CLEANING GREEN

15 in 15: Your Quick Home Reset

By Rosa Colucci

JANUARY 23, 2024

Everyone wants to organize the home and start fresh for the new year. It’s hard to find the time to tackle it all, so set a timer for 15 minutes and tackle a task on this list. Some will need several 15-minute sessions but if you stick to it, you will spend Spring enjoying flowers instead of cleaning. 

1. Entry: Create a landing zone for shoes and outerwear, assign hooks to family members, and have slippers to wear indoors. This will keep your floors so much cleaner. 
2. Mail: Place a small trash can near your entry for recycle. Immediately discard all mail that you don’t need. 
3. Kitchen: Tackle one cabinet at a time, start filling a box for donations, and send usable items to recycle. Don’t forget to purge extra pots and pans, and discard any peeling non-stick cookware. 
4. Cleaning Products: Take stock of what you’re using and why. Narrow down your offerings and replenish with environmentally-friendly from brands like Seventh Generation, Method, Ever Spring…etc. 
5. Laundry: Always a boondoggle! Create bins for whites, jeans, colors, etc. Do one load a day. Ditch the big bottle for laundry sheets — no plastic, easy to store, and they work really well.
6. Linens: Store bedclothes in a small storage bench at the end of the bed in the room where they are used. Donate worn blankets and towels to the Animal Shelter. They are always needed. 
7. Medicine Cabinet: Discard unused medication at the pharmacy not your regular trash. Take stock of your emergency kit and replenish that too. Toss old makeup and creams, and only keep what you like and use.
8. Linen Closet: Organize this space for your best and highest use. Discard/donate what isn’t being used here. 

1. 9. Cleaning kits: Keep a small kit under the sink in each bathroom with all-purpose cleaner, window cleaner, abrasive cleanser and a few microfiber towels. You can do a quick tidy of any space in five minutes. 
   10. Personal closets: Keep a donation bag in the closet and make a habit of filling with items you no longer use. 
   11. Pantry: Tackling this space goes a long way to reducing food waste. Organize food by category, keep frequently used items at eye level, and if you can, invest in a set of storage containers for grains, etc.
   12. Refrigerator: It’s definitely worth the investment for refrigerator containers. Pinterest is full of posts under “Refrigerator Storage” that are game-changers. Concentrate on fresh-food storage items.
   13. Garage: If your garage is jam-packed, spend 15 minutes a day and clear one box. If you haven’t used it in a year, donate it. Take what’s left and condense the bins you already have. Label and store on your (anchored) shelving units; heaviest on bottom, light items on top. 
   14. Garage Floors: Space for trash cans, a sporting equipment organizer, tool chest/workbench. 
   15. Garage, Seasonal: A couple of tool organizers on the wall to hang brooms, snow shovels, and few garden tools. 

Rosa Colucci is a regular contributor for The Green Voice.