Happy Spring everyone! As great as it is to finally get out of the chill of winter and to feel the warm sunshine, these events also mean that ….. yep, it’s that time of year again. Time to take a look at every room in your home for …… yes, Spring Cleaning!
Spring cleaning doesn’t have to be looked at with disdain. I actually prefer to look at it as an opportunity. An opportunity to clear out cabinets and closets and gain more storage space in your home by donating items you no longer use or trashing items that can no longer be used. I just started spring cleaning this weekend, and my husband will be the first to tell you that, even as an interior designer, I have a lot of stuff that clearly falls into the former category – things that can be donated. I agree I do have A LOT of donation runs to make. But honestly, it’s ok. Not only does it make me feel better to donate items that I don’t use and may not have thought about in years – it also makes me feel good to know that I will be able to devote an upcoming weekend to shopping as a reward to myself for clearing out space and clutter in our home. It’s a little trick I play on myself when faced with the question of “should I or shouldn’t I get rid of this item?”. The possibility of a shopping trip ALWAYS makes the decision so much easier :o)
When it comes to spring cleaning, some highly organized people merely have to reach for the vacuum and the duster, take a few minutes to clean each room, and it’s done. For others of us – we actually need to make a plan to declutter our homes of the things we have accumulated over the past year that may no longer serve their purpose. If you fall into that category and are either a novice at home organization or have tried several times to organize your home and failed, please understand that you are not alone and that it does take time. Very rarely will you be successful if you try to organize a disorganized home in one day or one weekend. You have to be methodical and create an organization plan. Although there are many different ways to go about decluttering a home, every year I follow the same organization plan to organize and declutter my home. There are three basic steps to my organization plan:
1) I literally schedule on a calendar what day I want to tackle a particular room.
2) I ask myself what I want the room to look like, feel like, and what purpose I want the room to serve – I then write it down on a piece of paper creating a list of guidelines, so to speak, and I post the guidelines on the wall (sometimes with a drawing of how I want the finished room to look) in the room.
3) I then go through the room, and using my written guidelines, I evaluate each item in the room and determine whether it fits into the room within the guidelines I have set. If it does – I keep the item, if it does not – I donate the item or trash it out. (Remember to use the “shopping trick” if that will help you.)
The thing about my organization plan is that it can work year round. If you prefer to de-clutter seasonally, or even daily, you can still use the same plan. Just keep in mind that this process will not be a fast one – it might take several weekends to clear out clutter and become more organized – and trust me, it truly is ok. But the end result will be a more efficient home, not to mention that an organized home will make you feel better and more efficient as well.
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