"Spring" Cleaning Epiphanies

Ok, so I have totally thrown my original blog plan out the window and will now post whatever I  feel like, whenever I feel like it. So, today, instead of crafts, it's just a few organizations things that I've discovered in the last couple weeks while doing a total spring cleaning thing on my house. This has been a major undertaking seeing as how it hasn't been done in a couple years- In my defense, I am usually a total neat freak, but I had a baby in May and gall bladder surgery in August, so deep cleaning wasn't exactly a top priority! I'm sure most women can relate!
Anyway, it's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate if you don't go through it on a regular basis...sad actually. So, at this point, I have managed to get it all done, except for one closet...the dreaded storage closet where I keep all my craft/scrapbook/wrapping supplies and boxes and boxes of photos...oh, and a few sets of sheets are in there, too!

So here's a few things I've discovered:

1. I thought I was going to need to buy a lot of storage containers to get everything organized neatly. It turns out, as I got rid of things I no longer needed, I found that I had several containers to use. So, don't go buy any, until you do some clean out! For example, I cleaned out my closet (it was horrible!!!) and ended up with several empty plastic shoe boxes.

2. You CAN have too many shoes.....seriously...I hate to admit this, but I had shoes in my closet that I've had since probably high school (that'd be about 13 years ago) and hadn't worn in years!

3. If it's the third time, you've looked at something you haven't used in a while and think to yourself , "I might use that someday", then you should probably get rid of it! Especially clothes!! Our church has a Love Closet every 3 or 4 months which is like a free yard sale for clothing, bedding, and baby stuff for our community and my car is full of stuff to take there now! If it's not used up, someone else can probably use it!

4. You wouldn't believe the space you will have in  your kitchen cabinets if you get rid of old small appliances that don't work! I learned that those old appliances and electronics can go on the scrap metal trailer so you can actually turn some trash into cash! Woohoo! OR, you can take them to Goodwill and they will get them there, too, and they get the money for it. (Just be sure if you do computers, to destroy your hard drive)

5. When you do a cleaning out, you WILL find something you were either looking for or forgot you had!

Don't try to do it all in one day! Make a list of things to do in each area and slowly, within weeks, you will have it all done! Happy Cleaning!!