Northwest Arkansas, the time for spring cleaning is upon us! As the days get longer and the temperatures warm, many of us are anxious to shake off the cold of winter and welcome spring by decluttering and deep cleaning our homes. For some people that looks like finally taking those boxes to the local thrift store, but others are ready to tackle the big jobs and start the spring with a clean and fresh home.
Valet Trash Professionals is happy to offer these spring cleaning tips and resources to help you with your spring cleaning! If cleaning up outdoor areas is on your to-do list, read our post Cleaning Up Outdoor areas.
WHY SHOULD I SPRING CLEAN?
Readers Digest suggests that having an uncluttered and clean home can reduce your stress levels, improve air quality, help you sleep better, and improve overall mood.
A thorough house cleaning—and then keeping it that way—is one mood boost you’ll definitely want to make a habit. In a study from the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, women who described their homes as stressful, in particular talking about clutter and unfinished projects, were more likely to have an increasingly depressed mood throughout the day. That, in turn, led to more fatigue after work. On the flip side, women who described their homes as relaxing (and less cluttered) became less depressed as the day went on.
You know what they say, happy wife, happy life! Now’s the time to declutter and clean!
WHERE SHOULD I START SPRING CLEANING?
- Make a List. Sit down with your family and make a list of all the things you’d like to get done in your spring cleaning. Including family members in this process will ensure that you don’t overlook a project that needs to be done, but it will also invovle all members in the cleaning process. When everyone has a job to do, everyone feels needed and your list will be done in no time!
- Prioritize the list. It may help to designate the chores that can only be done when the weather will allow and save indoor chores for rainy or cool days. You can also evaluate which spring cleaning chores will cost money (home repairs, improvements, and professional cleaning) and decide which things will work for your family’s budget.
- Declutter. Many experts recommend tackling spring chores by the room. For example, you may choose to clean out the entire guest room, complete all spring cleaning in that room, and then move on to the kitchen. Others may decide that completing one category at a time, much like Marie Kondo’s KonMari method makes more sense. If you choose to spring clean by the category, you should start with one category such as clothing. Go through all the clothing in your home, choose what should stay and what should go, complete the category and then move on to the next thing. Experts debate whether the room-by-room method or the category-method is better, but whatever works best for you is the best way. Whatever method you decide on, the goal is to declutter. You can’t deep clean, santitize, and scrub a home that is covered in junk. Go through the clutter and searate it into three categories. To keep. To donate. To dispose.
- Clean! Once your home and property is decluttered and organized, you can deep clean.
SPRING CLEANING DECLUTTER RESOURCES
As mentioned above, decluttering can be dealt with in three easy steps.
To Keep. When going through your home, garage, attic, basement, and sheds, create a designated area for the items you intend to keep. Once you’ve gone through everything and completed any cleaning you intend to do, you will be able to put these items back in their proper place. You can organize them in the fashion that best suits your needs.
To Donate. Northwest Arkansas has many great resources for donating items in good working order. In our Estate Clean Out blog post we offered these and other resources for local donations. Each of these organization can offer you a donation receipt for your tax filing purposes.
- Goodwill Industries. “When you donate your new and gently used items, local Goodwill organizations sell them in stores or on shopgoodwill.com and use the revenue generated to provide valuable employment training and job placement services for people in your community.” You can find Goodwill Donation Centers in Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville, Bella Vista, and Siloam Springs.
- Samaritan Community Center. SCC “operates two nonprofit resale stores, called Samaritan Shops, that are open to the public and sell gently used clothing, household items and furniture.” They use the funds from these sales to feed the hungry in Northwest Arkansas. You can donate at either of the NWA shop locations, Springdale or Rogers.
- Salvation Army. The Salvation Army serves a large population in Northwest Arkansas. Donations of goods and clothing support their mission. You can donate at any location or call 1-800-728-7825 to inquire about pick up of large donations.
- Helping Hands. This non-profit organization in Bentonville, AR is run as a partnership of 26 local churches. They accept donations of furniture, clothing, jewelry, and household items and the revenue from those sales supports their assistance program and food pantry for those in need. For donations of large items, they offer a pick-up service in Bentonville, Rogers, and Bella Vista. You can call (479)273-2511 for more information regarding their donation policies.
To Dispose. As you go through your home, closets, spare rooms, attics, garages, basements, and sheds, you will no doubt find items that you do not wish to keep but cannot be donated. These may include old cleaning supplies, paint, broken equipment, old appliances, electronics, and even damaged furniture or outdoor items.
Bulky waste. Your local trash provider may offer spring cleaning bulky waste pick-up. For example, Siloam Springs will provide its yearly spring pick up on April 6, 2020. “Acceptable items include: appliances (without Freon), furniture, mattresses, yard toys, etc. These items will be collected curbside. Please bag or box all items possible.” If you are a Siloam Springs resident then you may choose to take advantage of this semi-annual service. Other Northwest Arkansas residents should contact their residential trash provider for possible seasonal bulky waste pick-up or drop off services.
Mandy of our household items can be recycled and we are fortunate to live in an area in which recycle opportunities abound.
Hazardous waste. The Boston Mountain Solid Waste District offers hazardous household waste services.
