5 Tips for Spring Cleaning in Silicon Valley
Flowers are blooming, temperatures are rising, and spring is in full swing across the Bay Area. Now is the perfect time to declutter, whether you get rid of the jeans you haven’t worn since college, tackle the ever-growing sea of toys that are littered across your apartment floor, or delete old photos on your phone (nobody will miss those 345 selfies).
As you clean this year, we hope these spring cleaning tips will make the process feel simple and freeing. We also encourage you to donate your unwanted items to The Salvation Army to make a lifelong impact for someone in need.
1. Dedicate a Time
Life is busy. To ensure that “spring cleaning” doesn’t become “fall cleaning” (or even worse, next year’s “spring cleaning”), schedule it. Even if you only plan to devote an hour or two to decluttering, pick a time and write it on the family calendar so it’s set in stone.
Planning in advance will also let you arrange any junk removal or donation pickup services ahead of time, so you won’t be stuck with a pile of giveaway items when you’re done. Schedule a free pickup >
2. Make it Meaningful
Isn’t it funny how you love that throw blanket so much the second you think about giving it away, even though you haven’t used it for years? In Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up she says, “We should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.” This is a great mindset to have when you tackle your spring cleaning; instead of fixating on what you’re giving away, think about what you’re gaining: a clean house, peace of mind, or simpler living.
If you plan to encourage your children to give away toys, books, or clothes, you may want to reframe the discussion and focus on who might receive the toys. Picturing their friend or a child in need receiving the toy, might be just the motivation little ones need. You can also motivate children to get rid of unwanted toys by reminding them that when they're done they will have more space to play with the toys they really love.
3. Pick a Destination
There’s nothing worse than cleaning out your house only to find that you’re left with a big pile of stuff and nowhere to put it. As you’re decluttering, consider where each item will go and start making piles.
Gently used clothing, furniture, and toys can be donated (we even have trucks that can pick up your unwanted items) or sold on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.
Gently used building materials and home improvement items (like light fixtures or toilets) can be donated to Habitat for Humanity Restore Silicon Valley.
Old electronics can be recycled at specific locations or given to charity.
Paint, light bulbs, and large, worn out furniture must be properly disposed of, so be sure to do a Google search to figure out where these items must go.
Schedule extra time to figure out where your discarded items will go and the whole process will feel much more enjoyable.
4. Box the “Maybes"
One way to test whether you'll truly use an item is to box it up and put it in storage for a year. Nine times out of 10, you’ll never think of the object over the course of the year. If that’s the case, donate the item next year when you do spring cleaning. If you do find yourself needing the item, unbox it! This is a great strategy for clothes and toys, and you’ll probably be surprised by what items you forget about over the course of a year.
5. Don’t Forget Digital Decluttering
The clutter in our homes is often more apparent because of its physical, tangible nature. Yet most people carry around a lot of digital clutter as well. Here are some spring cleaning tips for tackling your digital life:
Move smartphone photos to your computer (or ensure they’re backed up on the cloud), and delete photos that are blurry or duplicates of the same shot.
Tackle your inbox once and for all! If you have thousands of unread messages, consider selecting all and "marking as unread" or moving them to a specific folder. This way you can get rid of the ever-present reminder of your cluttered inbox without deleting any potentially important emails.
Be proactive about cleaning your inbox. Unsubscribe from emails you don’t regularly open or change your preferences to receive fewer emails. You can generally do this by scrolling to the bottom of an email and clicking “preferences."
Trash unused files on your desktop and delete smartphone apps you never use.
With these five spring cleaning tips in mind, we hope you feel inspired and motivated to tidy up your home and enjoy a little bit of less in our more more more world.
As you identify your unused items, we hope you will consider donating them to The Salvation Army, where we have dropboxes conveniently located throughout the Bay Area. We accept clothing, furniture, automobiles, household goods, and appliances. We sell the items you donate at our Family Stores, where the proceeds are then used to fund The Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Centers. Each year, these centers give people in the throes of addiction a second chance to find help, hope, and a new life in Christ. Plus, your gifts are tax deductible , so you’ll be rewarded for your generosity!