Archive for the 'Clutter' Category

Clutter Cleaning Tips for the Holidays and New Year’s 2012

Published on December 31, 2011 in Clutter, christmas tree disposal, get rid of junk, junk hauling, junk king and junk removal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
The holiday and New Year’s season is a time of friends, food, and family. Celebrations are imminent, and your home plays host to everyone from coworkers to distant cousins. The season of giving is here, and getting your home ready for the flood of visitors, gifts, and parties is an inevitable challenge. It’s important to be able to enjoy your holidays, instead of being overworked by them. Keeping your house clean and tidy through it all is a challenge for anybody: try taking the stress out of the equation by letting  Junk King take care of all that post-party junk removal.
While you dearly love the annual fruit basket from your great-aunt in Duluth, and are genuinely attached to the excitement with which small children tear into their gifts, the mess afterwards can turn holiday cheer into seasonal panic. Waking up the day after your holiday party to deal with piles of cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, plastic toy packaging and the mysterious “extra parts” from assembly-required toys can ruin a perfectly good vacation day. All that extra garbage is unsightly and frustrating at the very least, and leaving it all piled up next to your house doesn’t exactly compliment the seasonal lighting on your porch.
To keep the stress at bay, there are a few ways to keep your house looking its best. First and foremost, try cleaning as you go along. Nobody will object to a quick run-through of your living room while they’re having pre-dinner cocktails, to pick up napkins, wine corks, used paper plates or dirty glassware. Asking the kids to pick up their own wrapping paper as they open, or keeping a plastic bag on hand for the bits of cardboard and toy packaging, keeps them from leaving a mess when they insist on playing with their new toys immediately.
If you’re the kind of person who saves wrapping paper and likes to recycle empty bottles, make sure you have a place for them to go ahead of time. Request an extra recycling bin from your trash provider, and have a box ready for folded, leftover gift bags or paper. For things you can’t save, keep trash bags on hand: and when the parties are over, the guests have gone home, and you’re ready for some well-earned relaxation, call up Junk King at 1-800-995 JUNK to have it all carted away. This means you don’t have to deal with backlogs of garbage bags or watching your Christmas tree disintegrate slowly on the curb while you wait for regular trash pickup, and gets the post-party chaos out from under your feet.
The holiday season is a great time to enjoy the people you love, from close friends to distant family. Hosting parties and having out-of-town guests is a wonderful way to enjoy the season. To keep your house tidy and keep you stress-free, planning for the holiday excess in advance will make a world of difference. By tidying up as you go, reusing what you can, and hiring Junk King’s professional hauling teams to deal with the piles of garbage you inevitably find yourself with, you can make sure your holiday, and the days that follow in 2012, are stress-free.

5 Ways to Cool Down During This Summer’s Heatwave

Published on August 5, 2011 in Clutter, clear clutter, junk hauler and junk king. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
It’s hot! Perhaps it’s due to global warming or maybe it’s just a normal cycle of nature, but this year it seems to be hotter than ever. Swimming pool sales are up and folks are looking to travel to northern climates where they can get some relief. Did you ever think that Newfoundland would be a summer tourist destination? They say they’re seeing more tourism there this year than ever before. That’s a pretty good indicator that the temperatures here in the continental United States are higher than average. So what can you do to cool off?
Here’s Junk King’s Top 5 List:
  1. Swimming: Definitely the best way to find relief and have some fun at the same time. Find a lake or go to the ocean if you live on one of the coasts. Pools are great too, but not everyone can afford them, unless of course you live in California or Florida where they come standard with every home.
  2. Travel to a Cooler Climate: Canada is beautiful this time of year and it’s a lot cooler there than it is here. Alaska isn’t bad either, but you’ll find the prices for goods and services are much higher than you’ll find in British Columbia, New Brunswick, or Newfoundland. There are also some European spots you might want to visit to cool off.
  3. Create some ‘breathing room’ at home: Hot becomes oppressive when there’s no where to go. Give Junk King a call to clean out your back yard to make room for sprinklers and kiddie pools.   They can also get rid of all that clutter that’s making you claustrophobic inside your home.  You’ll be amazed by the cool environment you can create when you have more space to work with.
  4. Buy a New Air Conditioner: This should go without saying. The air conditioners manufactured today are lighter, more efficient, and will cool any room in a matter of minutes. Air quality is bad in many of the nation’s cities. Don’t just open the windows and expect to be cool. You’ll be breathing smog and it won’t work.  Junk King can easily pick up your old clunk air conditioner if it’s lying around.
  5. Close your blinds or shades during the day: You can open them at night to view the stars, but keep them closed when the sun is beating down during the daytime. The darkness will be cooler and will keep paint and furnishings from fading. If you travel, make sure the shades stay down while you’re gone.
Cooling down during a heat wave is more than just a convenience; it’s a necessity, particularly if you’re a senior citizen. Make sure, if you have an elderly parent or grandparent, that their home is cool and dry during these hot summer months and that they have plenty of water in the refrigerator. It is recommended that the average adult drink six to eight glasses of water per day to maintain optimum health. It’s also a good idea to cut down on coffee during summer months; it dehydrates the body.