Households contain many products which can be hazardous to the health of humans, animals, and the environment. Unused and leftover portions of these products are called household hazardous waste (HHW). Collection centers are located in Fayetteville, Prairie Grove, Springdale, Huntsville, and St. Paul.
Program Guidelines:
• Only residential quantities of HHW are accepted
• No explosives
• All items must be labeled. No unknown chemicals will be accepted.
Drop off recycling. Benton County Solid Waste District has several recycling drop off locations where residents can recycle #1 and #2 plastic bottles, newspaper, cardboard, chipboard, paper, steel cans, aluminum cans, and glass jars. Those drop off locations are as follows.
Bella Vista – AARP Chapter 109, 400 Pinion Bluff Dr., (479) 876-5343
Centerton – Benton County Recycling Center, 5702 Brookside Road, (479) 795-0751
Rogers – Rogers Community Recycling Center, 2300 North Arkansas St, (479) 621-1185
Siloam Springs – Siloam Springs Recycling & Transfer Station, 1008 E. Ashley, (479) 524-8512
Document shredding. As you spring clean, you will no doubt find yourself with mounds of documents that you no longer need but that need to be properly disposed of.
Document shredding is available at Bella Vista Recycling Center
In addition, shredding is available with a fee at Monday-Friday 8 am – 5 pm. at
AIM Records
1720 E. Hwy 264
Springdale, AR 72762
(479) 751-8120www.aimrecords.com/shredding.aspx
Rates as of 05/21/19:
Under 50lbs – $20
Over 50lbs – $0.20lb
Hire a professional. Valet Trash Professionals provides a range of services to meet the individual needs of our clients. If you’ve done the clearing of clutter yourself and the junk pile is ready to be hauled away, we are happy to do just that. If you’re looking for a higher level of junk removal, our team is ready and able to meet those needs. We can clean out sheds, garages, basements, attics, yards, and even full homes of clutter. We’ve got the strong backs and necessary equipment to complete the job quickly so you can move on to the cleaning.
DEEP SPRING CLEANING TIPS
Once you’ve sorted and organized your belongings, donated items, and recycled or trashed the rest, it’s time to clean!
Good Housekeeping offers a great list of things that you may wish to do as you spring clean your home as well as a great tips like these.
Pull furniture away from walls and vacuum behind and under it,” Forte says. “Do the woodwork and air vents while you’re back there.” Then switch the upholstery tool on your machine to go over both sides of cushions and underneath them. The crevice tool can help degunk along the trim and stitching.
Spring cleaning season is all about focusing on the spots you forget about the rest of the year. Grab an extendable duster and attack ceiling fans, hanging and recessed lights, moldings and more.
As you’re scrubbing bathrooms, washing windows, vacuuming, mopping, and focusing on the details that are often overlooked, you may decide that more intensive cleaning is necessary in some parts of your home. For some jobs, a professional cleaning may be most appropriate.
Professional deep cleaning. NWA Restore It, Inc. is located in Centerton and serves all of Northwest Arkansas. While they do tend to emergency situations such as fire, mold, and water damage, they also offer non-emergent deep cleaning services. They offer upholstery and carpet cleaning that will leave your home clean and odor free. Spring cleaning is also a great time to tend to the areas that are often overlooked but are in great need of cleaning and maintenance. For example, having your air ducts cleaned will not only reduce allergens and improve air quality in your home, but it can also help your HVAC unit to run more efficiently, saving you money in the long run. Having your dryer ducts cleaned can help your dryer to run more efficiently, but most importantly it can help reduce the risk of fire damage. Experts recommend cleaning your dryer ducts twice a year, so if you haven’t had that done in a while then spring cleaning is a great time to do it. You can contact NWA Restore It, Inc. at (479) 795-1300 with questions or to schedule any of these cleaning services.
FINISHING YOUR SPRING CLEANING
Once your family has worked through your personal list of spring cleaning to-dos, you’ll feel accomplished and prepared to enjoy the season ahead. As always, Valet Trash Professionals is happy to help with your junk removal needs whether it is spring cleaning related or another job throughout the year. We’ve helped clients with jobs as small as hauling away a single appliance or piece of furniture and we’ve completed massive jobs involving demolition and hauling away many dumpsters of debris. We will remove your junk, recycle when appropriate, and dispose of the rest. All you have to do is point, we’ll do the rest.
Old swimming pools, hot tubs, and play structures? VTP can handle that!
Barbecue grills, patio furniture, and old lawn equipment? VTP can handle that!
Broken furniture and old mattresses? VTP can handle that!
Old carpet and home renovation debris? VTP can handle that!
Outdated appliances and electronics? VTP can handle that!
Broken toys, bicycles, and ride on toys? VTP can handle that!
A shed full of stuff that nobody uses and it all just needs to go? We can handle that! We can even tear down the shed and haul it away!
A big pile of random junk? Oh yes, we can handle that, too!
You can contact owner Kyle McCarty whenever and however it is most convenient for you.
Call or text him at (479) 236-4981. He’ll answer your questions, provide you with all necessary information, provide you with a no obligation quote, and schedule an appointment that works for you.
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We are here to serve you and look forward to helping you complete your spring cleaning!
