Fall Cleanup Can Be Easier Than You Think

Fall is finally here. The days spent lounging on the patio and grilling up burgers on the barbecue are distant memories. Fall, like spring, is a bit of a transitional season. A big part of this transition is readying the outdoor space- the patio, the yard, the shed, the garage, the garden- for the long winter months to come. Raking leaves, pulling up plants and organizing outdoor storage are among the most daunting tasks on the yearly calendar, but with the right plan and the right execution, like fall, they’ll be over and done with before you know it.

Leaves, leaves, leaves. There’s nothing more characteristic of fall than a humongous pile of leaves of all sizes, shapes, and colour, and there’s nothing that poses a unique challenge to the task of pre-Winter maintenance either. Leaves are constantly falling, constantly blowing, and consistently refuse to co-operate when raked, bagged, or blown. With that in mind, two solutions that have proven effective in dealing with this perpetual problem are “Tarping” and “mulching”.

If you don’t want to have to deal with bagging and disposing of piles and piles of leaves, you can take the easy way out and just take your mower to them! Mulching leaves and spreading them over the lawn and garden, especially near the very end of the season, can provide much-needed nourishment and some protection from the elements for the coming winter months.

If you don’t have a mower that reliably functions as a mulcher or if you simply can’t bear to sprinkle mulched sticks and leaves all over your prize garden, there’s another solution to make transport and storage much easier- tarps. Rather than raking leaves across the yard one stroke at a time or picking them up out of a pile one handful at a time, rake your leaves into a pile on top of the tarp. Then just pick up the tarp and move it wherever you want- it’s much easier and much more satisfying than regular raking. And it doesn’t leave a trail of half-shredded leaves trailing towards your compost bin.

Speaking of compost bins, they are more important during fall months than any other time of year. A final pre-winter cleaning of the yard requires more than just mulching or disposing of leaves. There’s a whole garden to be taken care of too. Uproot the annuals and properly dispose of them and trim down perennials to 6 inches or less in preparation for winter, and all the excess waste this process generates has to go somewhere. Composting is both environmentally responsible and convenient. You can purchase compost bins at a very reasonable cost and maintain them with very little work, yielding highly efficient fertilizer for re-use in your garden come springtime.

Now that the yard is taken care of, it’s time to move on to the external interior- sheds, garages, and other storage spaces. With tools, gadgets and toys taken out of their regular storage space for summer usage, the storage space will likely have accumulated some extra stuff. Whether it’s actual junk, genuinely important items simply stored in the wrong place, or some combination thereof, it’s extremely rare to find a winter storage space that’s well-maintained and perfectly serviceable at the end of the summer. That’s the first step, de-cluttering that storage space so it can be used again over the winter months. Once that’s taken care of, the actual stuff that’s been populating the yard, hanging out on the patio and in constant use over the summer needs to be put back where it belongs. This process can be a long, drawn out, and tedious, so try and get it out of the way as early as possible. There are few things more miserable than hauling tools around in early December at 10-below because you didn’t make time to get to it sooner, so don’t put yourself in that position.

And there you have it, folks, it’s quite simple when you break it down- manage your leaves and other yard waste, thoroughly (and carefully) gut your garden, and dispose of all the resulting waste as best you can, and return your various summer appliances back to winter storage. It may sound like a lot, but with a methodical approach, proper planning and good execution, fall cleaning doesn’t have to be so unpleasant after all.

Our Fall Recap: Nuit Blanche and the Humber River Cleanup

Nuit Blanche

It was another fun year at Scotiabank's Nuit Blanche, celebrating its 10th anniversary. A minimum of one million people has attended every year since 2008. This was our third year at the event for the City of Toronto and we hope to back next year.

This video will give you a taste of what it was all about.

And here is a recap of the best and worst of Nuit Blanche according to BlogTO.

We had 40 staff, two trucks and 5 bins this year. It was a great success for us. We had things cleaned up 4 hours sooner than last year with much fewer staff. Proud to get the city back in order so quickly.

Did you attend? If so, what did you like? What didn’t you like? Will we see you next year? Let's hope so!

