1. Clean Out the Cupboards

I generally start with the cupboards that hold dry foods and spices. No doubt you will find year old rice, flour, beans, and an array of spices. Anything that has an expiration date and is past its expiration date toss in the garbage. Anything that you feel is suspicious toss in the garbage. Make sure anything your keeping is sealed in bags or airtight containers, and is of course bug free.

Then its time to tackle the cupboards that hold the dishes and glasses. Take the time to sort out the dishes and silverware you are keeping from the orphan dishes you don’t need or use anymore. You don’t necessarily need to toss these dishes in the garbage. If they are in good repair take them to a local Goodwill and donate them.

2. Clean Out the Refrigerator and Freezer

Did you just scream a bit when you thought about cleaning out the refrigerator? It’s okay. But this is a task that must be done. Remember a key rule here: When in doubt, dump it. Better safe than huddle in the corner with food poisoning. Once your refrigerator is completely emptied out, pull the drawers and racks and wash them too. Avoid using chemical cleaners. Hot water, soap, and a touch of bleach is all you need.

3. Organize Your Cookware

Instead of shoving all your pots and pans back into a cupboard get a rack and hang your pots from a ceiling rack. Get a magnetic strip to mount your knives on. Not only does this saves space, it looks cool. Don’t you want to look cool in the kitchen?

4. Get Your Knives Sharpened

This is often overlooked or never talked about item when it comes to cleaning and sprucing up your kitchen is your knives. As any good chef will tell you you are only as good as your knives. Collect up all your knives and take them to a professional knife sharpener. 

5. Scrub like a Scullery Maid

Now comes the unpleasant part — time to scrub the kitchen. I really don’t have advice for you when it comes to this step. You just have to dig in and do it and don’t stop until you can eat off the floor. But don’t actually eat off the floor because you are going to gave to clean it again if you do that. 

The post 5 Tips for Cleaning Out Your Kitchen appeared first on Green Clean Junk Removal.

And it is totally unnecessary. There is no need to spend a weekend cleaning out a garage, year after year. This dismal doom can be mostly avoided by taking control of your garage. Here are five ways to show your garage who is boss. 

1. Keep Your Cars in Your Garage

This is a piece of advice that is so obvious it sounds counterintuitive. One of the best ways to keep your garage clean and organized is to use your garage for your cars. You can’t fill a garage with junk when your car is in the way. Right?

Right.

Not to mention storing your car in a garage spares your car’s paint job a pounding from the weather and will lower your car insurance premiums. 

2. Hang Your Tools on a Peg Board 

When of your dining room chairs has a loose screw that is threatening to collapse the entire chair. You say to yourself, Hey, I can fix that! I just need to grab a screwdriver from the garage! Two hours later you’ve located four stuffed animals, a pair of pliers, some loose bolts, and a hammer. But no screwdriver.

There is an easy and cool solution. Hang your tools on the wall. You can either arrange your tools on a peg board, a rack, or specialized hangers. This also gives you an excuse to bring that work bench you’ve always wanted. What else compliments a showroom of tools better than a work bench? 

When you are finished organizing your tools grab a couple of empty coffee tins and start organizing your screws, nails, bolts, nuts, etc. One coffee tin for screws, one coffee tin for nails, and so on. Depending on the type of Do-It-Yourself jobs you do you may want to get even more granular — a coffee can for wood screws and another coffee can for machine screws. 

You can also use store bought organizers to store fasteners and screws, but I tend to like coffee cans. There is something deeply nostalgic about fishing a screw out of an repurpose Folger’s tin.

3. Install Shelving 

There are a ton of shelving solutions that are aimed squarely at getting your boxes off the floor. You can buy free standing shelving or shelves that screws (or bolts) directly to the wall. You can even find garage shelving that is designed to hang down from your garage’s rafters (this is an ideal way to store infrequently used stuff like ladders.

Another way you can get boxes off the floor is to install quarter inch plywood boards running across the rafters of your garage. This can serve as an “garage attic” where you can store seasonal items like Christmas decorations.

If you’ve made an effort to carefully install shelving do yourself another favor and buy some sealable plastic boxes. Plastic boxes will last a lot longer (possibly forever) than cardboard boxes and do a better job of protecting the stuff you are trying to store. 

