07/31/10
Cleaning Your Attic
If you’re like me, the idea of going up into your home‘s attic to clear it out and give it a good cleaning is a really scary thought! Not only that, it’s overwhelming as well – Where to begin? What to get rid of? How to organize all the stuff?
But once you muster up the gumption and wherewithal to get it done, you’ll certainly feel better, you’ll have more room to more stuff, and, you may actually find some wonderful treasures up there! So let’s get started.
- Begin your “adventure” by going up and taking a peak at what kind of shape your attic is in. But DON’T GET DISCOURAGED! Take a breath and think of what you need to do the job.
- Bringing up two boxes at a time and a permanent marker, decide on the first area you’d like to rummage through and sort. Use one box for what you’d like to keep and one for items you will give or throw away. Label the box you plan to keep with exactly what’s inside so you will be able to easily find it in the future if you need to. Repeat this process until all the small items are boxed or taken away; set a goal for doing a certain number at a time; doing too much at a time can be so frustrating that you may not complete the job when you finally do take a break.
- Set the “keep” boxes to the one side of the attic so you can begin the task of cleaning. If you have furniture, either haul them down to sell or incorporate into your current interior design or clean each piece first and then move to the area in which you’ve put the boxes.
- Because attics become quite dusty – especially if you’ve put off the task of cleaning for years! – it may work best to take up your vacuum so suck up the excess dust before you take a wet rag to the surfaces.
As you clean, it’s best to wear a face mask to keep from breathing in or ingesting too much dust.
