4 Ways To Involve Your Kids In Your Junk Removal Process

When you’ve decided you’ve had enough of the junk throughout your home, you can hire a junk removal bin to ensure the ideal, convenient disposal process. But disposal isn’t easy when there are so many people to consider within the home. That’s why many families are now looking to get their children involved in the junk removal process. In this article, we’ll help guide you with four ways to get children engaged in junk removal.

1. Discuss Decorating Options with ChildrenIt’s important that kids are excited about the process to come rather than simply focused on junk removal. Discuss potential decorating options with your child and highlight the potential their emptier rooms can offer for the future. Allow children to be creative in planning for their new space, as this can inspire them and keep them focused on the junk removal work.
2. Give Kids a Choice Over Items for DisposalYou can also involve your children in the junk removal process by giving them a choice as to which items they want to keep and which they want to throw away. Make sure that each of your children has their input on the removal process. Allow them to keep a set number of items and make them choose between their favourites to help guide the process forward.
3. Teach Children About RecyclingChildren will be more focused on the junk removal process if they understand why they must take on the process in the first place. As a parent, you can help inform your child of the benefits of recycling and why we must remove old items from your home when they’re no longer suitable for use.
4. Break the Process Down into StepsOne important element in engaging children within the junk removal process is to ensure they take it step-by-step. For example, the first step could be sorting their belongings into those they want to keep and those they don’t want to keep; step two could be placing the items they don’t want to keep in a sealable container. This step-by-step approach can help your child understand the process and ensure they’re constantly moving forward.

By engaging your children within the junk removal process, you can ensure each element of your home is new and improved after the removal work has been completed. To discuss this process with a specialist, call our expert team today!

A renovation is not complete until your home has returned to normalcy. Cleaning up after a renovation is still a significant part of any renovation: it includes removing any heavy renovation materials and cleaning up dust and other particles. Here are some tips for making the task a much easier one, allowing you to restore the cleanliness and air quality in your home in no time.

1. Rent a Dumpster-Removal Bin.

   A junk-removal bin makes the process of removing renovation materials like plastic or wood a much easier and streamlined task than having to make multiple trips to a recycling centre or dump. Instead, rent a junk-removal bin and dispose of all material in one go. Some junk-removal bin services will even remove your junk for you.

2. Wipe Down the Walls/ Furniture and Vacuum.

   If your walls are not newly painted (or you have wallpaper), wipe them down with a wet cloth to get rid of any residual dust. Use the end of a broom for the corners. Don’t miss any furniture — pay particular attention to the tops of furniture (like coffee tables), which tend to collect a lot of dust.

   Alternatively, if your walls are freshly painted, dry dust them. This alone will go a long way in improving the air quality in your home again. Ensure that you also vacuum all surfaces in your home, including any wood. Follow up hard surfaces by mopping them. Don’t forget to vacuum curtains — an upholstery attachment is often best for this task.

3. Clean Light Fixtures.

   Remove all light fixtures and clean them. Don’t forget to miss the blades of your ceiling fan if you have one.

4. Clean Your Vents.

   Use water that is both warm and soapy to best clean your vents.

5. Change Your Air Filters.

   It is a good idea to check your air filters and replace them. It is also not uncommon for a painter to remove the air filter but forget to put it back in again. Ensure that you do this as soon as possible, otherwise a missing air filter can cause damage to your furnace.

Make the process of cleaning up after a renovation a much easier one by renting a dumpster-removal bin or have our team get rid of it on your behalf. Contact our team at Junk It! today for more. We will remove all of your junk quickly and efficiently.

Not only will a dust-free home make your house visibly more attractive, but minimizing the dust will also improve the air quality and lead to improved health. After all, dust is made up of dirt, dead skin cells and mold spores. It is also beneficial to reduce dust as much as possible for those with allergies and asthma as doing so can readily improve quality of life. Keeping dust to a minimum will also extend the life of furniture and electronics. Here are some tips to help you keep your home as dust free as possible.

