tasks in the kitchen such as dishwashing. Kitchens also sometimes serve as the spot where we hold get-togethers when relatives, friends, or other guests come over. In layman’s term, the kitchen is where we spend most of our active time. And with all the things that happen in here, trash is always inevitable. Be it plastics, cardboard packaging, or glass. All the things you would find in there that can be recycled or reused. But a large majority of waste that the kitchen produces is food waste. These wastes are uneaten leftovers or spoiled produce. According to the records, each year the United States alone generate about forty million tons of food waste which either end up in landfills and combustion facilities.

Aside from the alarming overall statistics and the possibility of food scarcity if more food and produces are discarded, we can also talk about the effect on a micro-level. All the rubbish in your kitchen will end up stinking if not trashed properly. There are different factors why food scrap produces odors. Science explains it all. Apparently, every food in our kitchen contains different odor compounds. All of which will soon smell strongly and unpleasantly if not managed.

For the recyclable trash, well, you can obviously recycle them. But as for the food scrap you must be thinking, “That’s not a problem! We have a garbage disposal.” Undeniably, garbage disposal plays an important role in getting rid of your kitchen waste. And it is considered one of the vital features of our kitchen ever since it was introduced to the mass. All you have to do is get the proper knowledge about garbage disposal. Great! You are able to recycle some trash and get food waste out but what about the funky smell? What if it still lingers? Well it could be the superhero – the Venom in your Spiderman garbage disposal. You get to grind and break up the waste in it but decaying or rotting food can still be settling around its blades or drainpipes connected to it.

Fret not! There are ways to fight shy of a reeking disposal and keep them clean with just a few things that is readily available at home.

First and the most important thing to do is know the stuff you should not put in your garbage disposal. They will offer you ease but never take advantage of it. Our appliances you will need to get your sink drain plugged, fill the sink with cold water about halfway, and add some dish soap. After a few minutes, remove the plug from the drain and turn your disposal on. This technique should rinse the concealed portions of the disposal. While the water is draining, scrub the sink with a sponge as well as the part of the disposal that are visible.

Next, pour about two cups of ice cubes and a cup of rock salt into it. Then run cold water of them and simultaneously turning on the disposal for ten seconds. The two components make it easier in breaking up food particles and dispose of clammy residue.

In deodorizing, we all know that baking soda is one hell of a worker because of the science behind it. Baking soda proves to be a great absorber of odors (especially the bad ones). To deodorize your disposal, pour about a cup of baking soda into the disposal and partner it with a cup of vinegar, which also has a spot in the “Great Cleaners” hall of fame. This combination should produce a fizzing show due to the chemical reaction which works to dissolve bacteria. After thirty minutes to one hour of letting the combo do the work, run a stream of water while turning your disposal for rinsing.

After doing the aforementioned steps, the stinky culprit should be gone. But if the smell is still present, there could be blockages. Try to unplug it from under the sink. Assess if there are any clog somewhere from the inside of the drain. Remove if there are blockages and plug the disposal back in. If you can’t perform this specific step, find someone or a professional nearby who can do the task for you.