Humber River Cleanup 2015 Recap

It was great to reach a milestone of five years cleaning up the Humber River but sad that it still needs cleanup. We were proud to do our part with our valuable sponsors and volunteers. This year we had 30 volunteers and staff helping load up our truck with 1 tonne of junk.

Here are a few highlights from the day

 Somebody was interested in learning to Kayak

We found tons of tires. People strip them and recycle the 

metal money. We found 50 of them in the woods.

Audra Brown from CityNews stopped 

by to make a report that you can see here

It was great to have more corporate sponsors this year. We could not have done it without their help. Our thanks to Spinnaker Recycling, The Complete Paddler, See Through Web Design, Shorncliffe Disposal and a modest person who gave $1000. 

We were pleased to find less junk to remove this year. Hopefully this will be the trend for next year. Regardless, we know we are making a difference and are going focus on another part of the River next year to find and remove more junk.

Media coverage was another bonus for us this year. In addition to the Audra Brown report above, Rick Crawford, was interviewed on GlobalTV. You can see it here:

This have been a labour of love for five years. We could not do it without your support. We hope you will join the effort again next year. In the meantime, let's all try to do our part to keep our own little parts of the world a little cleaner.

10 Simple steps to help you manage the back to school transition

I think it’s safe to say just about every member of every family would agree that the first week of September is one of the worst of the year. Kids have to say goodbye to long days lounging on the couch playing video games, evening soccer games, and their favourite summer camp, and parents have to say goodbye to cottages, camping trips, and barbecues. Worse than leaving all of that behind, though, is having to gear back up for the return to school. Kids may feel they’re the ones getting the short end of the stick, forced back into cramped classrooms and daydreaming of summers days gone past, but any parent who’s gone through the back to school routine a couple of times knows they’re the ones facing the real challenges. For parents, back to school means packing lunches, buying new school supplies, and organizing the endless supply of homework and notebooks strewn about the house. To help all the stressed, overworked parents out there through these difficult times, Ridofit’s compiled 5 simple tips for a smooth transition back to school.

1.       Recycle old supplies. Have your son/daughter dredge up and organize last year’s school supplies. Too often kids insist on replacing last year’s supplies with the latest and greatest books, markers, and backpacks, and when you don’t know that they actually do and don’t have, left from last year, it can be hard to say no, so don’t let them off the hook easily! More often than not, they have perfectly good supplies that can carry over from the previous year and tapping into those reserves will help keep you from breaking the back to school bank.

2.        Don’t leave shopping til the Last Minute. It’s always tough to find time for excursions as involved as back-to-school shopping, but getting it over with as early as possible is sure to lighten the load a little. The closer we get to the first day back, the busier the stores will be and the fewer supplies will be left. Take some initiative and get out there ahead of time and you won’t regret it.

3.       Organize, organize, organize.  It can be difficult to keep your kids’ school stuff in order, especially at the start of the year with added challenges like the seemingly endless stream of handouts and the time it takes to get back into old routines, but keeping things organized from the get-go with bins, folders, binders, and more, will get you into good habits for the rest of the year and good habits are easier to maintain than hard habits are to break.

4.        Invest in quality products. It can be tempting to take the path of least resistance when picking up school and organizational supplies for the school year, but making a slightly larger investment upfront can pay huge dividends down the line. Having a backpack, binder, or desk set break down mid-way through the year could cause serious problems and investing just a little bit more up front to reduce that risk is the safe bet.

5.        Set up a family calendar. Don’t limit back-to-school organization to your children’s things, it’s just as if not more important to organize day-to-day and week-to-week schedules as well. A new school year will bring new commitments for your kids and your schedule probably isn’t getting any lighter. In the interest of keeping everyone sane and finding family time amidst the chaos, have everyone pencil in their schedules on a dry-erase or large format calendar, It’ll make it much easier for everyone to keep up with their personal, professional and family commitments.

Now we know you might not want to, but get out there and get back on that horse. If you go into the school year adequately prepared it’ll breeze by and you’ll be back to those long relaxing summer days in no time.