Clear Out Your Office Clutter This Summer

Published on July 18, 2011 in Clutter, Office, junk hauling, junk king and junk removal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
Clean the office and throw stuff out! Summer is the best time of year to do that because business is slow and you need something productive to do. All of your clients are on vacation and so are most of your employees at one time or another. The tumbleweeds are blowing across the break room floor and you can spend as much time as you like picking through old files and rearranging furniture. Just do yourself a favor when you’re done and get rid of all the old, useless paperwork, tables, chairs, and appliances that you are no longer using. Don’t lie to yourself and pretend you’ll use that stuff again some day. You won’t. Junk King can take care of all of that clutter and make the rest of your year clean and efficient.
Taking advantage of slowdown periods is a skill that most managers learn only after letting one of those time periods go by without doing anything. How many times did you look at those same junk items last summer and didn’t have them removed? You probably thought the slow season would last longer than it did, or maybe you just procrastinated till Labor Day and then got caught in the fall rush. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Hundreds of folks in the same position as you have failed to act in past years and are cleaning out their offices this year on schedule.
Start with an assessment of your situation.
Which part of the office do you want to work on first? That break room is not likely to be this empty again any time soon. It’s best to begin a clean-up in areas where you’re getting light traffic now, but expect heavier traffic at any point in time. In addition to the break room, that could also include the reception area, kitchens if you have them, and any conference rooms that see heavy use during the busy season. Clean these out one at a time and try to do them at night when the office is closed if you can. Even when you’re slow, it’s still better to take care of your junk removal when no one can see what you’re hauling out.
Any sensitive paperwork should be shredded. There are companies that specialize in that type of thing. Any old appliances should be recycled.  Junk King can haul away refrigerators, air conditioners, and old computers to be recycled along with couches, chairs and tables that will be destroyed.
Save your own office for last. You’ll want to be able to spend time on it without feeling rushed to complete the project. When you do finally get to it, think about throwing everything out and starting from scratch. A new look will give you a new attitude and keep you from feeling bored. You might find some great office furniture there that someone else was tired of. You know what they say, “One man’s junk is another man’s prize.” Good luck and have a wonderful summer.

5 Spring Cleaning Projects

Published on May 3, 2011 in Clutter, Spring Cleaning, junk removal and organization tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .
Winter is long over and you no longer have an excuse for not doing all of those odd jobs you’ve been procrastinating about all winter long. If you live in the Northern part of the country, you had plenty of snow to deal with, but it’s been gone for a few months now. There’s a good chance that someone in your house may have already requested that you do one or more of the five tasks we have listed here, but we thought we’d mention them anyway. Spring has sprung (some time ago) and it’s time to get these things done!
Eliminate Clutter: This is one of those tasks that can be compared to a New Year’s resolution. How many times have you told yourself that you were going to clean out all that clutter and finally get it out of sight and mind.  Somehow, this one always gets put off until later and the pile just gets larger and larger. Don’t let it happen again this year. Instead of making this your last spring cleaning project, make it your first.
Wash Windows: Another candidate for the “later” list, window washing is everyone’s least favorite task, but the results are always awe inspiring. Spend a day washing all the glass portals that look out from your home and you’ll find that your house and the world around it are actually much brighter places than you imagined.
Clear Gutters: If you didn’t do this in the fall you may have had some leakage from the roof or in the basement. If the gutters are clogged and drainage water can’t get down the drain spout, it will spill over the sides of the gutter and pool at the base of your home. That ground isn’t graded to drain like the area around the drain spout, so you end up with pools in the basement. Avoid that by making your gutters part of your spring cleaning efforts.
Detail the Car: Now that you’ve done some of the heavy duty household chores, take some time and detail the car. Inside and out, it’s filthy. Winter has a way of doing some real damage to an automobile, so be nice to your ride and give it a wash and vacuuming. Maybe you’ll find some change in the seats or that favorite CD you thought you lost. Small bonuses like that make auto detailing worthwhile.
Garage/Basement/Attic Yard Sale: If you’re still stuck on the clutter suggestion, try thinking of it in terms of making a profit. Clean out your garage, basement, or attic and put everything on the front lawn for a yard sale. They say one man’s garbage is another man’s prize possession. Just because you think it’s worthless doesn’t mean someone else might not like it. Sell as much as you can, make a few dollars, and then call the junk removal company to get rid of the rest.
And for those bigger items around the house that you would rather someone else haul off – simply call Junk King at 1-800-995 JUNK!