4. Label Everything

Either buy a label maker or a couple rolls of masking tape and a marker. Now label everything. Even if you know what is in a box today, label it. Why? This will prevent you from the, “Well I know the Christmas decorations are in THERE!” syndrome. Labeling keeps you from guessing and prevents you from making a mess when you guess wrong. 

If you want to get really serious, after packing a box for storage, write out an inventory list of what’s in the box (1 Xmas wreaths, 4 boxes Christmas bulbs). This technique is particularly effective if you have multiple boxes filled with similar items (.i.e. Christmas decorations).

5. Don’t Store Used Chemicals

Paint, household cleaners, and automotive fluids are all considered household hazardous waste and you can’t put them in your normal curbside side trash. So many people store used chemicals in their garage. This is a bad idea on multiple levels of bad.

Firstly, an excess number of poorly store chemicals creates a fire hazard that can damage or destroy your home. Secondly, chemicals laying around your garage pose a hazard to small kids and pets. Instead of storing household hazardous chemicals drop them off at a city approved drop off center. Or call a hauling service like Green Clean Junk Removal Services to haul away old paints, cleaners, etc.

Getting control over your garage takes a little time, a little effort, and a lot of planning. But the results can be amazing. You not only reduce clutter but you turn your garage into another show piece inside your home. 

The post 5 Ways to Take Control of Your Garage appeared first on Green Clean Junk Removal.

Shall I go on, or are you already shaking at horror think about everything packed away in your closet? OK, I’ll stop, I’ll stop. Go to to your happy place and take a breath.

There are quite a few ways to get rid of unwanted stuff, clutter, and junk you don’t need without throwing  it in the trash. 

1. Charitable Donation … This one is the most tried and true ways to get rid of old stuff, particularly old clothes. Most charities run thrift shops and donation centers that take in clothes, furniture, and some appliances. Depending on the charity they also may have a pick up service. And of course you can use your donation as a tax write-off. 

2. Thrift Shops … Your neighborhood thrift shop most likely has a “wanted items” list, clothes and collectibles are often in high demand, but many second hand store also look for more mundane items like dishes and toys in good condition. You could even make a few dollars by turning your used clothes over to a consignment shop for resale.

3. Re-Gifting … There is no shame in passing along the stuff you don’t need to friends or neighbors who do need it.

A little story to illustrate the point. By a series of odd circumstances I acquired two microwaves. No one needs two microwaves in their lives. I was about to haul the cheaper of the two microwaves down to a Goodwill when my neighbor asked me if I was getting rid of a new microwave? She didn’t even have to ask before I blurted out, “Do you want it? It’s brand new.”

A small act of kindness that began life as an unwanted, extra microwave. My neighbor got a new microwave at a time she she needed it, and I got rid of an extra microwave and earned a bit of karma. Don’t think of it as pawning off your unwanted stuff, think of it as paying it forward.

4. Donate Your Old Books … There are many specialty organizations that collect old books and then redistribute them to kids, adult learning centers, and community centers. Children’s books are particularly in demand so this is a great way to get rid of books your grown children have left behind.

5. Reuse Old Cups and Jars … One of my favorite uses for old whisky and scotch bottles is to repurpose them as change jars. Old coffee cups can make for great pen caddies.  I’ve even converted wine bottles and fancy beer bottles into candle holders. And the glass bottles you can’t reuse should go into the recycle bin or to your local recycling center. 

6. Trade-In Your Small Electronics … I used to have a box of old cellphones in a shoe box. That was before the “smartphone revolution”. Now I have a box full of old gadgets, USB Cables, e-readers, a couple smartphones, and a tablet in two shoe boxes in two closets. 

Luckily for gadget addicts like myself most major companies (Amazon, Apple) offer a trade-in programs for your old electronics. And in return for responsibly disposing of your electronics through a recycle program you’ll be rewarded with a cash (or a gift card) in most cases.

7. Repurpose Your Plastic Bottles … Ever need to put an extra quart of oil in your car and found yourself without a funnel? Slice the bottom off a soda bottle and POW! insta-funnel. You can cut down a bleach bottle and turn it into a kitty litter scoop. You can take the bottom of a bleach bottle and use it as a drip pan. Just be careful when reusing plastic bottles … never use a modified plastic bottle to as a dish for pet food. Chemicals in plastic bottles can leech into pet food and seriously harm your pet.

