February is a good time to pare down your 'stuff'- and teach others in your household to do it too. Here's great advice from the residential cleaning professionals at MOLLY MAID:
DISHES: Donate extra dishes, mugs and other saleable kitchen items to a community outreach program.
RECEIPTS: Check with your accountant about how long you have to keep official papers and records, such as tax returns. To avoid identity theft, shred documents you no longer need to keep, rather than just recycling them in their whole form.
BOOKS: Keep your favorites and have them organized (by topic or alphabetically). Otherwise, if you have books that you probably won't ever read again, donate them to a community centre, a seniors' residence or even a hospital.
CLOTHES: Do a clean sweep of closets and pull out clothes that don't fit, or that you don't wear anymore. Recycle gently used clothing by giving them to friends or by donating them to a charitable organization, such as The Salvation Army. Be sure to sort through your socks and underwear drawers too for items that are ready to be tossed – most people tend to keep these items long past their expiry dates.
ELECTRONICS: Most people have a mess of power cords, USB cords and other paraphernalia for electronics in their desk, cabinet or cupboard. Sort through them and match cords to their appropriate gadget, then get rid of what's leftover. Old cell phones can be donated to women's shelters and other charitable organizations. Other old electronic items, such as printers and computers, should be properly recycled. Check with your city for E-waste collection locations.
TOYS: Teach your children to donate toys they're no longer using. Sort through toys and make three piles: donate, keep, throw out (the throw out pile is for broken toys).
SPORTS EQUIPMENT: If you use it, keep it. If you don't and the equipment is still in good shape, donate it to a community centre or trade it in at a sports re-play store.