1. Mop your Floors with Water. Using water to mop your floors can cut down on 90 per cent of the dust in your home. This is a very quick and eco-friendly way to drastically cut down on dust.
2. Use Doormats. Doormats, particularly those with bristle tops, will stop dirt from travelling any further by trapping the dirt particles in its bristles. Since dirt is a major part of dust, placing a doormat outside your home as well as inside will reduce a lot of dust in your home. Ensure that you wash them on a regular basis.
3. Vacuum Regularly. Vacuum at least once a week to minimize dust. Consider getting a vacuum with a HEPA filter and ensure that you change the vacuum bags regularly.
4. Replace Duster with a Microfibre Cloth. Instead of simply pushing dust around through the use of a duster, try using a microfibre cloth – it is much more effective at collecting dust.
5. Vacuum Your Curtains and Lampshades. These are commonly neglected when it comes to vacuuming but they shouldn’t be missed if you want to cut down dust levels.
6. Install A Humidifier and/or Air Purifier. Static electricity, which tends to build up in dry rooms, draws in a lot of dust. To counter this dryness, get yourself a humidifier. Your house should be at a level of 40 to 50 per cent to reduce static electricity. An air purifier can also help to capture dust particles.
7. Change Your Air Filters. Change the air filters on your heating and air conditioning system at least once per month to cut down on dust.
8. Keep Your Windows Closed. Contrary to popular belief, keeping your windows shut will actually reduce dust in your home as dust has a tendency to enter through windows via pollen and mold spores.
9. Get Rid of your Carpet. Carpets attract dust on a large scale only to disperse through the air every time the carpet is walked on. Replace your carpets with hardwood, stone or vinyl.
10. Wash Your Pillows. Despite washing your pillowcases every week, your pillows are still likely to harbour a lot of dust mites. Wash your pillows with mild detergent on a semi-regular basis to reduce the dust in your bedroom.
11. Get Rid of Clutter. Clutter tends to attract a lot of dust. Get rid of it to banish the dust.

In order to keep your home dust free, it is important to not have a lot of junk lying around. Consider renting a dumpster-removal bin or have our team get rid of it on your behalf. Contact our team at Junk It! today for more.

Every year we accumulate more and more stuff, scrambling to try and find places to hang, mount, cover and store everything. All of this amounts to one thing: clutter. Clutter is the nemesis of an organized house. Clutter is bad for not only your physical space, but your mental space as well. Clutter creates anxiety and can make you feel like the walls are closing in around you. Here are 5 ways to efficiently declutter your home.

Commit to 5 minutes

Choose an area to focus on and spend 5 minutes per day, for several consecutive days, removing clutter and organizing the space.

Give away items

Trying to aggregate everything you own all at once is too overwhelming. If you are serious about decluttering, commit to finding and giving away one item every day. Do it for a month and see if you like the results. If you feel like 30 days/30 items is not making a dent, try 2 months, or 4 or an entire year. If you get rid of clutter one item at a time, before you know it, you will have cleared out a whole room, or an entire floor.

The closet hanging experiment

This is a rather simple exercise. Hang all of your clothes with the hangers facing the same direction. After an item has been worn, return it to the closet with the hanger facing in the opposite direction to all the others. After a few months, you will have a very clear idea which articles of clothing you actually wear, and which ones are just taking up space.

Make lists

When it comes to pretty much any task, lists are amazing at providing the motivation necessary to actually accomplish it. Make a list of areas in your home to declutter and methodically go about striking them off. It’s ok to start with the easiest area first; once you start, the list will gradually get shorter and shorter.

Know what to keep

Knowing what is truly valuable and useful is as important as knowing what is not. Things with real sentimental and monetary value should be kept. It is easy to get caught up in a purge and end up discarding or giving something away that in retrospect you wish you had kept. There are things in your home that you use every day, as well as heirlooms and keepsakes that mean a lot.

The hardest part of choosing to declutter is starting. Once the wheels are in motion, there is a goal in mind and the whole process just becomes a necessity. Take into consideration the above five suggestions, all at once, or piecemeal, whatever is most comfortable and sort your way to a more organized, clutter free home.

