Springtime Cleanse: Closets, Cars, Budgets

What with the #COVID19Quarantine going on we are all indoors quite a bit. And doing endless amounts of cleaning if my grocery store’s shelves have ANYTHING to say about it. So… in the true fashion of springtime… Let’s Cleanse!

For me, springtime has always been about rearranging furniture… purging closets… and deep cleaning the house after a long few months of wintery weather. This year is no different.

Over here I’ve started in on my closets. I packed up all the winter coats, scarves, beanies, and such. The boxes of clothes that never made it out of the moving boxes have been sorted for donation, repurpose (rags, memory quilts, etc), or goal weight outfits. While I can’t make the goodwill runs anytime soon, the box(es) will be ready once this whole situation gets cleared up. As for my warm winter clothes… every so often spring likes to do flash backs to the “winter weather” temperatures making me hesitate to fully close up those boxes.

Even now as I type this entry I’m sitting outside my local Firestone Automotive Care waiting on my car’s breaks to be inspected and replaced, my tires to be changed out and my alignment to be corrected. All things I needed to do regardless of the pandemic, but with the rainy weather I couldn’t continue to delay the breaks. Cue me sitting outside the shop trying to keep my social distance while staying as much out of the rain as possible. I may cave and head inside, but as there are already other individuals inside I’ll wait a bit longer. After all it’s only 55* (feels like is 50*). 🤪

Far different than yesterdays sunshine and warmer temps. At least Hazel and I got to enjoy our Vitamin D while we had the chance.

So back to what we’re blogging about today. Spring Cleaning.

Step ONE: Tackle One Room At A Time:

Spring cleaning can be overwhelming and exhausting. Did you ever realize just how much CRAP you had? I conveniently forget until each time I move and have to box, ship, and unload all the crap. As the moves have become more expensive (moving across country costs… a LOT) I’ve started to part with more stuff. Both things I need (maybe in less than ideal condition) and things I was saving for future moments. Regardless I’ve started to be realistic about my emotional attachments and am learning to part with more and more. So if I can do it… so can you. Deep breaths. We’ll all get through this.

What has worked for me is starting with one room or closet at a time. I have piles or boxes for each distinction.

• DONATION – goodwill, neighbors, homeless shelters, etc
• REPURPOSE – I’m going to make a quilt (someday) of my old t-shirts that I want to keep, but wont be wearing anymore. If you have old ratty clothes, can they be made into rags?
• GARBAGE – Let’s face it. Some of our junk… just isn’t another (wo)man’s treasure. Sometimes it’s just junk. For that stuff, lets chuck it once and for all. But make sure you place it in the right bin… trash for trash… recycle what can be recycled.
• FOR SALE – We all could use a little extra cash right? Well, look around your house. Can you do without xyz? If so, can it fetch a reasonable price online? If your answers are yes, then go for it. Obviously don’t sell someone else’s items. But if it’s yours free and clear, go for it.

Step TWO: Tackle your car:

Some of your may not have the problem of dirty cars. I practically live in mine… so it’s dirtier than I care to admit to. With 3 cross country trips, weekly Hazel Nut rides, and countless days commuting to and from work my car has seen more than her fair share of meals, coffee spills, grooming sessions and fur deposits. Shelby (my patriot’s name) also holds grocery bags, Rainx for my windshield wipers, sunshade, frost blocker shield, occasionally extra shoes, dog toys, doggy bags, etc etc etc. My once neat freak mentality has definitely gone away with time. Oops.

So a few weeks back I started clearing the crap out. The extra shoes are back in the house. The frost blocker fully put away (still in the car). The trash removed (and replaced as time goes on). But part of my car cleaning included finally packing up all the bungees that I left in the backseat… I moved here in OCTOBER. Gulp. My bad. I lost them under the junk that I didn’t even realize the bag spilled. I still need to clear out certain aspects… again. But I was pretty happy with the level of clearance I got that day.

Step THREE: Do a BUDGET CLEANSE:

Budgets are a way of life. If you don’t have one yet… well let’s get you started on one. I use a simple excel spreadsheet for mine. You can get fancy and use one of the Excel templates. They didn’t work as well for me… so I opted to just build my own.

I recently started to color code the sections of expenses to help me keep track. While the color themselves isn’t the important aspect, color coding helped my mind to group things together and follow across the spreadsheet.

I’m also buckling down on my expenses. I still wind up spending more than I should… but 2020 is my “pay it off” year. I have 2 payments left on my moving expenses credit card, and high hopes of paying off my final credit card by the end of 2020. Paying off debt has been an incredible challenge for me. I’ve moved a LOT since finishing undergrad. Each move has increased in cost, distance, and time. Therefore the time it takes me to pay them off has increased.

But… if I’m getting real (with you and myself)… I have a spending problemo. So I’ve taken advantage of my company’s direct deposit, and how it allows me to put money into savings directly. This way I never actually “see” the money and if I don’t touch my saving’s account, then I continue to “save” money.

Other ways I’m working on my budget include cutting back excess expenses (hello amazon purchases), being mindful of how much I spend at the grocery store, and trying to be cost conscious about my gas and electric bills. I’ve also worked to decrease my Starbucks consumption. It’s a work in process.

The best thing I can say for my budget is I utilize tools:

• Autopay: Automatic payments help to keep your bills on track, your accounts current, and some companies even give you a discount for signing up. Heyyyy free money.
• Bill Pay: My bank has a bill pay system built in… the new feature (compared to when I started with my checking account) is that when I “send” money to pay a bill, the money is directly taken out of my account. AKA I can’t spend money meant for rent, etc when it’s already gone.
• Scheduled Payments: This helps me to pay my bills when it’s convenient for me. Obviously delaying payment until after the bill is due isn’t to goal of this method. However making sure that I have enough in the bank to cover the payment is. Scheduling payments helps to make sure I have the money to cover the expenses while still making payments on time.
• Excel Spreadsheet: Listing out budgeted payments and actual monthly to help keep me on track. I don’t always log into it monthly, but I try to keep track of where my payments are compared to the amount of money I allocated towards the expense.
• Finacial Apps: I use MINT to help remind me of upcoming payments, keep track of my overall debt, and monitor my credit score. If you’ve never looked into your credit score, you need to start. Like today. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s simple.

However you want to get started on your budget, there’s no time like the present. And speaking from experience… getting started is half the battle. Sticking to the budget is the other half. So if you have someone to help keep you on track then the effort that goes into the budget is shared… and so is the celebration of each success.

Make sure to acknowledge both little and big successes. Did you stick to your budget for the first month? GREAT JOB. Don’t ruin it with a big celebration, but congratulate yourself and continue onward. I haven’t decided on my celebration for my “big success” of paying off my consumer debt… but I’ll think of something.

Until then… happy spring cleaning 🙂