Make A Difference

It’s the place where your home makes a first impression: the front porch.

Whether you have a small apartment landing or wrap-around farmhouse porch, this is the week to declutter, clean and organize the entry area to your home.

It’s a last “cherry on the cake” assignment at the Cleaning Grand Plan: putting the finishing touch on the hard work of the last 12 weeks creating a lovely entrance area.

Ready? It’s Front Porch Week in the Cleaning Grand Plan!   Read More >>

Need to clear some space and score some cash? Hold a garage sale!

The yard sale is a traditional rite of Spring, and has many advantages. Holding one can be a good incentive to cut clutter and create space in storage areas. Turning trash into cash is an added incentive!

As we near the end of the Cleaning Challenge, consider holding a yard sale to rid your house of unneeded items.

To keep things organized, try this complete garage sale guide, printable garage sale checklist and yard sale signs:   Read More >>

Spring is here … and sports season is upon us. From baseball bats to bicycles, golf bags to basketballs, sporting goods take center stage in the garage.

Today in the Cleaning Challenge, it’s time to cut clutter and bring order to storage spaces devoted to sporting goods.

Look over the family’s sports equipment, culling worn-out or outgrown items. Need replacements? Add them to the shopping list.

Finally, reach for efficient storage solutions. Specialty organizers, while pricey, can keep equipment at the ready for active summer fun.   Read More >>

Warmer weather’s coming! It’s time to take to the road.

Will your garage be ready for summer travel, sports and outdoor fun?

Time to bring new order to garage storage areas with a seasonal declutter, deep-cleaning and organizing session.

Ready? We’re sorting garage storage this week in the Cleaning Grand Plan!

Today’s Assignment:Garage Week

The garage wears a lot of hats, when it comes to an average household.

It’s home to automobiles, boats and bicycles … and all the accessories that go with them.   Read More >>

Up in the attic–or buzzing round the basement-it’s been a busy week in the New Year Cleaning Challenge.

Today, take the last steps to bring the week’s storage areas to a state of clean and orderly..

Tomorrow, the New Year Cleaning Challenge moves to storage areas in the garage. Ready to make room for the car?

Today’s Assignment:Wrap Up Attic/Storage Week

This week, we’ve taken aim on clutter and disorganization in household storage areas. Whether an attic, a basement, or other dedicated storage space, we’ve swept in with a new broom to cut the clutter.   Read More >>

As we haul out attic and garage storage in the Cleaning Challenge, we’ll soon realize that many items we encounter belong in other storage locations.

How to handle these transients? A Closet-Go-Round!

The idea is simple: deposit an open, empty storage box near each alternate storage venue in the house.   Read More >>

Spring blows in with warm wind and the promise of … spring cleaning?

With the coming of spring, even the most casual home managers feel an inexplicable urge to move furniture, clean windows and vacuum baseboards to welcome the return of sunshine and warmer weather.

But is spring cleaning really necessary?   Read More >>

Diving into storage areas this week, it’ll be a week devoted to boxes and labels and oh! those garbage bags.

How to make this big job a bit easier? Check your tools! Having the items you need to bring order to storage areas on hand will make the job fly.

Better still, you won’t need to bankrupt yourself at those pricey “organizer” stores to create an organized home. Simple tools and inexpensive products are mainstays when getting organized … because it’s all in how you use them!   Read More >>

Household storage spaces are too often “out of site, out of mind” … until we need to find those tax records from 2016, and fast. Help!

Because they’re not in daily view, storage spaces can become overwhelmed with clutter. A tower of electronics packaging teeters atop overstuffed bins of holiday decorations. File boxes are buried under limp piles of last summer’s blow-up beach toys, swim goggles and sand chairs. Crammed and cluttered, finding stored items becomes a fruitless, frustrating task.

How to manage household storage to make the most of your limited space? A household storage plan!   Read More >>

It’s been all things kid this week in the New Year Cleaning Challenge, as we’ve decluttered, cleaned and organized children’s rooms.

Today, take the last steps to bring children’s rooms to a state of clean and orderly..

Tomorrow, the New Year Cleaning Challenge moves storage areas in attic and basement. Are you ready to clean out stored stuff to welcome Spring?   Read More >>