Did You Know? Spring Cleaning Can Increase Property Value

Did You Know? Spring cleaning is more than just a seasonal ritual – it can also help you sell your home! The KW Blog advises that homeowners looking to sell should take on projects that will have a lasting effect on their home's value, such as fresh coats of paint on the interior and exterior of the home. Homeowners should also consider cleaning out gutters and power washing decks and driveways. These simple fixes can have a real impact on property values and help make a good impression on buyers. For the full list of spring cleaning tips, click here.

Preparing Your Home for Spring

As the ground begins to thaw and the temperature starts to rise, it’s time to think about what you can do to prepare your house for spring, which involves both indoor and outdoor maintenance.

Indoor:

Test your air conditioning system. If this summer is nearly as hot as last summer’s, you may have to wait a long time for a repair crew to come in and fix a broken AC unit during the year’s hottest months. Preforming repairs now will save you time and hassle.

Preform routine tasks that you haven’t done in the past six months or so. This includes testing smoke and fire alarms, cleaning out your fridge and freezer, flipping mattresses, and deep cleaning carpets. The Apron Blog by The Home Depot advises buying your own steam cleaner, especially if you have pets or children.

If you have had problems with pests in the past, now is a good time to undergo preventative treatment.

Use an all-purpose cleaner to clean ceiling fans (even if you used them during the winter).

Clean and store any humidifiers you used during the winter.

Outdoor:

Before you get out your outdoor furniture, wipe each piece down and pressure wash the deck.

Seal cracks in the cement of your driveway or sidewalk. Replace loose bricks and pavers.

Clean outdoor light fixtures and replace burnt-out lights with energy-efficient bulbs.

Inspect your roof for damaged or missing shingles. Clean gutters and downspouts, ensuring they direct water away from your home.

To prevent future damages, trim tree limbs and bushes that grow within five feet of your home. While you are working on your lawn, you can also plant bushes and flowers, and spread fresh mulch around trees and shrubs.

This is only a short list of ways to get a jump on spring-cleaning, but it’s a great place to start! The more tasks you preform in the spring, the more time you will have to relax and enjoy the nice summer weather that is soon to come!

For information on how to prepare your garden for spring, watch the video below:

Fall Cleaning

Sometimes, Spring cleaning isn't enough. While you've been gone on vacation, dust and cobwebs have accumulated in your home. The answer? Fall cleaning.

Why? Fall cleaning often reduces the stress of spring cleaning. Cleaning outdoor furniture and grills before they are put away for the winter means that you no longer have to clean these items in the spring. Experts say that fall cleaning is actually just as important as spring cleaning, as it's crucial for the general upkeep of a home. 

Where to start: take inventory of your cleaning supplies and where they can be found. Buy any products you know you will need, but do not have. 

What to do: power-wash windows, clean gutters, refresh your dishwasher with baking soda, clean (or replace) your humidifier(s), steam clean carpets, and clean your oven, refrigerator, and kitchen cabinets. 

Think this list is lengthy? It's only a small sample! For a more complete list of recommended fall cleaning activities, click here.  Below is a brief video on how you can inexpensively clean your oven without using harsh chemicals. 

What to Keep: Tips on Sorting Your Belongings

Cleaning out your home is a big job, and it's often tedious, time-consuming work. Below are some tips that will help you decide what you should keep and what should be put out by the curb.

First, go through your closets and other storage spaces in your home and throw out things that you have no desire to keep--things that are broken, have been replaced, or cannot be repurposed. This is called decluttering. Oprah's organizing guru, Peter Walsh, shares a few insightful tips on how to declutter your home and decide what to keep:

On kitchen drawers: Empty the contents of kitchen drawer(s) into a bin placed on your countertop. Over the next month, place what you use back in the drawer. By the end of the month, toss what's left in the bin--you don't need it if you don't use it.

On things you have many of: Apply the ratio rule. For every three or four books you keep, throw one out, until your items fit into the space where they belong. This tactic works well for magazines, DVDs, CDs, and books.

On clothes: Arrange your closet so that all hangers are facing the same direction. When you wear something, change the direction of the hanger when you hang it back up. After a month or so, donate the clothes that you have not worn (those with the hangers still facing the origional direction). Like the kitchen drawer method, this is designed to help you identify what you use and what you can do without. Click here for the full news clip on Peter Walsh. 

Second, keep in mind that your storage needs, along with the sentimental value of your belongings, change over time. If your kids are full grown, you can most likely throw out their summer camp arts-and-crafts projects. Or, you could tell your children you are cleaning out the house, and ask that they assume responsibly for their childhood mementos. If you struggle with giving away years of a child's art or schoolwork, keep a few of the most memorable items. You could also take picture of items that you need to throw away. That way, you have the memories and the space! Regardless, invovling family members in the process is a good idea. Children could go with you to donate their unused toys, which will help them part with their belongings. Another incentive for younger family members to get rid of some of their things is to hold a garage sale in which each family member gets to keep the money from the sale of his/her objects. If you are cleaning out the home alone, and wonder if one member of your family wants to keep something--ask. Many personal items are irreplaceable.

After your initial cleaning, and keeping in mind the criteria above, go through closets once more to determine what should be thrown out, repurposed, kept, and donated. Tackle one closet at a time, so as not to be overwhelmed. Once done, every item should have earned its place in your home. In other words, storage areas should not be places you carelessly place junk you've accumulated and will soon forget about. Items you are keeping should be neatly organized or proudly displayed.

It's a good idea to clean out your home regularly (think "spring cleaning"). If you have lived in a home for many years and are planning on selling, it's best to start cleaning way before you list your home. If your home sells quickly, or you find the perfect new home soon into your search, you want to be ready to go. It's amazing how much stuff can accumulate in a home over time!