School Cleaning
If you have off of school for the holidays, it's a good idea to start there, since you won't be able to organize there later. Unsure of where to start? Try this.
1.) Do your textbooks have more of your papers than your binders? Take out all of your stray papers, pencils, pens, etc. Not only is it difficult to find your papers when they're in your textbooks, but if you have enough, they can actually damage the spine of the book itself and ruin your papers- not fun.
2.) Organize your binders. If you're anything like me, you probably stopped using your dividers after the second week of school. If you don't have a chance during school, take a binder or two home a night and organize all your papers into their proper place.
3.) Clean out your locker. If you don't have a chance to during school, shove anything that shouldn't be in your locker into your backpack on a day you don't have much homework. Of course, that being said, you have to be sure to...
4.) Clean out your backpack. Be sure to go through all of the pockets, even the ones you don't use, (I found my iPod in one of those before.) and throw out anything that shouldn't be there.
5.) Lastly, clean out your purse/pencil box. Chances are you accumulated more than you intended. (Important papers you were supposed to show your parents/guardians? Notes from friends? Notes to yourself? Random things that you end up wondering, 'Oh, how did you get in here?' If you haven't guessed, this happens to me quite a lot.) It's also a good time to restock on all those pencils that always seem to disappear when you need them.
Room Cleaning
For some of us, (myself included,) this requires much more motivation and effort than cleaning your school stuff. Here are some tips.
1.) Listen to upbeat music. Or, if upbeat isn't your thing, try something WITH a beat. It makes the whole experience a little more bearable.
2.) Throw out your trash. It's a good and fairly easy way to start, since you don't need to think about where to put it- It just goes in the trash bag and into the dumpster.
3.) Fold your clean clothes and put them away. This is a majority of what's on my floor, so this takes the most time.
4.) Put any dirty laundry in a hamper or basket. If you don't do your own laundry, do whoever is a favor and only add a few more pieces per load than usual at a time.
5.) Put books on your bookshelf. They don't have to be in alphabetical order or anything, but it helps if you keep similar books together.
6.) Make your bed. Your bed is the main purpose of your room, so a messy bed brings the entire room down on the cleanliness scale.
7.) Dust. Please, just do it.
8.) Use carpet cleaner/Vacuum. If you're this far already, you might as well just clean it properly, right?
9.) Febreze it up. There is Febreze for fabric and for the air, and giving your room a nice smell is always a good way to personalize it.
And there you have it! I wish you all the best of luck cleaning, and that you all have a fun and safe holiday season. I hope these tips helped you, and if you read this article, I'd LOVE to hear from you.
Until Next Time,
~ Carrie ♥
