Daunted by Spring Cleaning? It’s that time of the year again, the birds are singing, the evenings are lengthening and the added light is picking out the up-until-now unnoticed dust and dirt on the windows – yes it’s time to start spring cleaning. Unknown to many, spring cleaning is actually a very ancient phenomenon which has roots in Jewish, Christian and Persian cultures. The festivals of Passover, Good Friday or Persian New Year all traditionally involved a cleansing of the home, but it go even further back than that!
Either way, for hundreds of years humans used the changing of the seasons as an opportunity to refresh their homes. People of 2018 are no different, except that unlike our predecessors, we have access to a number of apps designed to ease the burden. So if you are feeling a little daunted by the magnitude of the problem, we have compiled a little list of helpful apps which can help you clean up and make/ save you money.
Fat Lama
Fat Lama is a rental app that allows its users to rent out their possessions (fully insured) to people nearby. From a spring clear-out point of view, this is helpful in two ways. Firstly, you will inevitably uncover all sorts of unused items lying about your house when you start to dig. Instead of throwing these in the bin, you can save the environment and some money by renting them out to people nearby.
You can list anything from your old record player to a bike, to that surfboard you only used once, free of charge. Secondly, if you are looking to make some home improvements on a budget, you can save some serious money renting equipment like drills, carpet cleaners, and ladders for a fraction of the price it would cost you to buy them. Added bonus, you get to give it back so it won’t add further to your clutter.
Vinted
Clearing out your wardrobe? Vinted is the app that can make you money by selling or swapping your old clothes with people nearby. Not only is this a great value way for getting some new pieces in your wardrobe for the summer, but it provides a financially incentivized, environmentally friendly way of disposing of your unwanted clothes. In the past year, we have seen some really shocking statistics emerge relating to the environmental damage the textile industry is causing.
The Guardian has reported in Britain alone 680m items will be discarded as people spring clean their wardrobes this year with 235 million of these ending up in a landfill. The same is true across the western world as cheap clothing, combined with pressure to conform to the latest fashions, leads to huge quantities of textile wastage. So if you are starting your revamp in your wardrobe, using apps like Vinted can help declutter your both bedroom and landfill.
BrightNest
If organization is your biggest downfall when it comes to cleaning, help is at hand! BrightNest is an app that manages your home for you. From reminders on when to perform tasks to tips on DIY home improvements, the app becomes a digital dashboard for your home. Each reminder is accompanied by a time estimation to give you some expectation management and also shame you into action (taking out bins – 2 minutes).
It’s great for the long game too, as you can request reminders for actions that need taking several times a year which you will inevitably forget otherwise but really shouldn’t – like testing the smoke alarms! It’s not all nagging either, the app is refreshingly upbeat as it makes home improvement suggestions and ideas in a distinctly ‘Pintresty’ way.
Wunderlist
If you are the kind of person who has a diary but forgets to fill it in, leaves it at home, or just writes a time with no further explanation, then Wunderlist is for you. It’s an app that shares your to-dos between all your devices so you can access it from work and home. You can even add in household members so you can all take a share of the chores.
This is brilliant if you’re a student in a houseshare or a parent who’s fed up with doing their kids’ washing. In either case, you can share lists and work on projects together. This way spring cleaning does not have to be a one-man battle or even a last-minute panic when you have reminders in place and time set out for you.
Decluttr
At one point having a large DVD or CD collection was a point of pride, but in this day and age when the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Spotify reign supreme, these collections have become nothing short of burdensome and obsolete. This is where Decluttr comes in, you can now empty your shelves of unsightly plastic boxes in one fell swoop and make money in the process.
All you need to do is download the app and scan the barcode of the item and it will give you an instant quote. In this way, you can send off mass shipping in the same parcel (max 200 items per box) and post them for free. When Decluttr has received and quality-checked them, they will pay you out the next working day – certainly more profitable than going to the skip! Items they will accept are DVDs, CDs, books, lego, video games and Blu-ray.
Contributed courtesy of Flora Dallas.
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