Can you believe winter is almost upon us again? How does the time fly so fast? And more to the point, how is it already time again to prep our homes for the cold season, making a nice little nest we can hibernate in until spring?

There’s really not all that much to do, actually, to “winterize” our interiors for optimal health and hygiene—in fact, you don’t even have to leave the house to take any of these recommended steps (and you might not even have to open your wallet at all if you have some backup supplies on hand). So bring it on, Snow Miser! We’ll be safe and snug inside our homes whatever the season has in store.

• Turn Down Your Bed: Sheets get washed regularly, but when was the last time you laundered your comforter, quilt, or duvet cover? Nothing is more comforting than snuggling up in a clean bed on a cool night, so wash all of your linens, including your mattress cover and bed skirt. While the washer and dryer are spinning, give your mattress a flip.

• Filters, Filters, Filters: Since you’ll be locking all your windows and doors for the season, it’s a good time to replace all the filters in your home to better purify the air: the furnace filter, the filter in your kitchen range hood, even any water filters you have in the refrigerator, basement, or under your kitchen sink.

• Clouds of Dust: Dust collects everywhere, especially high up and in out-of-sight spots that we don’t look at every day. Before cloistering indoors with all that buildup, grab your step ladder and wipe down ceiling fan blades, light fixtures, and door and window frames. While you’re at it, your baseboards can no doubt use a dusting too.

• It’s Pillow Time: Breathe easier at night by breathing new life into your pillows. To aerate and freshen them, simply put them through a cycle in your dryer. But be sure to have the dryer heat turned off when you do this—you just want to fluff them, not scorch them.

• Fridge Cleanup: Make a clean start (and make room for all that holiday food!) by cleaning and cleaning out your fridge. As you wipe away sticky summer lemonade spills and school-day PB&J smudges, toss any expired items, get rid of those month-old leftovers, and replace your box of baking soda.

• Attend to Your Disposal: Without any fresh air circulating, you just might find that your disposal could use some TLC. Cut up a fresh lemon into ice-cube-sized pieces, then freeze them. Once frozen, put them down your garbage disposal and run it with no water until the frozen lemon chunks are gone. Turn the water on to rinse. The lemon chunks not only grind food residue off of the disposal blades, they also leave your sink smelling great.

Need some help getting your home or office space shiny and spotless this season? Call us today for a free consult and estimate:

Home Services Enterprise  |  301-674-9564  |  www.homeservicesenterprise.com

Goodness knows we all have enough to do every day. So if you had at your disposal a tool or technique to get it all done more efficiently and effectively, wouldn’t you use it? Think of your life like your computer, running multiple programs at a time, doing more than one task at time, responsible for navigating, storing, dating, organizing, saving, automating—and everything in between. But leave it running for too long or overload it with too much all at once, and eventually it’s gonna crash. As you will if you’re running on too many cylinders at the same time, without adequate maintenance and reassessment breaks.

How to avoid this inevitability? It’s time for a reboot!

Just like your computer will run faster and better once you shut it down once in a while and let it start from scratch, so too will your life run more smoothly and productively once you hit the reset button to “declutter your headspace” and clean up your personal space.

Tips for Your Home & Life to Function at Maximum Capacity

Tip #1: Attend to unfinished projects. You know what they are and you know where they are: the bunches of yarn stashed in a corner for that sweater you’re not going to knit; the scattered wood and tools and hardware in the garage for that bookshelf you started four months ago; the piled boxes of old clothes and shoes in the guest room that you’ve been meaning to try on one more time before making a donation run; the craft supplies spread out all over the dining room table for that scrapbook you’re gonna start any day now. You’ve got three options when it comes to goals like these: (1) scrap ’em entirely, (2) get ’em done already, or (3) put all the materials back where they belong until you’re ready to actually tackle the project in a scheduled span of time.

Whether your pending projects are relatively small (going through your medicine cabinet or polishing tarnished silver) or relatively large (building a treehouse or creating a custom slideshow of all your travels), it’s time to just dive in and get it done or admit defeat and give in. Either way, you’ll feel infinitely better when unfinished business isn’t hanging over your head every day, weighing you down. Tie up the loose ends or just cut them loose. On the other side of either of those options lies freedom.

Tip #2: Clean up rooms to make room for order. Not just anecdotal experience but also research studies have proven that messy and disorganized living and working spaces hamper productivity, not to mention plain ole happiness. It’s worth the time it’ll take you to finally dust your office top to bottom, clean all the ceiling fan blades, reorganize the kitchen cupboards, empty the fridge and pantry of expired foods and items you’re never going to use, finally clear out the attic or storage shed. Again, some organizing tasks are more tedious than others—rehanging all the coats in the coat closet nicely is going to be far simpler than finally going through your own clothes closet item by item—but mix up the quick tasks with the not-so-quick ones to get as much done as you can in the shortest amount of time.