8. Need Garbage Bags? Use a Plastic Shopping Bag … Plastic shopping bags make for great garbage bags, especially for small wastebaskets. This cuts down on garbages in the landfill and ultimately cuts down on plastic bags in the landfill.

9. Haul Your Appliances and Furniture to a Scrap Dealer … If getting rid of a large appliance, like an oven, is high on your priority list you can haul it to a scrap dealer or metal recycler. You can also haul your furniture to a recycling center that deals in wood and wood byproducts.

10. Call a junk removal service like Green Clean Junk Removal. We’ll haul away just about any type of junk or clutter at affordable rates. We recycle between 40% and 60% of the unwanted items we collect via charitable organizations, thrift shops, and recycling centers. When you can do it yourself, Green Clean Junk Removal is there to do it for you.

The post 10 Ways to Declutter and Get Rid of Junk (And None of Them is a Yard Sale) appeared first on Green Clean Junk Removal.

I was laying flat on my back, covered in a stack of empty Macbook and shoe boxes, staring at the ceiling. 15 minutes before I was digging through the same closet looking for a speaker cable, I knew, just knew, was in a shoe box in that closet. 15 minutes, a misplaced foot step on top of a loose pile of shows, and an awkward tumbling scream later I was thinking, yep, definitely time to clean out the closet.   

Now I could have called Green Clean Junk Removal Services but, c’mon, son… For one closet? One closet, I said, to myself, I got this (yes, I do get weirdly Action Movie Intense when it comes to cleaning; don’t judge me).

So here are my five steps for closet cleaning:

1. Empty Out the Closet 

To organize one must first destroy, said a great blogger once. I knew the only way I was going to ever truly clean out my closet was if I emptied it first. So I pulled my suits and hung them on a nearby chin up bar, then I piled my winter coats on the couch and tossed my shirts on top of the coats. I piled my shoes up on the bed and tossed the empty boxes on the floor.

Then I came face to face with it. Yes. There is was, staring at me … an empty closet. I stared into the darkness and the darkness stared backed at me. 

2. The Great Sort

As I emptied out my closet I kept saying, “Oh I haven’t seen this in years!” and more than once I said to myself, “They made this? Why did I buy this!?” I had more clothes than I could ever wear and I had plenty of clothes that I would never wear again.

So I grabbed a fistful of trash bags and began the long process of sorting through the clothes I’d never wear and stuffing them into trash bags for donation to the Goodwill. I also had a couple of suits that were just a step out of style I set those aside for “Clothes the Deal”, a non-profit org that donates suits to the unemployed for job interviews.

3. Goodbye Boxes … You Were Boxes

Whenever I bought new shoes I’d toss the box in the closet. When I bought my new Macbook the box went into the closet right on top of the iPad box and the boxes for my last two iPhones. I had a ton of boxes and most of them held nothing. (Remember that speaker cable I was looking for? Totally found it … Inside a desk drawer and not in a shoe box.)

I hauled all those empty boxes to the recycle bin behind my apartment building.

Well, most of them.

The neighbor’s 6 year old spotted me as I was walking to the recycle been. He boldly requested two Nike shoe boxes so he could “play spaceship” to which he added  “Mister, Pease!?” I wasn’t cold enough to deny Spock and Luke Skywalker a cardboard spaceship.

4. Hello Sweater Boxes … You Are Stackable

I put my sweaters in a sweater box and sealed them away for the Summer. This sounds like such an obvious thing to do but this solution to the summer sweater problem had eluded me for years. I left them in my dresser or sprawled across my closet. 

5. They Make Organizers Now!?

Yes, they do. And I bought them. Extra shelving and racks to store my shoes and keep them off the floor. 

And then I was done.

I sat on the edge of the bed, staring into my newly cleaned closet, glass of bourbon in one hand, and muttered to myself, “You’ve done a man’s job today.” Then the gruff voice of my roommate came bellowing down the hall, “Larry, you’re a giant dork!” 

Eh, can’t win ‘em all. 

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