Whether you’re on a limited budget, want to reduce landfill waste – or both – renovating your wardrobe instead of buying a new one is easier than you think. A good wardrobe is a must-have for many, and we tend to invest in new clothes without taking stock of what’s already hanging in our closets. You can resist the temptation by giving your wardrobe an economical but fun fashion facelift.
Transforming and tweaking your wardrobe instead of buying a new one saves money. Maybe you’re a single mom whose job requires a high-level wardrobe, or you’re young and just building up a solid income. Perhaps you’re interested in recycling and upcycling. We have some great advice and techniques to find both budget-easy and Earth-friendly ways to update your wardrobe.
Spring is traditionally a time for new beginnings. Trees have new growth, flowers blossom, and babies are born. It’s a time of year when everything feels invigorating, it’s a time of expectation. But if your space is full of clutter from past activities, you do not have the space to create, explore, and experience those new beginnings. Let’s talk about letting go of what you don’t need.
In a perfect world, the home selling process would be straightforward and quick. You’d list your home for sale, schedule house tours, receive multiple offers, and sell your home fast and above list price. Unfortunately, selling your house isn’t always that simple and your home could end up sitting on the housing market longer than you anticipated.
As a seller, there are few things more frustrating than your home not selling and having no idea why. Let’s dive in and discuss six likely reasons your home isn’t selling, and address how to fix the problems.
1. Your home needs improvements
Being a homeowner comes with many responsibilities, including keeping your home and property in good condition. Sure, you might vacuum, dust, and mop regularly – but in today’s market, that sometimes isn’t enough. You may need to put a little time and money into your home so you can receive more offers and sell your house quickly. Furthermore, if you’ve had buyers interested in your home, but maintenance problems are encountered during the home inspection, you could end up losing the sale.
Once your home is organized, maintaining momentum is what keeps it organized! It’s much easier to do small, consistent tasks as a part of your routine than to overhaul your entire home once it’s become cluttered. Here are some tips for keeping up your momentum.
Consistency
Maintaining your space is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Every day, every week, every season, every year, make a commitment to consistency. If putting items back where they belong when you’re done with them is part of your daily routine, your home will stay organized, and you’ll stay less stressed.
Your mindset is important to consider when it comes to organizing your home. Your values and goals, the way you think, and the way you talk to yourself all play important roles in how effectively you can make your space your own.
Values
First, let’s consider values. We each value different things, which means everyone’s dream home is unique. Think about what’s important to you. Do you value…
To organize your home can seem overwhelming, but if you break it up into manageable chunks and go through your possessions methodically, you can eliminate the stress! I recommend starting with a small area first, instead of trying to overhaul your whole house at once.
Find an area in your home you’d like to organize, and use the acronym I CARE to streamline the process!
I CARE
Identifying your goals streamlines the process.
Identify your goals. What does “organized” look like to you? If you know what you want before you start, you’ll be able to accomplish more.
Categorize your items.
Purge items first:
Return recent purchases if you find you don’t need or want them.
Sell items that are worth the time it takes to list on a website like eBay, or through a garage sale.
Donate what isn’t worth selling, but could be useful to someone else.
Recycle paper and plastic according to your local regulations
As a last resort, throw away trash that can’t be returned, sold, donated, or recycled.
Repair items that are fixable instead of buying a new one to cut down on waste.
Now that you’ve got your filing system set up and your action items in their proper places, it’s time for maintenance. Some tips on maintaining your filing system:
If you have temporary files, file them by month and year, which allows for quick archiving.
Purge your files regularly—I recommend at least annually.
File at least weekly, more often if you are a paper-intensive home.
Filing paperwork is crucial because it allows you to find things quickly and easily. Here are some tips for creating a great filing system.
Naming Conventions
Having a standardized terminology for your files keeps search time to a minimum, with both digital and physical files. For physical files, use consistent dates and names. For digital files, include multiple search terms in your file name to allow for faster retrieval.
Paper Files: 5-20 Items Rule of Thumb
Use cascading hierarchies when creating your paper files. For instance, you could keep all your insurances together in one hanging folder and have the paperwork for the individual policies in separate interior folders.
If you have fewer than five items in one category, that’s a sign that you could condense it with another. More than twenty items should be split up into subcategories. For instance, say you have files relating to places you want to travel to. If you only want to go to New Zealand and visit Lord of the Rings locations, you only need one folder. If you want to go to every state in the US and have paperwork about each state you want to visit, then a folder for each state will be helpful. This helps avoid overstuffed folders that are difficult to look through and avoids having unnecessary folders as well. Using labeling, color coding, or different locations for these categories makes them easy to see at a glance.
