As the temperatures start to increase, the snow starts melting, and the days get longer, everyone starts thinking towards Spring. While I personally prefer Summer, I’ll settle for Spring after the long, cold winter we’ve experienced here in the Midwest.
Spring also means Spring Cleaning. You can spend as much or as little time on Spring cleaning as you want. Today I want to think a little outside the box when it comes to Spring “cleaning,” and offer up a few more things you should try to get in line before the Summer comes.
Clean – then Sell
If you do decide to clean your house, start making a pile of things you don’t use or don’t need anymore. My wife and I have been doing this for a few years now and have a huge pile of stuff to sell. We plan on having a garage sale in the Spring/Summer, as well as putting some stuff on ebay. We also have been winning some giveaways and to be honest, it’s not always stuff we need.
I don’t know about you, but cleaning, especially deep cleaning, is a lot easier when you know you’ll be able to make some money after it’s all said and done. Even better is if there is some specific thing you really want to buy but can’t justify – like a tablet. Use the money you make from selling things to treat yourself (and you thought I was going to tell you to make an extra payment towards your
Update Your Resume
I realized recently that my resume hasn’t been updated in over a year. I know some people who haven’t updated their resume in a decade…or longer! It’s a lot easier to maintain a resume if you are update it regularly.
Another thing career-related to think about is what your next step will be. I have been thinking about this myself, as I have been considering whether or not I should get an MBA. Do you need to develop new skills? Network more? Go back to school? These are all legitimate questions that young adults should be asking themselves on a yearly basis, at minimum.
Organize Your Electronic Files
My computer is a mess. I always have tons and tons of files, but never get around to organizing them in an efficient manner. I’m always impressed when I borrow my wife’s external hard drive and everything is organized neatly into their own folders. Then I go back to my computer and see the “Archived” folder that I end up throwing old files into after my desktop or documents folder fills with too many files…yikes!
It’s easy to forget about electronic files because they aren’t as visible as clutter around your house. Like I said, I have an archived folder which essentially is the equivalent of a basement where you continue to put crap until you really need something…and if you’re lucky you get around to cleaning it up a bit every few years.
If there’s one thing I don’t want to be doing when it warms up outside, it’s spending hours upon hours organizing my electronic files. I hope to make organizing my electronic files as part of my yearly Spring cleaning.
What do you do for Spring cleaning? Better question: what should you be doing for Spring cleaning this year?
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Updating your resume is an excellent tip. I know that I have gone years in between updating mine, and it is always a bear the next time that I do it.
@GregatClubThrifty Yeah I waited a year and mine’s already outdated…granted in my job skills and accomplishments change often.
We’re going to start cleaning and getting rid of things very soon. We just have to much junk and what better incentive to do it than to make a little money off of it?
@FrugalRules Definitely. I’d like to get some $ to finance some purchases for our backyard since we moved into our house in October and this will be the first summer we get to enjoy it. We need a lawn mower, 10 feet of fence (and need to install it), sealcoat the driveway, install outdoor lights…hoping that the stuff we sell can finance it all, or part of it at least.
I plan on going through my closet and selling stuff soon. It’s ways too packed and I wear hardly anything out of it.
@SenseofCents We have a tower…literally a tower of clothes and other stuff to sell. It’s been building up for 3 years or so. I fill a box every few months it seems with more stuff to sell!
My organization goal this spring is to get my paper files in order. Somewhat misleading. My actual files are organized. Some of the contents are not. Being of older vintage, many of the documents are dated and don’t reflect our wishes or where we currently are financially, such as my life insurance policies, will, and living will. My goal is to ‘spring clean’ all of my dated documents. Sadly, this is likely some of the most important things a person can do and it is often put off because no one wants to think about their demise.
@RobertaRenstromNyquist Very true, especially anyone my age…we think we are going to live forever ;) That’s definitely something me and Victoria need to look at closer sometime in the near future, just to have some sort of documentation. I did bump up our life insurance but I have to make sure it’s set up right, I believe there is something else we still need to do to get it finalized.
This year I’ve decided to donate books. We’ve set a goal of eliminating 50 books (could easily be 100) and give them to the library. It’s a tax deduction and it removes some clutter. Love it!
@AverageJoeMoney Very nice! We have a bunch of books we want to get rid of, though we still have many that we plan on keeping. We haven’t bought books for a while since intentionally going to the library instead. We used to buy lots of books and DVDs, now we hardly ever do.
We cleaned out and sold some stuff last year at this time on eBay and we are pretty much at the minimum. We do need to take a weekend though and do a thorough house cleaning, and as I mentioned earlier, have the windows cleaned. I hate dirty windows from all the snow and rain.
@TacklingOurDebt That’s gotta feel good to be at a minimum! I feel like there is stuff we have that we don’t need (no, I know that since our “ebay/garage sale” pile keeps getting bigger and bigger). Our windows need a good cleaning since we haven’t done that since we bought the house (in October).
Digital stuff: done in Feb. Resume: Don’t need one. House cleaning: in dire need, when the workers vacate. And bathe the roof with insect poison! It feels really good after a good clean, so nice to be in a clean home.
@RFIndependence I think you were the one who posted about cleaning up digital files! We actually have a slight insect invasion (box elder bugs, they don’t bite or do anything, just annoying) and I’ve sprayed some poison but they are really, really, really bad during this season. Something I need to do in the spring for sure.
@RFIndependence That has potential to be an incredible quote for years to come. It makes me smile, laugh and nod in agreement. “Resume: Don’t need one.”
I just did some spring cleaning around the house this weekend! Spring is definitely in the air. I love the idea of organizing electronic files. This should go to the top of my to-do list
I was looking at the dirt in my window sills this weekend and thinking it was about that time. I am not looking forward to spring cleaning at all. We had a yard sale in the fall. You’d think I wouldn’t have anything, but we just redid my daughter’s room, so I have all of her old stuff. I haven’t updated my resume in a long time. Should I add part time blogger or would that make you less likely to hire me?
Bf and I both took this week off. We’re not planning on going anywhere so I have a big list of things I want to clean, organize and sort/sell. Clutter makes me nuts, so I’m probably going to try and sell as much as I can (as long as bf is agreeable).
We don’t really have a lot of stuff in our house. I hate clutter and the idea of hoarding things. I had recently updated my resume a few months ago and now that I have just become permanent with my government job, I think I’m set for a while. If anything, I should probably vacuum my car. It’s not disgusting, but there are some crumbs on the seat. :P
I can’t wait till I have a break and I can get a bit more organized. I have so many things I want to sell…paperwork I need to clear out…it’s a good feeling!