Spring Cleaning: 15 great tips to help clear your space…and mind

Some of you out there salivate at the mere thought of decluttering your home; others shudder and reflexively disengage. Like any other thing that is good for you, degrees of appeal vary greatly, but the reward remains the same: freed up space of mind and abode.

It is time to play Trash, Donate/Consign or Keep. You will need large sturdy garbage bags for soft items and boxes for hard heavy things like books and cookware. A quick jaunt down to your local liquor store will get you just the right size of box plus fuel for the job ahead.

Take inspiration from our suggestions below, in no particular order:

1. Retired bed and table linens, pillows, and rugs. You retired them for a reason. Clean and donate them to shelters and ragging centres (usually a community thrift shop provides this service).
2. Your old cell phones. Follow these steps given by RD.com before surrendering your phone to prevent strangers from receiving your valuable personal information and any long forgotten risqué content. Same for those dusty cameras with obsolete mega pixel counts. And don’t forget those extra cords and chargers for devices you’ve replaced. You need the drawer space more.
3. Expensive jeans, dresses, and women’s clothes and footwear you haven’t fit into or worn for years. Donate to a local women’s shelter. Consignment stores prefer more current items, things less than two years old. And remember, free that hanger so in return you can shop for something you will love guilt free! *ahem* Downtown Collingwood has much to offer in this capacity.
4. Costume jewellery you’ve had since highschool. 
5. Cookbooks you haven’t cracked since you were inspired to go vegan six years ago, but didn’t.
6. Takeout menus from restaurants and coupons – everything is online now, so save the paper and tidy up.
7. Printed photo outtakes and duplicates. Edit and/or reassign them to other households.
8. Stuffed animals that your children used to love, but have outgrown. (The wise parent selects one or two to be spared from the cull.) 
9. Ancient lotions and magic potions and expired cosmetics of all kinds.
10. Offensively scented candles whose fragrance prevents you from regifting them. 
11. Extra vases. Fill ‘em with flowers for regifting.
12. Antique power cords. They’re just waiting to void your homeowner’s insurance.
13. Old chemical cleaners you have yet to take to the Hazardous Household Waste Centre. Take them today.
14. Old, dented, or cracked helmets. They’re not safe.
15. The bags of seashells you’ve been saving to transform your guest bathroom into a tropical paradise.