If You Must Clean out Your House in The Winter, Read This

 

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Decluttering in winter sounds like the craziest idea anyone could have. However, it actually is the best time of the year after fall. For some reason, there’s a huge hype about spring cleaning. You don’t have to clean out your house in spring because it’s a traditional time to do so. Moreover, junk removal services like Jiffy Junk are often completely booked in spring. If you did your decluttering in spring, you’ll likely end up on a waiting list. Take advantage of the cold season and be already all set and done when spring comes around.

Perfect Time To Organize Seasonal Items

Now that summer is over all of your garden furniture is probably back in the garage or the basement. But those aren’t the only items in your home you’re only using on a seasonal basis. Take your wardrobe, for example. Not only do we usually not wear 80 % of the clothes we have. Almost half of our clothes are seasonal items. No one wears a thick jumper in summer. As you’re organizing your home bit by bit, it’s the perfect opportunity to arrange seasonal items. Anything you find of no further use for you might be just the right gift for someone else. You could sell or donate unwanted items. It’s the season of giving after all and you could make a couple of poorer people happy. 

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Create a Stress-Free Zone

Especially during the winter season, people are more likely to be stressed out. On the one hand, there’s all the planning for the holidays. On the other hand, the darker season of the year can bring about low moods. As a matter of fact, clutter can contribute to depression and other stress-related mood swings.

The more you have, the likelier you may experience symptoms of stress. It even affects your sleep to have lots of clutter accumulated. Researchers found that if you lots of clutter piles, your brain can’t switch off during the night. Piles of clutter give you a sensation of an unfinished To-Do-List.

You can actively keep stress at bay as soon you take care of all the clutter in your home. Do a thorough junk removal to make you feel more relaxed in winter.

Everyone Can Help

Given the fact that life happens mainly indoors in winter, the whole family can help with the decluttering process. Surely, your children will run outside into the garden and play in the snow, but they are unlikely to spend the entire day outside. Neither is there a lot of BBQs or pool parties happening. 

Everyone automatically has more time. The more you are to tackle junk removal from your entire home, the sooner you’re done. It’s best if every family member tackles his own area. You won’t end up with someone crying because you did away with your child’s sentimental value. Turn the process into a contest. Whoever is done first with his area gets to decide what’s for dinner or ice cream. 

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How to Best Clean Out Your House in The Winter

Now all of that being said, you’ll only need a plan to start with junk removal. You don’t build a house without a blueprint. Each project requires organization.

1. Set yourself a goal

If you started junk removal of your home but had no time frame, you may never finish it. Therefore start with setting yourself a goal until when you’d prefer to be done with it. As a rule of thumb, it’s always best to plan as long ahead as possible. The more you have to go through, the more time you will require. It might not be a good idea to decide to clean out your home a week before Christmas. Considering all the holiday preparations you’d end up adding more stress to your plate. 

2. Do one room after another

You can’t do junk removal in all rooms at once. Tackle one room after another and split those rooms up into four parts. It provides you with manageable chunks and won’t overwhelm you. Take care of smaller rooms or those where you know you don’t have much to go through first. Leave larger rooms with lots of stuff for a day when you’ve got more time. Don’t do those in a week you know you’ll be very busy. 

3. Take out the garbage first

The easiest approach to junk removal from each room is to take out the obvious garbage first. Take a bin bag and stuff it with any garbage you find on the spot. Sweet wrappers, empty bags of chips, old papers, and notes can go without being looked at. Once the superficial garbage is out of the way, you’ve got more space to organize each area. If this is a much bigger job than you anticipated, you can look towards a company that offers skip bin hire sydney, or skip bin hire near you, so you have some assistance with excess waste! 

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4. Take three boxes

Next, you best take three boxes when you tackle each area of a room. One box is for things to keep, one for selling or donating, and the latter for junk to toss. Don’t forget to also sort seasonal items in this method. You may want to keep winter clothes and seasonal decorations. But chances are, you’ve already not used some of those items last year. If you haven’t used it last year you’re unlikely to use it again. Only keep clothes and decorations you truly love. Throw anything else out. Also, throw out anything you’ve got doubles of. No one needs several baking tins with the same mold. Don’t forget to also check rags and furniture.