How to Prepare the Back to School Workspace at Home for the Kids

After an unstoppable summer how do you get the kids back into school habits?

If you’re anything like my mom, you will throw the new Staples supplies in a new backpack and hope for the best when we return home. We turned out okay. However, I can’t help but wonder; could my youth have been a little bit more stress-free if homework time was organized?

Kids now are bogged down with more and more homework. They need that at home support more than ever. So how do you prepare to tackle this coming workload? Create your own at-home workspace. Despite my lack of homework organization, my parents were always crafty. I’ve used some of their tactics to pull together this workspace by re-using materials that are already in the home.

Most of us don’t have a separate room for the kid’s workspace; however the workspace should be separate from the eating and playing environments. (i.e. The kitchen and playroom/bedroom) So make a separate space in the basement, your current home office, etc. I remember that you retain information best in a spot that mimics the testing environment, without distractions or similar associations.

How to transform the workspace; think re-use, recycle and re-build

1. Have a place for everything

To re-use what you have, use old coffee mugs that get pushed to the back of the cupboard can be great pencil holders for the kids. Not a coffee drinker? Have the kids finish up their summer by painting old paint cans bright colours.
In the drawer or on top of the desk keep extra pens, scissors, rulers and erasers in old cutlery trays that your kitchen may no longer need. Don’t have any? An unused opened egg carton can do the trick as well.

2. Have the school work handy

On the side of the desk or the nearby wall create your backpack hanging hooks. Simply screw on old dresser knobs or bathroom towel hangers so the kids can have their backpack upright and ready to pull material from as they do their homework.

3. Think outside the box

Need a chair? Old milk crates can be the perfect height for children. They are also durable. For comfort, glue on an old square decorative throw pillow. Vinyl, fabric and plastic adhesive can get the job done. Any local hardware or craft store will carry this.

4. Have it ready before their first day of school. 

Kids, like adults, respond fluently to habits that begin at the same time as a change of scenery. In other words, to break an old habit or start a new you would change your routine. Think about the idea to frequent the gym. You start each day with a typical morning routine and may still barely make work on time. After, work plans, obligations effectively get in the way of a regular gym appearance.

So how would you change this? Switch up your daily routine, and even your sleeping habits.
Similarly, that new routine of going back to school can be the jumpstart to kids daily school work routine at home.

5 Ways to Clean for People Who Hate Cleaning

Most people hate cleaning. It takes a lot of time and energy, and it seems like every time we put the effort in and get the whole space clean it’s dirty all over again in no time at all and we have to repeat the cycle all over again. But when we clean properly and keep the space respectable, the payoff makes it all worthwhile, everyone loves living in a clean space. Even with that in mind, the task is often daunting, but you don’t have to go it alone! Here are Ridofit’s top 5 tips to help you get through your cleaning with your sanity intact.

1. Declutter

Less is more. The more stuff you have, the more there is to clean. No one likes decluttering but it makes future cleaning much easierTry packing away boxes of stuff you don’t need or selling old items-college textbooks, old couches, and bookcases- to create some extra space.

2. Make Cleaning Fun

There are a ton of ways you can make cleaning more enjoyable. Put on some music, bust a move like Mrs. Doubtfire, if you’re of age clean with a cold beer or glass of wine in hand. You’ll find yourself much more relaxed and less worried about the time as the task will feel less like a chore and more like fun. You could even rope a friend or significant other into cleaning with you- you might not guess it right away but cleaning can be fantastic bonding time. can lead to great bonding time. 

3. Setting A Timer

Setting a timer helps with time management for other projects around the house, so why not cleaning? We all know it works well with washing dishes and believe it or not it works just as well with packing them away. Setting a short timer for 10 minutes can help you see how long the task actually takes to complete and will make it possible for you to schedule more tasks and be more productive.

4. Think Of It As A Workout

Cleaning is a pretty intense workout on its own when you think about it.  You’re bending, reaching, squatting, lifting, and running up and down the stairs practically the whole time. Focusing on this aspect and adding a little twist like doing 10 pushups or sit-ups after finishing with each room can  take cleaning from being a decent workout to a great one  and make the cleaning go by even faster.

