It’s spring cleaning time – for your home and luggage
As travelers wait and plan their next vacation for later this year let’s take this time to get our collective homes and, yes, luggage, deep cleaned and disinfected.
Now is a perfect time to clean those closets, windows, pantries, bathrooms, playrooms, living rooms, and bedrooms. And for the bravest of souls your attics and crammed and unorganized garages that have most likely not been cleaned or organized for quite some time.
4 tips to get your house or apartment in order as you wait to travel on your next trip later this year.
Closets and pantries: what is actually in there?
If you’re like most of us you use your closets and pantries to hid as much stuff as humanly possible so you can appear to live the minimalist life on the outside and stockpiled with as many items for a “rainy day” or that .00001 chance you will finally need that old VHS /DVD connector cable you are positive will be needed one day soon.
Perhaps, it is time to take out everything you have been hoarding for the past decade and really ask yourself; “will I ever use those 2010 New Year’s Eve sunglasses or spring break beer koozie from Cancun?” Odds are the answer is NO!
What about that half eaten non perishable can of beans from 2009 that you’ve cleverly placed in a mason jar. Spoiler alert, it is most likely spoiled by now!
Take this quiet time to get everything organized in your closets and pantries so you can finally know what and where everything is that could be useful and needed for an actual rainy day or emergency. And when guests come over in the future you can showcase how organized your house or apartment is as they hang their coat in your hallway closet and you won’t feel so self-conscious and can stop telling yourself ,”I really need to clean that closet out one day”.
Windows and bathrooms: How much dirt has really built up?
When is the last time you actually cleaned the inside and outside of your windows? Be honest. Most of us rarely find the time or motivation to windex the views we see daily outside.
We promise you, that once you do one window and see the difference and realize how much dirt and fingerprints have built up, you will be extremely motivated to complete all your windows to let more light in and view the world in a much clearer way. It will brighten your mood and give you a sense of accomplishment. Then you can put a reminder for 5 years to do it again, as let’s be honest, most of us rarely deep clean our windows.
What about that bathroom(s)? How long has it mean since you’ve actually scrubbed the back of your toilet or caulk in the shower or actual bathtub? Once you take the time to deep clean all the crevices in there, odds are, you will never let it go back to the way it was. A happy bathroom = a happy life.
Living rooms and bedrooms: is there a dust monster or or family of lonely quarters living underneath?
Cleaning under our couches, cushions, or bed frames is not something most of us ever do. Most of us just accept there must be an old remote, baby or dog toy, and many lost items we’ve accepted are lost forever.
Take this time to flip your couch cushions, vacuum all the popcorn kernels, dust, dirt, and hopefully a good amount of loose change you’ve long forgotten about. Look at this process as a way to add to your change jar. Or, finally, you can claim family victory and you really were not crazy and that old TV remote was not lost and you ‘did just have it on your lap’ … 4 years ago.
We spend a third of our lives sleeping. Breathing in clean air is extremely healthy for our lungs and immune system and now is the time to find out how much dust, dirt, and misplaced socks are indeed living under you while you sleep each night. And a positive takeaway is you can finally stop blaming your untrustworthy dryer from stealing your favorite pair of socks 2 years ago.
Clean your luggage: it’s finally time to get rid of dirt and germs from your past travels
This is the only travel related tip here on our list, but it is a perfect time to get your suitcase or set of luggage finally back in fighting shape for your next trip later this year.
How often do you clean your luggage? Not often would be our guess. What a great time to disinfect your luggage and clean all the excess dirt and scuff marks that have built up since buying it a few years ago.
We found a detailed and informative article from SmarterTravel that goes into great detail on how to disinfect your suitcase from your wheels, to handles, to actual luggage itself. Definitely worth a read as you get going on spring cleaning inside your home and prepare for your next vacation later this year.
When the time is right to travel again consider shipping your luggage with LugLess and put your safety first and worrying about much bigger things like catching that flight on time and getting upgraded to the exit row.