Drastically reducing your living space means getting creative in storage, organization, and decorations. However, you are also given the gift of time since you will be saving so much cleaning much less square footage. Many tiny home goers boast cleaning and sanitizing their entire tiny in under an hour, once a week.
Here are some useful tips to keep your tiny in tip top shape this spring.
Get Out the Lemon
You can use nature's genius cleaner to keep whites brilliant on kitchen counters and backsplashes, as well as to remove water stains on sinks and faucets. If you heat up a lemon’s juice in the microwave, you can help loose stains to wipe off with ease. This trick will work well with your small home’s oven or toaster oven as well.
Drink More Coffee
Not only will your coffee grounds work wonders as you plant your garden space for spring, but you can use the filters to clean dust and fingerprints from computer, TV, and iPad screens.
Get Magnetized
From spice racks to cutting knives, hair accessories and school supplies, most tiny dwellers hang about 40% of the items in their homes. In the kitchen, magnetic metal of a stove hood or on a refrigerator is perfect for mounting spices and a cooking timer. Adding a heavy duty magnetic strip can tackle sharp cutting knives. In the bathroom, hair accessories and jewelry hang by magnets. And magnetic spice tins double in the kid or craft area to hang googly eyes, puff balls, and small school supplies from the outside of a metal rolling utility cart.
Use this organization tip to get some of the small things off of counters and free cabinet and drawer space for more freedom this spring.
Unpack and Stack
If you are living small, it is likely that you have a tote or box tucked away and stored for off-season clothing. As you switch them out for the new warmer weather, try the trick of hanging all hangers backwards and only turning them around once you wear an item. After 30 days, it may be eye-opening to see what items you haven’t worn that month which may leave room for some more closet purging.
With folded clothes, create a small area to stack what you've actually worn that month and rid yourself of what's left. You will be amazed how freeing it is to roll into springtime with more room to run!
Hang Shelves and Baskets
These are so versatile, can be decorative, and are incredible forms of storage and organization. Metal baskets can house everything from hair dryers and brushes to soaps and toilet paper in a master bath. They can be an alternative to an end table beside a couch to hold a drink, phone, and remote control. In the bedrooms, they hold books for kids and a phone, chapstick, and book for the adults.
Before springtime arrives, use a damp cloth (we recommend using a drop of thieves oil) to dust them and their contents. This not only freshens things up, but it can serve as a natural disinfectant for those winger germs.
Beat the Dirt
Whether it is your mattresses or rugs, take advantage of the beautiful sunshine and crisp spring air to clean out your larger items in your tiny home. Placing them outside in the sun and using any combination of beating the loose debris, vacuuming anything that still sticks, and then spraying a natural cleaner like lemon, citrus, or thieves will be the perfect blend to clean and freshen items that have spent the winter sitting.
As you prepare to shake off the winter blues and embrace spring, enjoy your tiny life and the freedom needing to spend less time cleaning and sprucing up can bring. Using these tips and tricks your tiny will be ready for spring in no time.