Spring Cleaning Checklist: What to Keep, Donate, & Dispose Of
After spending much time inside during winter, some Aussies often take a week off once September steps in, not for a vacation but for spring cleaning. While you’re up for it to welcome a new season, insufficient planning makes this cleaning tradition challenging.
Organising a thorough spring cleaning covering your entire property is essential. This is mainly because spring brings not only warmth but also humidity and allergens. This even affects almost one-fifth of the Australian population, who experience hay fever during spring.
As such, spring cleaning is more than just a seasonal chore. Beyond an annual tradition, it’s an opportunity to declutter, organise, and revitalise your home. This helps you maintain a more spacious, functional, hygienic, and stunning residence.
Still trying to figure out where to start? This article provides you with the best spring cleaning checklist and tips, particularly promoting sustainable and eco-friendly choices regarding what items you must keep, donate, recycle, or dispose of.
Preparing for Spring Cleaning
Unless you’re not feeling flat during winter, you’ll likely have less clutter and debris at home. Before diving into spring cleaning, devise a plan to attain superior results in decluttering your property.
As a rule of thumb, design a spring cleaning tailored to your schedule. You can do it for a week, over the weekend or spread it out for consecutive weeks. This gives you ample time to cut waste and which spaces to clear out.
To make spring cleaning efficient, create a sorting system to organise all your belongings. Consider setting up labelled boxes or bins to streamline the item sorting process, categorised into:
- Keep - essential items you find difficult to replace or continue to cherish and value.
- Donate - stuff considerably in good condition, which you may no longer need.
- Recycle - items with a recycling symbol or similar items, such as paper, cardboard, plastic containers, glass, etc.
- Dispose of - materials that are beyond repair, hazardous or non-recyclable.
This system helps you swiftly and efficiently sort your household items and determine their fate. In addition, consider dividing your cleaning tasks into zones. You can follow room-by-room stages to set realistic goals in spring cleaning.
To do this, remember a golden rule of cleaning: you need to clean from the top down. For instance, you can start upstairs, then downstairs, and finish at the garage or outdoor areas. These smaller, manageable steps help you focus on each area and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
What to Keep
Spring cleaning often uncovers all sorts of household items. Hence, it’s crucial to thoroughly assess which of these to keep and eliminate only if in poor condition. Keep items in your spring cleaning checklist, including:
Items You Use Regularly
These items frequently make household operations swift, easy, and convenient. They also include materials that are inconvenient to replace. For example, if you’re using a particular type of cookware, kitchenware, or essential tools, it’s ideal to keep and maintain these in good condition.
Sentimental or Valuable Items
It includes items with significant emotional value, such as family heirlooms, photos, or keepsakes. These often have personal stories attached, making them priceless. Similarly, it includes items of monetary value, like electronics or appliances, which can be expensive or difficult to find.
Seasonal Items
These items often take up huge spaces and may include weather-appropriate clothing (winter clothes, rain jackets, etc.) or holiday decorations. You may consider storing these items in labelled boxes to reduce clutter. This makes seasonal items easier to find and use when the appropriate occasion arrives.
What to Donate
Whether you rarely use old clothes or replace outdated appliances, it’s best to donate them. An unwritten rule when donating: if your friends or relatives wouldn’t use these, it’s not fit for donation. Some of the items you may hand out include:
- Gently Used Clothing and Shoes—Donate clothing, shoes, and accessories that you no longer use yet are still of good quality. Ensure that the quality makes it suitable for recipients to wear. Items may also include belts, hats, scarves, jewellery, etc.
- Furniture and Home Decor—items like couches, tables, lamps, chairs and kitchenware in good shape are often accepted by local charities and shelters.
- Appliances and Electronics—You may donate working appliances or electronics to organisations and facilities that fix and refurbish them for others in need. This may include items like refrigerators, microwaves, stoves, computers, televisions, and most electronics.
Before you place these in drop-off points, check the facilities’ requirements or guidelines for the items you’re planning to donate. This ensures that the items can be resold or reused without additional repair or cleaning.
You may also consider donating items suited to local demands, like warm clothing during cold seasons or electronic devices, to help disadvantaged groups and communities. Consequently, donating essential items during disasters helps foster a sustainable community relationship.