Here are some tasks you can knock out one-two-three to leave you with more free time before you know it:

• Fold up and put away all loose blankets, throws, rugs, and pillows you’re not using now or at least not using this season.
• Run the dishwasher and put all dishes away.
• Do every load of laundry that’s been patiently waiting for you.
• Go through the whole pile of waiting mail and sort through it as needed.
• Dust, clean, and polish all those surfaces caked with spills and smudged with fingerprints.
• Get small little thank-you cards so you can write the notes you’ve been meaning to send—just a few lines, just a few a day.
• Toss out or donate anything and everything in your home that you don’t use.
• Take out the trash and recycling.
• Dust the blinds and clean the windows.

As an added bonus, you’ll be sanitizing breeding grounds for bacteria and virus. Disorganized to organized and dirty to clean? What’s not to love about that?

Tip #3: Turn to your technology next. It’s not just tangible and touchable items that can benefit from some TLC. When was the last time you cleared out your DVR, emptied your voice mails, updated your contacts list, and—here come the biggies—sifted through your email folders and tidied up all your computer files? Give yourself the immeasurable peace of mind that comes from knowing your pipelines are cleared and that you can access what you need right when you need it without all kinds of obsolete and unnecessary data and information blocking your way.

Don’t have the time or inclination to do all this yourself? Home Services Enterprise can do it for you, whether it’s folding all your drawers or folding up your map collection and properly archiving it. Contact us today to meet any or all of your cleaning needs in the Metropolitan area, including DC, Rockville, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, and surrounding regions.

Home Services Enterprise  |  301-674-9564  |  www.homeservicesenterprise.com

It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that a decluttered space creates a decluttered mind. When your living and working places are neat and organized, when your belongings are logically ordered and easily accessible, and when everything fits in the most economical, efficient way possible, it brings a peace of mind that’s hard to quantify … because it’s a “quality of life” thing.

Improve your quality of life by streamlining your space with storage options that suit the contents on hand, align with your lifestyle, and make the most of the space you have available.

To start, it’s necessary to determine what you want to organize, because only once you’ve grouped items for storage can you identify the appropriate receptacles for them. Why use a crate-sized container for what one kitchen drawer can handle? Why use six small boxes to store all your winter sweaters when one snazzy trunk could hold them all? In other words, don’t run out and buy a bunch of organizers and storage containers and then try to fit your belongings into them; instead, do it the other way around to save yourself a lot of time, energy, effort, and money.

Pick just one room to start with—the area most in need of putting things away instead of leaving them spread all about—and see how things work out, learning as you go, before tackling the rest of your house. Say you pick your master bedroom and en suite bath. Where do you go from there?

Steps to Efficient Storage

1. Sort. Go through the whole room distinguishing between what you need “out” every day (leave it where it is, like your undies and socks in your dresser drawer), what you don’t need at all anymore (get rid of it), and what you want handy but not on display—what can be tucked away somewhere neater and more organized than it currently is. Gather this last category of belongings in the middle of your bedroom and sort them by type: all your scarves here, all your swimwear there, your supply of scented candles over there. Same goes for your bathroom, grouping all the cosmetics, shaving supplies, medicines, and toiletries in distinct areas, leaving everyday items where they are (like your toothbrush and toothpaste) but deciding which backup items and infrequently used supplies can be put somewhere under, over, or else.
2. Size. Start a list how many containers you need for each grouping of like items. Not only how many, but how large? Write them out one by one—the size and shape you need to accommodate the grouping. The first-aid items probably only need a shoebox-sized container; your quilts and throw blankets will work well in a sealable plastic tub.
3. Measure. Okay, you’d like an under-the-bed sliding bin for ties and belts, but now you have to measure the space from the floor to make sure you buy one that will clear the bedframe. You’ve got 12 pairs of slippers, flip-flops, and slide-ons you’d like to store together in a shoe cubby in your closet, so go measure the width and height you have available there. Preparation is going to work in your favor big-time when you’re standing in a store aisle overwhelmed by all the choices.
4. Fine-Tune. Organizing isn’t just about boxes and bins stored in cabinets and cupboards. It also entails making commonly used, messy areas tidier and more useful with things like drawer dividers, utensil holders, spice racks, and jewelry pouches. So now it’s time to dive into that makeup drawer and plan what type of drawer organizer will work in there, to figure out how many shelf spacers you can use at the top of your closet to separate stacks of sweatpants, pajamas, and clutches. Write it all down on your inventory list—better yet, take pictures of what you plan to store and where to use as visual aids when you’re ready for the final phase.
5. Shop or Switch. This last step is the most fun! If you want to buy new, head to the store armed with your shopping list and your excitement to procure your perfect solutions. Don’t have the budget for that? Then go hunting in garages, attics, sheds, and flea markets for available containers that are either empty already or can easily be swapped out with something else. Recycling and repurposing will do the trick just as well as retail!

