I finally talk to my husband about his herculean effort cleaning out his family’s house this summer. He shares tips on how to sort things and save junk from the landfill.
Tips for cleaning a junk-filled house
- Clearing out a staging area to house all the junk on its way out. If you’re cleaning out a whole house, you may want at least one room. (The garage can work well here.)
- Sort one room at a time.
- Sort into sensible categories: first, what you plan to keep, what to sell or give away, and what is trash (sorted as well as you can for recycling in your area). Then sort those bins into subcategories, like clocks, cleaning supplies, or clothes.
- Look into who might be interested in the junk from a particular category: a secondhand bookstore, the Red Cross, or collectors.
- Plan to host a yard sale to find new homes for lots of diverse junk all in one go. More tips on that next week!