And Finally, Arrange The Junk Removal

At best you’d arrange a garage sale with items you could sell, but winter is probably not the best season for garage sales. You could try to sell unwanted items online though. Since the winter weather can make 

it’s hard to bring donations to a charity, you might want to rely on a junk removal service. You’ll need to schedule a collection for your unwanted items anyway. Most junk removal services have partnered with charities. They will bring any items from a collection that are still in good shape directly to a charity. Two birds, one stone, and the most convenient way to perform a junk removal. 

Delicious Salad Greens You Can Cut and Grow Again and Again

 Cut and Grow Again and Again

Lettuce and other types of salad greens are not only super nutritious, but they are also easy to grow and can be cut, and eaten, with regrowth occurring, several times in one season. These salad greens are the magic beanstalk of the garden, growing again and again, to supply your family with delicious nutrition throughout the growing season.

Just as these greens are providing you and your family with sumptuous salads all season long, the proper steps should be taken to protect them, so that they can work their magic in peace. A deer fence is durable, reliable, and effective at keeping out woodland creatures like rabbits, raccoons, deer, skunks, and other hungry critters. With deer fencing placed around the perimeter of your garden, you won’t have to worry about walking outside only to find mangled crops, and all of your hard work gone down the drain.

Preparing Soil for Your Salad Green Garden

If you choose to use containers, be certain that the pots and potting mix are food safe. You will notice that many of the potting soils are not safe to grow food, so take the time to research and read the labels.

If you are planting in the ground, add mature compost to the garden soil at least twice a year, or more depending on the soil type, acidity, and drainage. Remember, it’s vital that the soil preserve moisture, and doesn’t become too moist or too dry; or else the delicious salad greens will not grow properly!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

If you give your garden the attention it needs, and keep a careful eye on the quality and moisture content of the soil your seeds are growing in, as well as having your garden properly protected; you should see a bounty of delicious results. Depending on the time of year, seeds will take 3-4 weeks if you are planting in warmer months, and a few weeks longer if the atmosphere is still cool. 

Check the seedlings at least once a day and be sure that the soil is damp and not bone dry. Sprinkle water over the seeds and seedlings, when necessary, never flood recently sown seeds.

Best Seeds to Grow 

You can choose to purchase a packet of different types of seeds like Plant Leaf Blend Lettuce Seeds or Mesclun Mix. This salad garden of seeds will yield a bountiful harvest of all types of leafy lettuces to choose from, however, it may be a bit tricky to know which one is which.

Grouping types of seeds together will allow you to keep track of and identify the various greens you have planted, as each will be easily distinguishable from the other.

• Kohl Rabi

• Mache

• Daikon

• Golden Yellow Chinese Cabbage

• Cress

• Endive

• Giant Red Mustard

• Arugula

• Spigarello

• Spinach

• Mibuna

• Oriental Mustard

• Chervil

• Beets

• Tatsoi

• Loose leaf lettuce

• Upland Cress

Harvesting Your Greens

• As long as the plant is not bolting, producing flowers and seeds, it is ready to be harvested. If flowers are budding, you’ll end up with bitter tasting salad leaves.

• The leaves should be 3-4  inches tall before your first harvest.

• Don’t cut your greens too far ahead of time, as they will wilt. Cut them immediately before eating to bring out the absolute best flavor. 

• Don’t cut any more than you’ll need for what you want  to consume right now. Leave the rest for tomorrow’s lunch.

• Be sure to use clean scissors, kitchen scissors are preferable as they are already used for consumables and are consistently cleaned.

• Cut and eat only the tops of the leaves, you’ll want to leave at least an inch between the soil and the cut. 

• Maximize the experience by smelling and tasting the leaves as you cut them. You’ll familiarize yourself with each of them and establish favorites.

Keep Sowing Seeds

Every 2-3 weeks, you can sow more seeds to supplement the garden. Feel free to plant new seeds alongside older plants. As you exhaust one planting, you’ll have more to look forward to in various stages of development. Remember, depending on the warmth and humidity of the air, it will likely take a few weeks for new greens to appear. Be patient, that’s why you are working through your first planting!

Keeping the Soil Healthy

You’ll notice that once you’ve harvested several plantings, the greens will start to get tough and/or start to bolt. This is the time to pull them from your garden and place them in a compost pile. 

