OH!: Spring into Action - Declutter with DST!

Daylight Savings Time (DST) is the perfect time to make a quick safety survey of your home. With spring approaching, not only can you protect your family with the following quick, done-in-a-day tasks, you can also declutter with DST. So, get ready to enjoy those long daylight hours!

1. Test and replace the batteries in smoke alarms, house alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. 2. Replace smoke alarms that were installed before 1997 as well as carbon monoxide detectors that were installed prior to 2002.
3. Check the expiration date and the pressure gauge on fire extinguishers.
4. Replace batteries and bulbs in flashlights.
5. Adjust outdoor timers on lights to accommodate the longer daylight hours.

Still feeling energized? Here’s a list of things to purge:

• Hangers from the dry cleaner
• Plastic stadium cups
• Sweaters with fuzz balls
• Dried up cans of paint
• Broken VCRs
• Shoes that hurt your feet
• Trophies from your childhood
• Clothes with stains that won’t come out no matter what
• Expired coupons, warranties, contracts
• Expired vitamins and medications (This is also a health issue – get rid of them!)
• Out-of-date take-out menus
• Junk mail, old greeting cards and notes
• Receipts from the grocery store and fast-food restaurants
• Schedules and invitations to past events
• Instructions, manuals, and guides for items you don’t own anymore
• Business cards from people whose names you don’t recognize
• Photos that you don’t love
• Charity solicitations (keep only the ones you plan on giving to)
• Recipes that are too difficult, too time-consuming or too expensive to prepare
• Tourist brochures
• Broken costume jewelry
• Plastic containers/pots that landscaping plants or house plants and flowers come in
• Broken toys that can’t be fixed (Do not donate these.)
• Schoolwork that’s not a treasure

The following things can be sold at a yard sale or donated:

• Dishes you never use
• Florist’s vases
• Outdated computer equipment
• Outdated video equipment
• Videos, DVDs, computer games, video games and CDs that your family will never watch, play, or listen to again
• Paperback books that you will never re-read
• Recipe books you haven’t opened in years