Do You Have a Mystery Room in Your House?

Published on February 3, 2011 in Clutter, Old Furniture and junk hauling. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Do you remember visiting a friend’s house when you were little, and not being able to go into certain rooms?  As a young child, this only made me more curious about what those ‘off-limits’ rooms actually contained. I’d try to get a quick peak behind a veiled curtain or a slightly opened door, but it wasn’t enough.  So, to satisfy my curiosity, I would embark on journeys to each of those mystery rooms and uncover the treasures or dangers that were clearly being hidden from me.

When my friend’s mom was off in the kitchen making fluffer-nutter sandwiches, I’d make a break for it.  Zipping across long hallways I’d round corners with my back to the wall.   I’d cautiously approach the room, and then throw aside the curtain or fling open the door, as if expecting to surprise some mystery room inhabitant.

Sometimes these rooms would be covered from rug to wall in shiny plastic wrap.   It was as if the room was being preserved for some distant future, when the people living there could finally enjoy sitting on that lime green couch. Even the lamps in these room would be meticulously sheltered in plastic, reminding me of little astronauts wearing protective space suits.

Sometimes these rooms were extremely well-hidden. I would creep up a flight of stairs and pull down a secret door in the ceiling, unhinging a short ladder that lead up to the darkness.  These rooms were dingy and dusty, with old relics sitting around, as if waiting for someone to finally use them again.  One creak or shuffle on the wooden floor and my nerves would go, following me all the way back down the ladder into the light.

There were other types of mystery rooms too.  Rooms that housed broken down appliances, like a washing machine that could no longer spin or a refrigerator that had ruined one too many dinners.  Rooms with exercise bikes missing their pedals and lawn mowers that had given in to rust.  There rooms that were big and small;  those that had broken tiles on the floor and those that had paint peeling off the walls.

There were always many different types of mystery rooms, but all of them had the same ’stuck in time’ feeling. These rooms had no real purpose other than housing broken down junk.  It was as if these rooms were destined to never be used again; they were simply there to take up space and peak the curiosity of little kids.

Do you have a ‘mystery room’ in your house?  Why not make the best of your space and actually use that room for something?  Isn’t a living room actually meant for living in?  Isn’t an attic there for a purpose beyond housing raccoons and useless clutter?  Couldn’t you convert your basement into something great? Simply give Junk King a call at 1-800-995-JUNK and haul away all that useless mystery room clutter today.

Home Clutter

Published on May 27, 2010 in Clutter, Old Furniture Pick Up, junk hauling and junk removal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Here at Junk-King we use the term ‘unwanted clutter’ quite a bit.  I’d like to discuss what clutter really is, some common types of home clutter, and why no one needs to have it lying around.  In your home there are a number of things that you use on a regular basis.  These items could be couches, beds, chairs and tables that you put to good use, or furniture that fits nicely into the decor of your house.  These items could also be computers, tvs, electronics, and appliances that you use on a daily or weekly basis.  These are your possessions that are of value: without them you’d be lost.

Clutter has no value whatsoever. These are the items around your house that are just sitting there and never are put to use.  Clutter includes things that detract from the aesthetic of your home, items that are broken or materials that are simply collecting dust.

Here are some common types of clutter:

Garage Clutter: The garage often ends up being the ‘junk zone’ of many houses.  Bikes with missing wheels, broken lawnmowers, power tools, snow blowers, bags of old athletic equipment, and a variety of other pieces of equipment often end up in the garage.  This is a sad situation because a garage is a great place to store useful items – a car for example.

Electronic Clutter: In the fast paced world of technology, equipment often ends up getting outdated within a few years.  It’s not out of the ordinary to replace old computers, fax machines, and phones with newer models.  The problem arises when the outdated electronics end up sitting around our house, never getting thrown out and simply collecting dust.

Furniture Clutter: If you walk around your house today it’s guaranteed you can pick out several pieces of furniture which simply have no place there anymore.  The furniture either doesn’t match with your remodeled house or the items have had too much wear and tear to be usable anymore.

Renovation Clutter: Whether you had new windowpanes installed, your porch painted or your pool cleaned up, renovations are bound to leave clutter around your house and yard.  There’s no point in getting your house fixed up if all that junk is going to end up laying around.

Junk King prides itself in being able to clean up all of your clutter – no matter how big the job is.  Our affordable and eco-friendly junk hauling services will let you finally reclaim your kingdom.  Call 1-800 995 JUNK or Book Online today.