It’s safe to say that most people don’t enjoy cleaning, myself included. But decluttering and organizing your home can save you money, so it’s worth doing. Cleaning and maintaining your furniture, appliances, and other belongings can make them last longer.
If you’re a homeowner, keeping your home clean could help you sell it faster and for more money when the time comes. Decluttering can also put some extra cash in your pocket if you sell your unwanted belongings. Even if you donate them, you may be able to claim it as a tax write-off.
To give you some much-needed cleaning motivation, here’s a closer look at all the ways spring cleaning and organizing my home saves me money.
Cleaning Makes Appliances and Home Systems More Efficient
When’s the last time you cleaned out your dishwasher’s filter or vacuumed your refrigerator’s coils? Performing some basic maintenance on your appliances and home systems can make them last longer and run more efficiently.
For example, an air conditioner with a dirty filter uses up 5% to 15% more energy than an AC unit with a clean filter. So just making that simple swap can help you save money on your electric bill. You may even save money on allergy meds and doctor’s visits if you make the air cleaner by replacing filters throughout your home.
Cleaning your carpets, furniture, and clothing properly can also help them last longer and look better. This means you won’t have to replace them as often, which could save you a significant sum.
Here are some of the tasks I’m planning to tackle during my spring deep clean this year to extend the life of my belongings:
- Rotate my mattress and clean it with baking soda to deodorize it and make it last longer
- Wash the covers of all my decorative throw pillows
- Deep clean all the carpets and upholstery
- Powerwash and reseal the deck to remove salt, mildew, and dirt and protect it from the elements
- Clean the grout in my bathrooms and deep clean the showerheads to remove mineral buildup and improve water pressure
- Change my ceiling fan’s direction to counterclockwise for the spring and summer to help reduce cooling costs
Spring is a great time to tackle all those home maintenance tasks you’ve been meaning to get to for a while. Join me in crossing some things you’ve been avoiding off your to-do list!
Organizing My Belongings Means I Waste Less
It’s hard to take inventory when your closets are messy. If you can’t see everything inside your cluttered medicine cabinet or kitchen pantry, you may overbuy items you already have. This can cause you to waste food and medicine because you have more than you can use up before the expiration dates.
To prevent this from happening, I try to clean out my fridge and closets regularly and use up items I forgot about. It takes some time, but it’s worth the savings and the increased functionality that comes with having an organized home.
Decluttering Helps Me Earn Extra Cash
I’ve also earned some extra cash by decluttering my closets. I recently listed a bunch of clothes that were no longer my style on my sister’s Poshmark account. Instead of letting these items collect dust and take up space in my closet, I’m turning them into cash. So far I’ve earned close to $100 by reselling old clothing and will earn even more when the rest of the items sell.
In addition to Poshmark, you can sell unwanted belongings on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, eBay, Mercari, Depop, and OfferUp. You can also bring your items to a consignment or pawn shop. If you have enough merchandise to sell, you could even host a garage sale as the weather warms up.
Keeping My Home Clean Could Improve Its Resale Value
Another benefit of keeping my home clean is that it could improve my house’s resale value. Experts say a tidy house is easier to sell and usually commands a higher purchase price. However, only 10% of homeowners keep their home clean enough while it’s on the market.
Many sellers continue to live in their home until it’s sold, which is why they have a hard time keeping it spotless. But if they had a regular cleaning routine in place before they put their home on the market, it would be easier to maintain a tidy household.
Although I’m not thinking about selling my home now, you never know what could happen in the future. Deferring cleaning and maintenance would make it harder to get my home ready for sale if I needed to move on short notice. I’d probably have to replace more items throughout my home such as my carpets before I could list it, which would cut into my profits from the sale.
That’s why I’ve been working hard this year to implement and stick to a regular cleaning routine. I’m not perfect, but I’m getting much better at keeping up with home maintenance. Instead of waiting for a room to become a disaster before I clean it, I spend some time every day tidying up so the mess never gets to that level. Hopefully, my efforts will keep my home in good condition, which will pay off if I sell or rent it in the future.
Wrapping Up
Are you planning to do any spring cleaning this year? Do you think you’ll make any money by tidying up? Let me know in the comments section below!
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Vicky Monroe is a freelance personal finance and lifestyle writer. When she’s not busy writing about her favorite money saving hacks or tinkering with her budget spreadsheets, she likes to travel, garden, and cook healthy vegetarian meals.
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