5. Get A Team Together

Having some helping hands can make the cleaning process much faster and can keep your home cleaner for a longer period of time. Get your kids, partner, and anyone else who may be living at home together and give them their marching orders. Assigning tasks to certain individuals in your  home can lead to the creation of a cleaning routine that will make cleaning less annoying. Keep the tasks on rotation and you’ll be left with a house of happy (and clean!) campers.

7 Tips for a Smooth Move

Well, it’s that time of year again! And with the summer months come all the usual challenges and rewards- the kids are home from school, the patios are open, the barbecue’s out of storage, and of course, it’s moving season. More moves take place over the summer than any other time of year and keeping that in mind we wanted to provide you with 7 top tips to help make your move worry-free.

1. Keep your home in tip-top shape

To avoid last-minute scrambling, keep your home respectably clean year-round. If you know where everything is and can access it easily, you’ll see a huge reduction in stress around moving time.

2. Labels, labels, labels

We aren’t just talking scrawling “kitchen stuff” or “old dvds” on the outside of the box with an old sharpie here, put some time into this. Try to give each box a general title and list each individual item packed in it; it sounds like a lot of work, I know, but you’ll appreciate it when you arrive at your new house, it’s dinner time and you can’t remember which box you have your favourite frying pan squirreled away in.

3. Tap into your local LCBO or Beer Store

One of the best ways of obtaining the boxes you’ll need for a move is to raid your local LCBO or Beer Store (with their express permission of course). Both stores keep a number of large boxes on hand and employees are often more than happy to pass them on to you for your moving needs if you just take the time to come in and ask.

4. Start With the Basics

This is going to sound crazy, I know, but bear with me. If you’re on a time crunch when it comes to your move, consider packing your essentials first and unpacking them last. If you really need to get to your toiletries before you go to bed on the day of your move-in but you’ve sworn you won’t unpack them until the rest of your stuff is successfully moved in, believe me you’ll dig deep and find some extra motivation.

5. Organization is the Key

Be sure to optimize your packing in each box and when packing your boxes into your move-in vehicle of choice. A tight fit could be the difference between 10 boxes and 7 or 2 moving vehicles and 1.

6. Phone a Friend!

That’s right, “phone a friend” is good for more than just contestants on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. Rather than letting moving be a drag, tap into your friend circle and trade someone a case of beer or a nice dinner out for an afternoon’s worth of work. Packing away and moving your whole life can seem daunting to say the least, but with a good friend at your side to chat, laugh and generally have a good time with, the hours fly past faster and your move will be much less stressful.

7. Take Your Time

 It’s almost impossible to put the value of a smooth, worry-free move into words. Take some extra time while you’re packing and take it again while you’re unpacking- rushing is when the job gets sloppy and things get lost and broken. There’s no sense in breaking Great Aunt Betsy’s heirloom China because you’re trying to rush things (unless you’ve been looking for an excuse to- and don’t worry, we won’t tell).

Gift Ideas for Dad: DIY Tips for Organizing the Outdoor Man Cave a.k.a. the Garage

Organizing the Man Cave

Some men like to call the garage the ‘man cave' while women like to think of it as a place where their significant others try to fix the household items that break or build something from scratch.

With Father's Day approaching, it's a great time to think of ideas or plans to organize the garage/‘man cave' to make the space a sanctuary. It's hard to get motivated if your garage is a complete disaster. The last thing one wants to do is look for their toolbox that's hidden, a rack, or even the snow shovel. Organizing the space with shelving racks and a dozen drawers can help with easy access and can make room for more storage in the space.

Here are some ideas for DIY simple tricks to help your start your process:

Magnetic Strip for the new Tool Bar

- The magnetic strip for the tools is the new concept chef's use to adhere their knives. The concept makes the kitchen organized, so why not bring it into the garage. Instead of rummaging through drawers trying to find the correct bit, screws, or nails; it will be within arms reach. It also looks very decorative in the space if it is okay to say decorative when referring to a 'man cave'.

