Spring Cleaning!

Well, it's that time of year again! To say that I'm "spring cleaning" is an understatement. I am over my head in STUFF!!!!

A while ago, I made the decision to get rid of all unnecessary items and things that cause anxiety and disorder from our home. I need S I M P L I C I T Y like a fish needs water. If I could live in The Little House on the Prairie, I would move in a heartbeat.

This task, a complete whole house declutter, is a big deal especially in the middle of our remodel projects. At the moment my house is completely upside down. I have TWO fridges in the kitchen (we bought a new one this weekend and will be selling the old one). Nearly every room is filled with piles of "things" to be sorted, our office being the major catch all.

In our yardsale, I will be selling things that we've had for years, even many things that I like but are causing more work and upkeep that it's worth, not to mention these things are taking up valuable space and breathing room!

This Live Simply mentality is one that I really love. Despite the current mess, I'm really enjoying the whole process. I am forced to sit down and think about all the things that are causing me angst and added burden and extra work. or what things make me feel bad or sad just by looking at them...


I'm getting rid of the Lindsay and Zoe's dresser. It's a nice long, spacious pine Broyhill piece. Though it does serve a purpose, the top of it is a catch all for the girls clothers (clean or dirty, they'll pile it on there), toys, books, and dust. And the thing is BIG. It takes up too much space in the girls rather small room. It has also been a huge chore keeping the girls' clothes organized in all of those drawers (nine drawers in all). My solution is to buy an upright dresser with about five or six wide deep drawers. Too tall for them to throw things on and not so big that valuable space is eaten up.

Another problem we have is that of bedcoverings. It's a simple thing, really. But the girls three blankets plus the sheet always end up in a messy pile in the middle of the bed. Making the bed and keeping them covered up at night is a constant battle. Zoe insists on not sleeping under the "itch blankets" (though her skin never touches them because of the sheet) So I'm removing all the blankets and I've ordered a goose-down comforter for them. Making the bed will be easy enough for them to do and they shouldn't have a problem staying cuddled up under a downy comforter. I'm going to be doing the same for all of our beds.

And I have so much furniture to get rid of! A lot of the furniture has just been in storage in the garage, pieces that needed to be repainted and spruced up. But now, they aren't really my style or are too bulky, so I'm working on painting them to sell. I have three coffee tables, two sofa tables, an end table, our wrought-iron glass-top dining set that is so hard to keep clean and the chairs are so heavy and bulky (we pick up our farm table next week), our hutch (which only collects dust and clutter - plus we want to put French doors where it now sits in order to bring more light into the house), a toybox and bookshelf, a girl's desk (Sydney's...she never uses it, just sticks junk in the drawers and she wants extra space in her room), a couple of wool rugs (the colors don't match anymore), an armoir in storage in the garage, and tons of decorative items. Yep, this spring cleaning is serious business!

The only room that is completely decluttered so far is Lindsay and Zoe's room. This weekend I bought about 12 sturdy and pretty baskets of various sizes to organize their toys. They love them!!! There room no longer overwhelms me when I go in there. I still haven't decorated it with the new bedding, etc. that I bought in the fall because we have to plaster in there and paint (and get them a headboard and footboard!) but in due time.

Well, things are a mess now so I should get back to work. I'll try to post my progress as I move along.