What to Recycle
On average, a single Australian recycles around 2.95 tonnes. Most of these are from household materials, often transformed into valuable new products. Here are the recyclables to add to your spring cleaning checklist and what to do:
Paper and Cardboard
Australians consume about 230 kg of paper products annually. To recycle most of these, flatten out paper and cardboard when putting them in your bins. Avoid contaminating these, especially from food wastes, plastic or metal components, to increase the chance of getting recycled. Occasionally, a recycling program may require you to separate paper from cardboard.
Glass
Glass recycling is about 46% across Australia, but this has dwindled over the years. To help this figure scale up, you must thoroughly rinse glass containers and bottles to remove food residue. Separating these by colours and types ensures efficient glass collecting, sorting, and recycling.
E-Waste and Batteries
Electronic waste or batteries contain chemicals that may harm the environment when not disposed of properly and safely. Once outdated, most electronic companies take your old electronics to get the latest models. If this doesn't work, check your local recycling program for e-waste collection points.
Plastics
Although widely used, not all plastics are recyclable. To know which household plastic is recyclable or not, look for its recycling symbol. Common recyclable plastics include PET (1), HDPE (2), PVC (3), LDPE (4) and PP (5). Yet, plastics with numbers 6 or 7 are not recyclable.
Metals
Metals are valuable resources that can be recycled. These include aluminium cans, steel cans, copper wires, and a myriad of household items. Flattening most of these items during spring cleaning saves bin space. You may also separate metals from other recyclables if necessary.
What to Dispose Of
Certain household items are impossible to salvage or repair after spring cleaning. These may either end up in your waste management centres or landfill sites. Here are some items you need to dispose of:
- Broken or Damaged Items - Broken or damaged items like furniture or appliances must be disposed of responsibly. Check your local authorities for guidelines when getting rid of these.
- Expired or Unusable Items—Promptly dispose of expired items, whether medications or consumables. Often, pharmacies accept expired medications for proper disposal. Meanwhile, never consider donating items beyond repair, like worn-out clothes, appliances, or tools.
- Hazardous Materials - Disposing of paint, chemicals and other toxic substances requires special care to prevent environmental harm. Never attempt pouring these down your drains or trash bins. You may look for designated hazardous waste collection sites accepting these.
How All Gone Rubbish Removals Can Help
Spring cleaning often generates a substantial amount of unwanted items. All Gone Rubbish Removals specialises in rubbish removal for spring cleaning. Here’s how we provide top-notch results to help you safely and sustainably handle any unwanted items:
- Large-Scale Rubbish Removal—We’re equipped with the necessary tools and vehicles to handle any volume of rubbish. This ensures a smooth and hassle-free process, especially when you’re done decluttering heaps of rubbish or household items after the cold season.
- Eco-Friendly Disposal—We commit to environmental sustainability, so we prioritise recycling and eco-friendly trash disposal. We carefully collect and sort items fit for recycling or repurposing, minimising the environmental impact of your spring cleaning efforts.
- Same-Day Service—We understand that prompt waste removal is crucial as you handle all sorts of garbage during spring cleaning. We offer same-day service so you can embark on a fresh start immediately.
Beyond a seasonal chore, spring cleaning is an opportunity to rejuvenate your living spaces. It creates a more organised, clutter-free, hygienic, and inviting space. Making eco-conscious choices in this process contributes to a healthier, greener planet.
When you’re overwhelmed with removing unwanted items or debris from spring cleaning, contact All Gone Rubbish Removals. Call us at 0420 102 118 to start a new season with radiant, spotless space!
Our trucks operate through Sydney, Central Coast, Gosford, Newcastle and the Gold Coast.
Driven by a passion for helping customers achieve clutter-free spaces, All Gone Rubbish Removals has become a go-to resource for waste management, featuring over 100 expert articles on rubbish removal and sustainability. Aaron’s dedication to efficiency and customer satisfaction ensures his business remains a leader in the industry.
- Plastic Cards Recycling Statistics Australia - March 11, 2025
- Mobile Phone Recycling Statistics Australia - March 10, 2025
- Tyre Waste & Recycling Statistics Australia - March 10, 2025