Photo Credit: BHG

Recycle Bin Hangers

- Take a few pieces of scrap wood, blot them to the wall for easy access and removal, instead of stacking each on top of one another. "Check out the detailed instructions over at Handyman."

Reuse the Paper Towel Holder (On Wall or Counter)

One clever idea that can make your life more organized and make ti easy to throw away items is to use an old paper towel holder. Whether it's bolted to the wall or on the counter space, use the tool for your garage bags and recycle the box. You will also need a skinny rod to ensure that it will fit through the small opening in the center of the garbage bags.

Photo Credit: Uploaded to Pinterest

Tin Can Wall Storage

- People usually recycle food cans after they have opened them. How about using them as storage in the garage? You can drill a hole in the center of the top of the can. Cans may be fastened to the walls using a pegboard and used to hold brushes, sponges, and other tools.

Photo Credit: hi Sugarplum

Screw Organizing

- Start saving those mason jars. Using these jars, you can store and label all your nails, screws and bolts or any small parts. Storage these jars on your storage shelving.

Photo Credit: Chez Larsson

DIY Tape Dispenser

- Tape is always hard to find. Scrambling through drawers tends to be annoying. This DIY tape dispenser will make your tape problems a solution, especially for the garage or workshop!

Photo Credit: American Woodworker

DIY Screwdriver Rack

- Nothing looks more organized than all your screwdriver tools organized in the 'man cave'. Drill a few holes and cut brackets for mounting, and you're done. Go check out the details and instructions over at Fresh Crush.

Photo Credit: Fresh Crush

Those are just a few highlights from a list of 28 ideas. You can see more of them in the slide presentation here. If you have ideas to add to the list then add them in the comment section below.

How To Get Organized Over The Summer

Summer is either the busiest season for an individual or the most relaxed, with countless free time. All this free time provides an opportunity for an organization. With the long winter gone, cutting the clutter is frankly the first step for an individual and their summer organizing. There are many strategies on how to cut clutter, whether it’s having a yard sale, preparing boxes for storage or just throwing a cutter in the trash; there are countless solutions to solve the problem. Clutter is evidence of several issues: poor habits, lack of organization, sentimental attachment, or frankly too much junk. Each item one holds onto is a delayed decision.

Start off your cleaning with knowing what you want to do. Planning a schedule is one way to get organized before completing the tasks. Having a schedule such as:

• Monday: Basement
• Tuesday: Closet
• Wednesday: Kid’s Closets
• Thursday: Kitchen
• Friday: Office Space
• Saturday: Packing 
• Sunday: Yard Sale

A simple schedule will help you plan and organize your time wisely, which will help you get the job finished in a timely manner. When it comes to packaging and letting go, organizing your boxes can make the process much easier. Take three large boxes and label them “put away”, “give away” or “storage”. "Give away" boxes can me put aside and used for future yard sales or donations to local charities in your community. You may be giving and taking, but having both a yard sale and donating to local boxes in your neighbourhood helps you get organized. When it comes to scheduling, complete the easy tasks first before the more difficult. Cleaning toys, boxing, and organizing are easier tasks to start with because it’ll clean the space for the next task. The estimated time needed for packing can take from 5 hours – 2 days depending how the amount of people assisting.

In regards to a yard sale, there are simple tips one can follow to have it run smoothly and make the organization and decluttering process easier for the individual.

1. A group sale is better than selling alone. More stuff draws more traffic
2. Be prepared. Be ready to go the night before so that you don’t have to rush around in the morning
3. Plan your sale layout with customers in mind. Use marketing tricks to make your customers more likely to purchase your stuff!
4. Price things carefully
5. Label things well
6. Be friendly. Greet people as they arrive — chat if they’re chatty
7. Do not bad-mouth your items
8. Be willing to bargain, but be less flexible at the start
9. Keep a ledger. Jot down a description of each item and for how much it sold
10. Do not use a cash box. Keep your money on you at all times.

Here is a useful video on more tips when throwing a yard sale. Summer is the perfect whether to enjoy a yard sale because your customers will be more active to attend and be patient to look around at every item to find its value. Listen to each tip wisely, and happy organizing!