Original Image Credit: Houzz
Since January is National Get Organized Month, let’s focus the first 5-Minute Organizing Challenge of this year on decluttering your home. If you accumulated more stuff last year, now it’s time to edit what you have.
The following mini-challenges will take five minutes or less for each activity, so you can revitalize your home in no time if you take them on.
Refresh Your Home 5 Minutes at a Time
- Pack or toss leftover holiday materials. Collect all of the decorative holiday bags, bows, ribbons, and wrapping paper in one area. Spend a few minutes deciding what you can reasonably use next year and separate those items. After you finish, toss the rest of the paraphernalia (recycling what you can).
- Clear out your medicine cabinet. Briefly go through your over-the-counter and prescription medications to check expiration dates. Remove all of the bottles of expired medication and place them in a bag. Many cities offer community-based drug “take back” programs, so check to see what is available in your area. Your local pharmacy may be a great place to start or you can call DEA Office of Diversion Control’s Registration Call Center at 1-800-882-9539.
- Get rid of random chargers and useless small electronics. Scan through chargers, electrical cords, old cell phones, ear buds, and other small electronics. Whatever is not working or cannot be matched to a device should be discarded appropriately. Visit retailers like Whole Foods and Staples and make use of their recycling programs for small electronics.
- Shred or recycle unnecessary paperwork. This includes duplicate bills, old receipts, clothing tags for items that are not returnable, and old takeout menus. In five minutes or less, you could tackle each of these categories.
- Donate or recycle magazines from 2014. If you have stacks or bundles of magazines that you didn’t have time to read last year, it is unlikely you’ll get to them this year. January issues of magazines have already arrived and February issues are on the way. However you decide to part with them (donate, sell, recycle, etc.), it’s time to embrace the “out with the old, in with the new” motto. With a few minutes of prep, magazines of the past will no longer function as clutter in your home.
What other simple steps can you take to refresh your home for the New Year?
Click Here to Learn More Ways to Get Organized in Five Minutes!
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