DIY projects are all the range these days. Pinterest boards, upcycling blogs, and junk saver TV shows make turning trash into treasures look simple. Renovating old junk could give you a unique new centerpiece for your home, or it could be a waste of time and energy. Mr Junk is sharing our three favorite ways to fix up old junk . . . and which items you should just throw away.

3 Simple Ways to Upcycle Junk

1. Paint it. No matter how outdated a piece of furniture may be, there’s no better update than a fresh coat of paint. Add a dramatic flair to plain rooms by painting boring pieces bright, unexpected colors. Clean up chipping antiques by sanding away old paint and replacing it with a smooth, neutral tone.
2. Reinvent it. Have a collection of useless antique bowls? How about a drawer full of mismatched dresser knobs you’ve collected over the years? Before tossing out seemingly useless items, try repurposing them. Attach old dresser handles to a 2×4 board to create a shabby chic jewelry holder and use extra dishes to store small, easily lost items.
3. Move it. Tired of the trash can in your bathroom? Reuse decorative trash bins by turning them into planters on your porch. Can’t bring yourself to throw away old shutters? Repaint them and turn them into a unique headboard in the guest bedroom.

When It’s Time to Junk It

No matter how crafty you get, some things are beyond saving. If you have junk that’s broken, has sharp edges, or is beginning to rot, it’s best to toss it. Pick your favorite pieces of junk to upcycle and recycle what you can’t restore.

Ready to toss old furniture, broken appliances, or scrapped DIY projects? Call Mr Junk to remove junk from Roswell homes.

photo from FreeDigitalPhotos

Think your home is tidy and germ-free? You might want to think again. Here are the 5  most common places people forget to clean.

1. Home Appliances. We use washing machines, ovens, and other large home appliances almost daily, and yet most Americans forget to clean these common household places. Clean out your washer and dryer, oven, refrigerator, and HVAC unit every few months to prevent germ and dirt build-up. Make sure you clean the crevices between the oven and the counter, beneath the refrigerator, and behind large household appliances.
2. Bathroom Nooks and Crannies. Most homeowners clean their bathrooms regularly; they’re breeding grounds for germs and hoarders of chemical toxins. Unfortunately, most people focus on toilets and sinks to the exclusion of some of the bathroom’s grimiest places. The next time you clean your bathroom, make sure you disinfect the toilet handle and toilet paper holder, the showerhead and curtain liner, and the lint-loving ceiling exhaust fan.
3. Shared Electronics. Sure, you might never cough into your hand before handling the remote control, but who’s to vouch for the rest of your family? If you live in a home with a lot of shared spaces, make sure you disinfect household electronics regularly.
4. Linens and Upholstery. We often think that, as long as we wash our sheets, our home linens are clean. But fabric tends to collect allergens, dirt, and germs from around the house. Vacuum upholstery regularly, wash decorative pillowcases on occasion, and toss clean sheets back in the washer if they haven’t been used in several seasons.
5. Beneath the Junk. When we let junk pile up in our garages and attics, we don’t always want to know what collects beneath the surface. But junk piles and old boxes are breeding grounds for germs. The next time you have a spare afternoon, reorganize your home storage, making sure to clean thoroughly underneath and around junk. Better yet, take the day to sort through stuff you no longer need, and call Mr Junk to haul away your home’s biggest dust-collectors.

Ready to toss outdated kitchen appliances, old linens, and boxes of unwanted stuff? Call Mr Junk to haul away your old junk, leaving your home clutter—and dust—free.

It’s one thing to set aside a weekend and tackle your toughest clutter, but it’s another matter entirely to stay organized after Mr Junk has hauled your worst messes. Keep junk from piling up in your living spaces with these 5 tips for lasting home organization.

1. Know yourself. Sure, your new home organization plan may have you rooting through drawers for your car keys, but at least it’s tidy, right? The most crucial element of keeping your home organized is knowing where your clutter tends to accumulate. Keep things simple and accessible to prevent a junk pile-up when you rush out the door.
2. Keep junk out of sight. No matter how well you arrange a stack of magazines, it’s always going to look cluttered. Find a spare cabinet or inexpensive storage box for coupons and magazines. Buy storage shelves with doors whenever possible.
3. Stick to a schedule. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, a self-employed entrepreneur, or a professional with a flexible job schedule, it’s hard to stay on track with home organization. Implementing a schedule for the rest of your life—meals, errands, and laundry, to start—will help you find the time for daily housekeeping tasks, too.
4. Set external motivators. Just can’t stay focused long enough to sort through your donations box? Do you loathe laundry or hate putting away clean dishes? Make an upbeat playlist to help you through unpleasant tasks and reward yourself once you’ve finished.
5. Get help. Everyone has trouble organizing their own stuff. If you can’t find a system that works, have a friend analyze your home storage. Chances are they’ll see the simple solution you’ve missed. The best part? It’s more fun to clean someone else’s home than your own, and most friends are happy if you treat them to lunch as payment.

Has your home organization uncovered a treasure trove of Marietta home junk? Call Mr Junk to remove old furniture, broken appliances, and boxes for donation.

The most challenging part of Father’s Day finding dad a meaningful gift he’ll actually like. He loves the grill you chipped in for two years ago, but it’s not time to replace it yet. He never seems to wear the golf shirts you get him. And as much as he’d love tickets to the game, it just doesn’t fit into his schedule. The best gifts are sometimes the least expensive. This Father’s Day Mr Junk has the perfect clean-out service for any kind of dad.

