Spring Cleaning Your Unit - The Explorage.com Ultimate Checklist

Spring is a time for change, for clearing out your clutter (read our post ‘Too Much Clutter’ here), for shaking off the cobwebs and preparing for the longer and brighter days of summer. With the March Equinox being on the 20th March, as well as the start of spring, this also marks Great British Spring Cleaning Day!

Having been around for over 30 years, Keep Britain Tidy focuses on a different problem facing our planet each year. Their #LitterHeroes campaign in November of 2023 saw 1774 volunteers pick up and collect 5265 bags of rubbish. Keep Britain Tidy have reported an estimated number of over 1 million bags of litter collected.

Here at Explorage.com, we are all about storing, decluttering and clearing out, easily and securely, whilst at the same time reducing the amount of waste created, and avoiding contributing to the issue at hand. But how best to go about that? 

Having a self storage unit can help benefit homeowners and companies alike when it comes to reducing waste for a variety of reasons - be it compiling and storing paperwork that may otherwise be thrown away, storing belongings that currently don’t fit in your space, providing a home to seasonal items such as decorations and even bikes, keeping items available to be on hand whenever required. 

Before spring cleaning your home and trying to move items into what may already be a full self storage unit, you might want to have a clear out first! Here are our top tips to spring cleaning your unit in preparation for your home items: 

Before beginning to clear out your unit, create a plan of items that you need to go through. Decide what type of things you are planning to keep, which you are wanting to donate or sell (this is the best way to reduce waste!), and which ones you are going to discard (if any). 

It’s time to start from scratch - empty your unit to the barebones shell of a unit, by removing all of your items and placing them in an open area where it is easy to sort through and see individual items. 

As mentioned in step one, now that you have emptied your unit, it is now much easier to go through individual items and decide what to keep, what to donate and what items are meant to be sold. Making piles for each category will make it easier to replace items into your unit or take home once cleaned, as well as creating a sense of order.

It’s time to start cleaning! This could be vacuuming the floors, brushing, mopping, dusting, and wiping away visible grime and dirt, not only inside the unit but also on the items stored there.

Depending on how large your unit is, this could take some time but will mean that items will be in a much better condition for storing, as well as the unit itself being a better environment for your items to be stored in. If you are emptying your unit for good, then it helps to ensure that any deposit held on your unit will be returned upon vacating. 

Now the unit is clean and empty, it is always wise to inspect it thoroughly, to ensure that there are no cracks, leaks, or any way in for pests, or any other problems. By checking for damage or problem areas, it means that talks with your storage operator about any issues can happen early on before your items are damaged. 

Unless you want your storage unit to end up in a similar state once again by the end of the process, it’s time to organise! Having a designated area for each item, adding in shelves, and placing items into boxes that can be labelled, makes it easier to find items when they are required. 

It will also make items tidier; saving you time and stress in the long run. Some storage operators may offer these for an additional cost, be it cardboard boxes, or racking. 

Now that you have cleaned out your unit and placed the items you are keeping back into your self-storage space, or taken them home, it’s time to take care of your donations or start selling.

This could be done through charity shops, second-hand selling platforms for clothes such as Vinted, local groups on Facebook and Marketplace. Some operators such as Blue Self Storage in Cardiff may have these recycling operations on site.

Not only does this reduce waste, but you are helping someone else who may not be able to access these items otherwise, or afford them. 

This may seem like a daunting task, but following this Ultimate Spring Cleaning Week Checklist helps you maintain a clean and organised space, reduce stress, increase productivity, and improve your well-being, by clearing your mind and life of things that are no longer required. 

Have fun spring cleaning - and if you decide you don’t want to part with things, or you currently are unable to sell, recycle, donate or upcycle items, then use Explorage.com to find yourself some more self storage nearby!