If you’re planning a big haul of your unneeded items, don’t forget to call Junk It! for easy removal of your overflow.

5 Tips To Cleaning Your House For The New Year

This year, December 31 will come and go once again. It’s the start of a new year, and hopefully, a new resolution.

Resolutions take work. Developing a new routine, especially one that involves daily chores and maintenance, may seem like an insurmountable task given how little time there seems to be in a day as we get older. Keeping a clean house is one of those daily duties that often requires training your mind to be ok with spending time when you don’t have it, or when your body has already begun shutting down for the day, and as such is easy to procrastinate and postpone.

Here are five tips to keeping a cleaner house for the new year and how to make it part of a comfortable routine!

Do a nightly clean. It doesn’t have to be a thorough, top-to-bottom spring cleaning type of clean that you need a shower after, but making an effort to maintain some semblance of organization in your home before you go to bed for the evening can do great things for your mental wellbeing. Putting a book back on the shelf, or picking up a pillow off the floor are small gestures with big benefits.

Do your dishes. It’s so tempting to finish making dinner and then forget about all of the utensils, pots, pans and whatever else went into making it. You just spent an hour putting together something for the family after a full day on your feet, or at the office, leaving the cleaning until the day after seems like something you deserve (and believe us, you do!) but taking the extra 10 minutes to wash and dry things like pots and pans so you can wake up to a clean kitchen the following morning is well worth the effort.

Take preventative measures. Even something as simple as running a squeegee over the walls of your shower after every use to prevent soap scum build-up will save you time and effort in the long-run.

Sanitize the toilet. If you do a cursory clean of your toilet every week, or even twice a week depending on its use, it will mean that you never have to come face to face with the abomination that is a two week-old uncleaned toilet in a multi-person household. A clean bathroom promotes a healthy household.

Know how to dust. Many people, especially those who dust with old-school feather dusters, simply move dust from one place to the other. The most efficient way to get rid of dust is with a dampened cloth, but most vacuums also come with efficient dust removing heads.

Making daily maintenance and preventative cleaning part of your routine takes some effort getting into, but once you have established these good household cleaning practices as second nature, you will be amazed at just how much cleaner your home looks and feels from this year to the last.

5 Ways To Declutter Before Baby Arrives

A baby is not just the biggest lifestyle change you are ever going to experience, but one that will require the biggest reorganization of your living space you are likely ever going to experience. The number of new accessories, articles of clothing and culinary items that are part and parcel of bringing a new life into the world take up space and if your home is like most people’s, space is a hot commodity. You are not going to want to start reorganizing and filtering out unnecessary items the day of.

Here are three important steps to follow in order to declutter before the baby arrives:

Have a game plan. Sit down with a pen and paper and visualize what your space looks like at the present moment, and compare it with how it will need to change in order to accommodate the arrival of a new family member. Ask yourself which areas of your home you are going to be spending the most amount of time with baby and you will start to get a feel for the areas that are going to require the most attention.

Be methodical. After you have created your plan, tackle one area at a time and when it’s done, cross it off your list. It is reassuring to have some way to measure your progress and know you are getting everything done.

Know how to say goodbye. Take the arrival of your son or daughter as an opportunity to carefully consider how much you really need and use certain things that seem like they have always just been a part of your life. If you know the baby‘s outerwear is going to need a certain amount of mudroom closet space dedicated to it, start thinking about how many of those winter coats you really need and wear. If you have storage space for things you still wear or use, make use of it, if you don’t but still want the option to store your belongings, perhaps consult a self-storage company. The goal is to remove things from rotation, whether they are in your closet or pantry, that are not going to make your life as a new parent easier.

Clearing your house of clutter may seem like additional, unnecessary work that is a distraction from other more pressing preparations, appointments, maybe even home renovations you have to schedule – not to mention work – into the busy lead-up to the arrival of your little guy or girl, but it will be the last thing you are going to want to do as your body is recovering from and your time consumed by the birth of a child. Plan in advance, rent a junk removal bin for the large items you’re going to be getting rid of, and make sure you have everything ready before the little one arrives.