NOTE: Keep in mind that this whole process is very subjective—you’re free to organize and group things according to your own preferences, not any hard-and-fast rules. For example, you might use your office supplies more in your kitchen than the den, so feel free to store them in your pantry. Your stuffed animal collection might not be a big part of your everyday life, but you’ll be darned if you just pack it away in a zippered bag! Some people might prefer stacked squares and some might prefer over-the-door hangers. Do what works for you, in a way that works best for you.

But whatever you do, just take your time and proceed practically and productively, whether you’re now filing all your paperwork in an accordion folder or finally transferring all those disks onto flash drives. Setting realistic expectations and a manageable schedule will keep this process fulfilling and free of stress.

Need a helping hand with this or any other organizing, straightening, or cleaning task? We’re at your service!

Home Services Enterprise  |  301-674-9564  |  www.homeservicesenterprise.com

These are unprecedented times we’re living in—confined to our residences, working less if at all, replacing in-person interactions with online meets, and going on perpetual hunts for TP and Clorox wipes. But perhaps the biggest change amid the coronavirus culture is the allotment of more time—more time with family, more time working on house and garden improvements, more time at home. And time has always been the rarest of commodities in the average American household.

So how can we best utilize this unexpected boon of extra time? You know all that stuff you’re always buying to make life easier? The clothes piled in the closet awaiting sorting and hanging? That garage full of boxes and loose belongings you’ve been meaning to go through for eons? Well, now’s your chance to finally get to what you’ve been meaning to get to for so long—to organize your possessions, your interiors, and your exteriors so that when “life-as usual” resumes, you’ll be ready, refreshed, and recharged for it, with your house and your life in shipshape order.

Start with the Basics

Here’s how to approach an organizing effort from the ground level up:

• First off, enlist the help of all occupants. Whether you live or work with a group of 3 or 13, the more hands on deck, the quicker, more productive, and more collaborative the tasks will be. It’s no use finally arranging the bookshelves if your teenager is just going to put something back out of order, so get everyone on your team on the same page.
• Next, draft up a plan. Make a list of all the tasks and chores you want to tackle, all the areas in need of attention, and rank them in order of importance. Display the plan where everyone can see it and refer to it … then follow it closely. Don’t proceed to untangling the Christmas lights, for example, until the item above that—reorganizing the kitchen pantry—is complete.
• Tackle the big stuff first. Energy and enthusiasm are not infinite. So it’s a good idea to take on the larger projects first, when you’re still gung-ho to do them. The upside here is the larger amount of fulfillment you’ll experience when you’re done. If you clean up the biggest messes first and then lose steam before getting to the smaller ones, it’s no big deal: The bathroom cabinet can be tackled in half an hour, at some other time, on some other day; but washing all the windows inside and out can take a whole day, if not a whole weekend. Keep morale high to keep the team’s productivity chugging along!

Maximize Space and Time Savings

Making an organization plan is one thing, actually implementing it is another. So now it’s time to put your plan into action, clearing the way for improved efficiency:

• Did you know that more than 50 percent of modern homes today hold on to tools, appliances, clothing, and housewares that haven’t been used in years, maybe in decades? Clear it all out now! Toss, donate, gift to someone who can recycle or repurpose … just get rid of whatever you’re not using to make your living space so much more useful. A good rule of thumb: If you haven’t used it in two years, you probably don’t need it. Goodbye and good riddance.
• Items that are rarely used or hold purely sentimental value do not need to be on display, out in the open, cluttering up your home. Yes, you love your doll collection … but on the floor of your bedroom, it’s just collecting dust. And if you only haul out your professional mixer for the annual bake sale at school, does it really need to be on the kitchen counter all year long? Pack little-used items away for easier access to things you use daily. The guiding philosophy here is: Out of sight, out of mind—but still available. And if you have a considerable amount of things you want to hold on to but don’t need regularly, it may be time to consider a storage unit.
• Important documents should be readily available, organized in a logical and systematic way that anyone can follow. It’s worth taking the time now to label and sort an accordion file or to alphabetize named folders in a desk drawer if paperwork is ever needed in a pinch later. There’s no limit to the types of portable filing systems available out there now.
• Capitalize on dual-use items. This may be the best space-saving tip of all. Look for ways to make your furniture do double duty, like using that side table above the outlets as a permanent charging station for the family, buying an ottoman that offers hideaway space for throws or magazines or all those remote controls, using wicker baskets to collect and hold loose items around the house instead of just as home décor, installing a fold-down shelf in place of that clunky old desk you only use once a month to pay the bills.

These are just some ideas to get your started on improved organization in your home to bring you more peace of mind when you’re there. Prefer to bring a professional touch to your organizing projects? We’d love to hear from you!

Home Services Enterprise  |  301-674-9564  |  www.homeservicesenterprise.com