As you begin to open up your house for warm weather and clear out the broken branches from your yard and dig through your papers for tax documents, it becomes obvious that Spring is the perfect time to clean up many different areas of your life. We have compiled some different resources that can help you get a head start on Spring cleaning and organizing! If you’re not up for tackling these tasks on your own, you will find a list of preferred vendors at the bottom who can help you get all of this accomplished.

Documents
Since tax day is approaching, most of us have been digging through all of our paperwork from the last year. As I was doing so, I realized how many different unnecessary papers that I keep around and that when the rest of my house gets a good cleaning, that the file cabinets are often ignored. Here, you will find a great article produced by Dave Ramsey that will give some tips on organizing your documents and some guidelines on how long to keep different documents.

Yard Clean Up
With the nasty Winter we’ve had this year, most yards around the city are in need of a desperate clean up. Here is a short checklist of things to help get the yard prepared for April showers and May flowers.

1. Prune away dead and damaged branches.
2. Cut back and divide perennials as needed.
Prune flowering perennials to a height of 4–5 inches and ornamental grasses to 2–3 inches to allow new growth to shoot up. Where soil has thawed, dig up perennials, such as daylilies and hostas, to thin crowded beds; divide them, leaving at least three stems per clump, and transplant them to fill in sparse areas.
3. Rake out fallen leaves and dead foliage around plants and under bushes
4. Prep Damaged Lawn Areas for Spring Seeding.  Remove damaged or diseased turf to prepare for the seeding that should follow in a few weeks.
5. Neaten Up Hardscape Surfaces. Rake escaped gravel back into the correct areas and refill joints between paver stones.
6. Patch or replace and paint worn wood.

House Cleaning
Cleaning the house is what we all generally think about when Spring Cleaning is mentioned. This is a subject that you can take as far as you want whether you just need to declutter, dust, and vacuum or if you’re ready to dig in and scrub every square inch of the home. No matter what stage you are ready to tackle, I have enjoyed the articles below that also include some helpful cleaning solution recipes and free printables to keep you on track.

Part One: Clearing the Clutter
Part Two: Green and Thrifty Products
Part Three: Cleaning from Top to Bottom 

Large Item Pick-Up
This is the time of year that some of the cities in the KC metro offer free Large Item Pick-Up days. This is a great way to get rid of the things that you have purged from your Spring Cleaning that aren’t suitable to send to other organizations. For the cities that don’t offer the service anymore, you may find some other options for large item disposal. See the links below to find the schedule for your area of the city.
Overland Park – Dates not chosen yet, check back on this link to see when they are scheduled
Shawnee – Dates chosen
Lenexa – No longer offers program, but there are other options
Olathe – Chargeable service that you can schedule
Merriam – Dates chosen
Kansas City, MO – Make appointments for bulky items
Roeland Park – Different options for scheduling
Leawood – Offers a recirculation day for reusable items

Helpful Vendor Numbers
Below are some of our preferred vendors that may help you in your Spring Cleaning adventures

1-800-GOT-JUNK
Josh Herron
913.663.2100

American Duct Cleaning
Randy Welch
913.681.9032

Beautiful Outdoors-Landscaping
Kyle Douglas
913.406.8557

Heart of America Window Cleaning-Window and gutter cleaning
Gary Crainshaw
913.791.4068

Tonya’s Clean Houses-Regular and One-Time Deep Cleanings
Tonya Shanahan
816.510.6480

Space by Design-Closet and organizing solutions
Janie Davis
816.365.8334

Organize4U-Organization Services
Darcy Munzer
816.797.7009

Rusty’s Carpet Cleaning & Restoration
Rusty Simpson
913.710.1344

Bock’s Steam Star-Carpet Cleaning
Brian Bock
913.438.7767

Walden and Sons Heating & Cooling-HVAC cleaning and servicing
Scott Walden
913.461.5542

Chimney Tech-Chimney cleaning
Tyler Jackson
816.221.9981