March Madness

If you're a college basketball fan you love the month of March. Building your bracket and then watching to see who stays and who goes round after round is exciting. March, and the other spring months are also a great time to do a little spring cleaning. Arguably not as exciting as watching nonstop basketball, but there is the promise of some long term benefits. Keep reading for some tips to make the job a little more enjoyable and how you can use Stockpile to help.

Find the Fun

You've probably lost lots of stuff in your home and you don't even realize it. How many items do you own that you've forgotten all about because you haven't seen them in so long? You don't know, because you don't remember that you have them. Clutter causes more than just dust collection. It hides your stuff in plain sight and makes it impossible for you to find what you're looking for. It also causes stress and anxiety. Remember, cleaning may not be fun, but the great feeling that you get when you're done sure is.

Build Your Bracket

When you build your bracket you pick the teams that you think are going to win. You decide who makes it to the big dance and who gets sent home early. That's the extent of the control you have over the situation. You can make your predictions but you can't help any of your teams score the points they'll need to win. When you build your cleaning bracket you have total control of what stays and what goes. You decide which rooms to tackle first and what your goals are. Just like the tournament often pits the lowest seeds against the biggest winners you can choose to start with the rooms that should be the easiest to win. We always recommend starting small with the projects that will be the simplest to complete.

Devise a Game Plan

A good coach always a game plan to help his team win. You'll need the same thing if you want to succeed in your cleaning efforts. Set aside a certain amount of time to work on this project. Allow longer than you think you'll need. Cleaning projects are often more time consuming than you expect. If you don't give yourself enough time you'll end up in a mess with a half finished room that is probably messier than you when you started. If you finish early, you'll be happy and have some free time to reward yourself with something fun. We have numerous suggestions on how to plan out your spring cleaning.

Spring cleaning

Like It, Love It, or Lose It 

Track Your Stats

No spring cleaning would be complete without using Stockpile to track your inventory. As you clean and organize you need to add records to Stockpile so you'll know what you got rid of it, and where you put the stuff that you kept. By using locations and areas you can be so specific about where items that you kept are located, you'll never lose them again. Remember, Stockpile is fully customizable so you choose which fields to include in your item records. This puts the info you want at your fingertips. Plus, Stockpile is mobile compatible so you can take that info with you wherever you go.

Celebrate Your Win 

The best part of the tournament is celebrating your team's victory. Don't forget to do the same for your spring cleaning. You deserve to enjoy your accomplishment. Yes, you'll appreciate the long term benefits of your newly clean and organized space, but don't forget to celebrate the fact that you got it done. Even if it's just ice cream or a special snack after you finish, a little celebration can go a long way towards motivating you to tackle the next room on your list.

Don't Forget to Rebound

In this case, we're not talking about going after the loose ball. We mean giving yourself time to recover and regroup before you jump into the next item on your list. Taking time to rebound between jobs will allow you to approach the second and third rooms with as much enthusiasm as you had for the first one. Never underestimate the power of a positive attitude on a cleaning project. If you're not feeling it, you're probably not going to succeed.

We hope these tips have helped you find the incentive you need to tackle your spring cleaning challenges this year. If you need more motivation or tips be sure to check back with our blog. We'll be back with more helpful Stockpile home inventory tool tips soon! Ready to get started? Try Stockpile now!

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