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Winter’s gone which means it’s a great time for … Spring cleaning!

Oh my goodness, how is it the end of September already? The first month of Spring is nearly done?

If you’re anything like me this is the time of year you look around the house and think ‘gosh we have a lot of crap. It’s time for a lot of this stuff to go!’

And in fact, I did just that last week – gave my home the once over and did a big de-clutter/Spring clean. I can tell you, it’s a GREAT feeling opening cupboards to find neat and tidy shelves filled only with things/clothes we actually use. And it’s also a great feeling to be able to walk through the garage without catching my top on all manner of things stuffed higgledy piggledy into every corner and crevasse.

So – what did I do to achieve this nirvanic state? I took on:

1. The closets

I’m pretty ruthless when it comes to my own closet and tend to edit it at least once every six months. So this edit was very minimal – I simply looked at all the winter clothes in there, and anything I didn’t wear this winter just gone is now in a bag for Good Sammys. I don’t ever keep things for ‘when I might fit into them again’ or for ‘one day when I might want to wear it again.’ If I haven’t worn it this year, it’s unlikely I’m going to want to wear it next year!

I also have two kids who grow like weeds which means nothing from this winter just gone is going to still fit next winter. So I’ve kept two pairs of tracksuit pants and two jumpers for each of them for the coming months … and all the remaining winter gear has been bagged.

2. The shelves and ‘knick knack’ drawers

Hopefully no one who has ever gifted me anything is reading this post … but I do get given a lot of stuff. A lot of really gorgeous stuff. But it’s stuff I have no practical use for and so the shelves in my bedroom and bathroom tend to be bursting with beautiful things that aren’t being used. And I think that’s a huge shame!

I am not a fan of re-gifting however (you know, giving something you’ve been gifted to someone else as a gift!) So in the end I put everything I’ve not used into a box … and down to Good Sammys it goes.

3. The in-tray

I do try to stick to the one-minute rule when it comes to filing, but still, my in-tray often finds itself overflowing with papers from school, reminders from doctors and other things that for whatever reason can’t be immediately filed when received. So going through that pile, binning what can be binned and filling the rest  should leave you with a lovely empty in-tray, all ready for the onslaught from Term 4 at school.

4. The toys

Oh lord, the toys. I held off for a good three years from having giant birthday parties for my kids – but now that my eldest is five, he’s had two of those parties and with them come an insane amount of toys as gifts. It completely does my head in how those toys get played with once and then they’re consigned to the already overflowing toy box. I get around the problem a little by putting all the new things in a drawer and only allowing a new toy to be opened once every two weeks.  But still – they eventually do get opened.

So new rules have been instigated!

We have gone through the toy box and given away everything that is not lego or train sets. Then, from now on, if he wants to open something that is not lego or train set related, he has to first give something away.

5. The garage

I don’t know about you, but our garage tends to be the dumping ground for anything I can’t find a place for inside the house. This is place where I tend to be most ruthless and once again I apply the ‘if we’ve not used it in the last 6-12 months, then it’s gone’ rule. The alternative is that the garage is the place where every single thing you may have a use for ‘one day’ is stored. And you know what? That’s a LOT of things.

Trust me when I tell you how worth it it is to get your garage under control. For most of us it’s the first place we enter when we arrive back at home. Driving into a clean and tidy garage each day? Just such a nice feeling and it’s one that tends to get carried into the home.

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