Nurture the garden soil by adding compost to it several times a year, and rotate your crops to keep them and the soil they are growing in, healthy. 

Enjoy your delicious salads all season long!

Mom Life on the Run

When I was pregnant with my first child, I envisioned having a real life doll baby. I had this fun little notion about how perfect everything would be. You couldn't have burst my bubble if you tried. Some lessons, like babies being messy, are lessons that you have to live and learn. 

With my second baby, I was back at it with the ideas again. I had notions of matching outfits and coordinated activities and perfectly decorated bedrooms. HA! I sure am a funny lady. This post has been sponsored by Oxiclean. All opinions and experiences are my own.

Motherhood has had lots of interesting moments. From the sweet ones that make you tear up a little, to the ridiculous ones (hello, who wrote on the side of the house with permanent markers?!) to the ones that are just downright messy, like ice cream on a hot day. One thing I know for sure is that mess happens when you are a mom and there is only one thing you can do, jump in and clean it up. That's why I like to keep a OxiClean on the Go Stain Remover Pen on my person. These come in so handy for life with kids! If we are out to dinner, no dribble destroys the day. We can go anywhere and face anything with a oxiclean stain remover pen!

While these are small, they have so much power within. I have used them for so many stains. From ice cream to ketchup. I even used them to take dirty foot prints out of new shoes. Like I said, as a mom, I know messes will happen. And now I can roll with whatever happens while saving time and money.  You can pick up a 3 pack from retailers like Meijer, Walmart or Amazon starting at $7.

Keeping Home Smelling Fresh

 If you have a garbage disposal at home, you know that while they are convenient to have, they can also be STINKY! There is nothing quite like walking past and smelling that odor. It can stop you in your tracks and send you scrambling to find a solution. If you are anything like me, you have tried it all. A sprinkle of baking soda, a lemon peel, and more. But, that smell seems to come back like a bad penny. What can you do about it? Take out the disposal and deal with food scraps? 

Thankfully we are not there yet! Arm & Hammer has solutions for smelly garbage disposals! This post has been sponosored, but all opinions are my own. My go to is the Arm & Hammer Garbage Disposal Cleaner.  These little pods are so easy to use and they make such a difference in the way my home smells! I no longer stress over if y guests are going to get a whiff of the sink and know things will smell as fresh as they would without the disposal.

Garbage disposal cleaning sounds treacherous doesn't it? Well, trust me, these little pods do all the work! All you need to do is open the package and pop one in. Like magic your disposal will be as fresh as can be with the cleaning power of citrus and baking soda. 

These are perfect for busy people who want a fresh and inviting home, free of lingering odors. Get a pack from retailers  like Amazon or Lowe's for about $9 a pack.

Arm & Hammer Keeps Things Clean Without Harsh Chemicals

In the last 18 months it feels like I have been cleaning, scrubbing, washing and disinfecting more than ever. With so many unknowns and a heightened awareness about viruses wiping things down is an extra step that we can't afford to overlook. BUT, there are so many toxic chemicals in the standard disinfecting wipe. I am leery of things like hair dye and air fresheners because I don't want my kids breathing those chemicals in. Having to touch harsh chemicals seems counterproductive.

This post has been sponsored by Arm & Hammer. All opinions are my own.

Luckily for choosy moms like me, Arm & Hammer has a new line of wipes that are simple, strong and made with natural ingredients like citrus to provide a clean you can trust. 

I love the container these come in because they are huge; you get 80 wipes in one tub. Speaking of the tub! These are ready to use with no searching for the end to pull and get started as the wipes are loaded to be pulled out without a struggle. Also, these handy babies STACK for ease of storage under the sink or in the cleaning supply closet. 

Before trying these I thought all wipes were the same. Arm & Hammer wipes changed my mind on that. They are long lasting, so I can clean effectively without leaving wipes in my wake. They smell pleasant and not like bleach, which I find really appealing! And best of all, they are gentle enough to let the kids use them to keep their stuff clean. These are awesome on iPads, phone screens, door knobs and more. They will certainly be on my list of supplies to gather for when the kids are in a classroom setting.

I would recommend this brand to other parents who are trying to keep their home a sanitary, safe space for their families.