Spring Cleaning Top Tips and asset inventory management

Published on March 13, 2019 • 4 min read

Sparking Joy and Getting Tidy: How asset inventory management can help

Out with the old and in with the new, Spring is finally here! Spring means a lot of things. New life, small cute animals, the smell of blossom on the trees and, of course, spring cleaning. Spring cleaning means an effective asset inventory management system is needed to make sure everything is in it's right place.

Now, there are two types of people when it comes to Spring cleaning. Those who relish it, and those who do not. Whether you’re someone who runs around the home with glee, singing like Snow White and buffing out your old cabinets, or if you’re more like Grumpy and only want to tidy because you have to, we have a few tips, tricks, and methods to help you out.

Therefore, if you need cleaning ideas to get rid of all the mess and get your home neat and tidy, you’ve come to the right place.

Method One: The Classic

Well, ok, we’ll start with the obvious one. When you’re Spring cleaning you may not have a method, as such. So, in a way, the classic way of cleaning up is madness with method to it.

This is the method where you start off going room to room, then you start finding more and more interesting objects and spiralling down memory lane. Maybe you’ll even call in a loved one and ask them if they remember what you’re holding treasured in your hands, to which they’ll invariably grunt and shrug.

Obviously your things are important to you, so the classic method to avoid ending your Spring clean in Summer is to categorise your loved objects and come back to looking at them and reminiscing when you’re finished. You’ll probably find you don’t actually care about them as much as you did when you were cleaning.

Another trick to this method of going from room to room and just tidying, is to start off with the most boring rooms in the house. If you’re going to get distracted by your possessions, then start in the kitchen. Pots and pans are far less interesting than childhood toys.

You may be more tempted to get distracted the more you clean, but if you’re going to get distracted it’s better to happen when half your home has been cleaned rather than *walks into room* “Ooh”. Therefore, the best way to tackle this Magpie Syndrome is to start off bored, that way, it can only get better.

With asset inventory management, you can take as long as you want and set items as a priority. This means when you're asset tracking your home you'll know exactly what to tidy up first and what to leave. What's more, you can tag your favourite items with rfid or QR code asset tags, so you know exactly what to come back to when you're done and where it is. 

Method Two: The Konmari Method

This method is for the hardcore cleaners.

Marie Kondo has been hailed as the Queen of the Spring Clean. Of course, while this means that her methods of cleaning work, it also means that they’re not for the faint of heart.

Only there’s more to it than that. Kondo’s method is respectful to the items and objects getting thrown out. So it’s not like that ex that you weren’t too sure about and then savagely dumped over text.

The main premise is “does the object you hold in your hands spark joy?” If it does, then keep it. If it doesn’t, then throw it out. Thank the things you’re throwing out for their service to you. Thank the home for letting you clean it. And thank the items that bring you joy.

You can then categorise things by size, and by a variety of folding methods that Kondo displays online. It’s also recommended that you add things to clear boxes and sort by how often you use something. Love pasta? Put the colander closer to the front of the cupboard.

Asset inventory management makes categorising your belongings quick and easy, meaning that you'll know what does and doesn't spark joy in no time at all.

Method Three: Time Keeping Method

It is said that Immanual Kant’s routines were so rigid, you could set the Cathedral Clock off him. If this sounds like you, and if you like time and routine, then this is the method for you.

It’s quite simple, really. Set alarms that correspond to jobs. Clean certain things at certain times and stick to it.

For example, wash the pots at 14:00, then move onto the pans at 14:10. Depending on how many pots and pans you have, of course. Don’t wash one pot for ten minutes.

One of the great things about this method too, is that you don’t have to finish everything in one day. Go room by room, alarm by alarm. As long as when it goes off, you move onto the next thing, then you have your to do list set up perfectly.

So set alarms and reminders! Link rooms to your asset inventory management app so that you know what to start doing and when to end doing it to the exact moment you need to.

Method Four: The Lazy Way

This way is the most attractive for the lazies. It’s simple, just throw everything that’s going to get thrown out onto the floor and leave everything else neatly where it belongs.

There is one difficult part, though. You mustn’t just leave it on the floor. You actually have to throw it out.

When this is done, however, and this is the clever part, there’s less to tidy! It’s not recommended you throw everything out so that you don’t have to tidy up, so keep it within reason, but with less things to handle, there’s less to do.

Tracking your Treasures and your Trash with asset inventory management

So where does itemit come in? Everyone is different, and everyone will favour a different way of Spring cleaning, but all of itemit’s features can help you in your quest for a cleaner home no matter your style.

First of all, you can separate your treasures from your trash. Categorise using qr code tags or rfid tags with our unique pre printed asset labels. You can do this after you’ve thrown the trash out, or so you know what not to throw out.

When you’ve tagged your assets, whether with asset tags or just by taking a picture, you can put them into collections. Whether the collection is trophies, socks, trash, items “to be cleaned” or items that have been cleaned, you can get more out of your spring clean.You can even categorise by “sparks joy” or “doesn’t spark joy” so that you can throw out the old in an instant and bring in the new.

If you’re going for the time method, you can add reminders to assets so that you know what needs to be cleaned and when. Or, you can even track rooms as if they’re assets, and add dates of which room you want to clean and when.

Tracking rooms is also helpful in the sense that you can mark them as done when they’re finally looking like you can live in them.

Finally, you can add information about your assets so that you either spend less time reminiscing, or so that the time you do spend reminiscing is much, much sweeter.

Spring Cleaning? Need asset inventory management?Begin a trial of itemit Enterprise and you'll receive free QR asset tags!

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