3 Easy Ways Spring Cleaning Can Save You Money

Although the weather may tell us a different story (depending on where you live), Spring has already officially arrived. And with it comes the April showers, May flowers, oh yeah … and the famous ‘spring cleaning.’ This activity is of course important for our home and sanity, but did you know that spring cleaning can also save you money?

“I Hate Spring Cleaning!”

I’m not a fan of Spring Cleaning and I’m going to guess most people don’t exactly look forward to it. Well, here are 3 reasons we all might feel a bit more motivated to roll up our sleeves and bring out the broom and dustpan!

1) Clearing Up the Clutter Can Come in Handy During Tax Season

Going through your cabinets, closets, drawers, and old mail and papers can pay off in several ways. Besides getting more organized (which is always helpful!), you may find opportunities to help bring in money. Firstly, if you are as disorganized as myself, you will likely find some overdue unpaid bills, some unexpected change in various places around the house, and some clothing you really don’t wear anymore. All this adds up to some financial help before the end of tax season. Pay your bills, use the spare change on your next grocery run, and gather up your old jeans and shirts and make a trip to the Salvation Army for a tax right off as well!

2) A Clean Fridge Will Save You in More Ways than One

By going through the contents of your fridge, throwing out the expired items, and cleaning the shelves, you will help make it look sparkly clean … and you’ll also have a much easier time keeping track of what’s inside. That means no more buying more butter, eggs, or cream when you already have them stocked in your fridge.

Next, when was the last time you checked those coils in the back of your fridge? These condensing coils are responsible for cooling and condensing the refrigerant. So you can imagine when they are all dust and clogged with dirt, they don’t run the machine very well and can’t release the heat efficiently.  Clean the coils with a cleaning brush and/or a regular vacuum.  If you have super dirty and clogged coils, experts say you will easily be saving yourself $5-$10 a month on your utility bills! You’ll also probably escape some unnecessary appliance repairs in the future and extend the life of your fridge.

3) Be More Green-Friendly in Your Spring Cleaning

Cleaning your home thoroughly is an opportunity to reduce your waste and save money at the same time.  Here are a few tips we found from around the web that will help you be more “green-friendly” – and it’s not as hard as you may think!

• Why not use a squeegee? This is a great tool particularly for big windows, but any glass surface actually. We use it all the time at gas stations, but for some reason we usually turn towards rolls of paper towels and Windex for our home windows. Why?  Go ahead and buy a squeegee (which costs less than a roll of paper towels!) and give it a try.
• Recycle Your Sponges! We are usually so quick to throw out our sponges after one solid cleaning session. But, why? We can actually easily recycle these – like brand new – by soaking them up in a large tub of water with one cup of bleach. This will kill the bacteria and get them smelling nice again.
• Turn Your Old T-Shirts into Rags! My mom used to do this with old thermals and cotton shirts we outgrew (or stained) as kids. It makes a lot of sense, as some people may feel weird about donating some items. Instead of throwing them out in the trash, they can become great extra rags to have around the house.

Do you have any handy Spring Cleaning + Money Saving tips?