• The DIY Guy. Big projects mean big messes. If your dad’s the kind of guy who will rip up and refurbish a deck, he probably has a yard full of scrap materials and renovation junk. Help him tackle his latest project and call Mr Junk for fast, painless removal of the leftover junk.
• The Visionary. Sometimes there’s a great divide between thinking and doing. If your father’s the type of man with grand plans and no follow-through, he’s given you the perfect opportunity for a meaningful father’s day gift. Rifle through his plans for an updated kitchen, a fresh landscape, or a new outdoor entertaining area. Enlist the help of family and friends to make his dreams a reality, then call Mr Junk to clean up the mess.
• The Working Man. There are men who have jobs, and there are men who have jobs. If your father spends long hours at the office, chances are he doesn’t want to clean out clutter and haul yard debris after work. Take the hard stuff off his hands by organizing his junkiest home spaces. After you’ve cleaned out his garage, attic, and storage shed, call Mr Junk. We’ll donate or recycle his unwanted items, leaving you and your dad to enjoy a relaxing, clutter-free Father’s Day weekend.

Spring-cleaning may be dwindling to its last few boxes, but home improvement fever is still going strong. Folks in Roswell, Kennesaw, and Woodstock are breaking out the power tools to spruce up their homes for summer events. Whether your home updates include surface stuff or intensive rebuilding, check out these top 5 home renovation mistakes before you start a messy new project.

1. Diving right in. It’s tempting to tackle home renovation as soon as inspiration strikes, but that road leads to disaster. Plan the cost, materials, and timetable before you pull out the tools for your home renovation project.
2. Being shortsighted. Quality materials cost more money, require a more professional hand, and often look less showy than popular home style trends. Save the savings for easily interchangeable home décor items; when it comes to cabinets, flooring, and plumbing, it pays to splurge.
3. Choosing the wrong renovations. All homeowners have personal style preferences, but when those preferences clash with the style of the home, the décor of the rest of the house, or the renovations of nearby neighbors, the difference can be jarring. When in doubt, make simple, timeless updates to your home space.
4. Room by room. Most homeowners fall into two renovation categories: fix it all at once or only fix the biggest problem. The former approach makes homes unlivable for months at a time, while the latter often leads to mismatched houses of tasteful, modern rooms stuck beside outdated home spaces. Tackle your renovations room by room, making the transition between each space as seamless as possible.
5. Choosing the wrong contractor. DIY projects can have beautiful results, but don’t get in over your head. If you’re tackling an extensive home renovation project, find a professional contractor to rewire electrical systems, move plumbing fixtures, and make major structural changes to the house.

No want wants to trip over splintered boards, rusting nails, and torn strips of wallpaper from the ‘70s. After you’ve completed your home renovation projects, call Mr Junk to haul away the debris, leftover materials, and dirt cluttering up your new home spaces.

We don’t plan to hoard junk, it just happens. “I’ll organize that box tomorrow” turns into “shove it in the attic, dear.” Plans to sort family heirlooms never fit into everyone’s schedules. Hauling off home garbage becomes a daily occurrence. When junk gets the best of you, it’s difficult to contain it. Sometimes it seems easier to let cluttered closets stay junky instead of overhauling home spaces. But with a few simple changes in your everyday house care practices, you can reduce home junk and live a cleaner, clutter-free lifestyle.

Green Cleaning

Most Americans have a cupboard of home cleaning supplies. When it’s time to scrub the bathroom floor, they root around a cabinet brimming with unnecessary bottles, forgotten scrub brushes, and harsh chemical cleaners. Learning green home cleaning reduces the amount of toxins in the air, de-clutters your cleaning closet, and gives your home a crisp, environmentally-friendly freshness. Use basic kitchen ingredients like vinegar, lemon, baking soda, and water to kill germs and clean your home without a separate bottle of chemical cleaner for every task. If you’re not willing to clean green, sort through your cleaning supplies and eliminate the bottles you rarely use.

Reducing Home Waste

• Put the kids to work with a daily or weekly chore list.
• Buy quality products that don’t need frequent replacing.
• Use reusable tote bags for groceries, lunches, and shopping.
• Give away or donate items you don’t need.
• When possible, eliminate the use of throwaway items like paper plates and plastic bags.
• Repurpose junk using tips from life hack guides or upcycling blogs.
• Plan a schedule for home organization and junk removal. Deep clean your cluttered spaces once a month, once a season, or twice a year depending on your level of mess.

For junk hauling made easy, call Mr Junk.

It’s the season of caps and gowns, inspirational speeches, and piles of presents you’ll never think twice about. Whether you’re in high school, college, or graduate school, graduation means letting go of the last few years and moving forward into the great unknown. Unfortunately, it also means there’s no more time to put off packing. As you decide what possessions are pertinent to your new life in a Kennesaw dorm or Marietta apartment, take a few hours to haul off the junk you’re leaving behind.

3 Steps to a Graduation Clean Out

Graduation is a chaotic time. You have finals to finish, pomp and circumstance to suffer through, and plenty of parties to keep you busy. But before long you’ll be packing up your life and settling into a new environment. To make the move as simple as possible, declutter before you move.

1. Set a goal. You’ll have more time to focus on friends if you don’t have “closet clutter clean out” on your to-do list. Make a schedule and stick to it.
2. Think long term. Sure, that OneDirection poster got you through high school, but does it have a place in your college dorm room? If not, regift it to a younger sibling or add it to the boxes of items to donate.
3. Don’t get too sentimental. Did that antique necklace belong to your grandmother in college? Pack your treasure somewhere safe. Did your aunt give you a tacky graphic tee for graduation? Snap a photo for her inbox and add the shirt to the donation pile.

Mr Junk makes junk removal simple. If you have boxes of childhood toys, a dorm futon that didn’t make the grown-up cut, or piles of papers you never want to see again, call our Marietta junk hauling service. We’ll clean out your old life so you can focus on making memories for your new one.

photo from FreeDigitalPhotos