Spring Cleaning

Most people catch the "Spring Cleaning Bug" around this time every year. We want to feel refreshed after the long winter of cabin fever. Cleaning and organizing your home is a great way to feel refreshed, without having to spend much, if anything at all.  Part of being human is collecting "stuff." We can't all be Tibetan Monks with no possessions. (Although it would be nice to live that way sometimes)

But, we live in the real world, so here are some easy and free/cheap ideas for you to help you get organized this Spring.

• Containers are a great way to store the little stuff that accumulates in our home. The dollar store is a great resource for these small plastic bins/crates/boxes. You can get them in almost every size and shape. They do come in almost primary colors that look incredibly juvenile, so if you are going to be displaying these containers, I recommend a good spray paint made for use on plastics. That will set you back about $5 max. (In my eyes, that's totally worth it)  Baskets are another container that I think will never go out of style. I had a basket with a handle a while back, and handles are a bit dated, so I took some gardening shears normally used for trimming roses, and cut the handle off. It's one of my favorite baskets now. Be warned that baskets can be expensive. Watch out for sales and check the second-hand store. You never know.
  
• Purging is an important part of getting yourself organized. When organizing my own space, I usually ask myself three questions - 1. Have I used it in the last year? 2. Do I have something just like it that's in better shape? and 3. Does it need to be replaced/Is it broken or non-usable? This seems to work incredibly well, especially for clothes.
  
• I am a pretty sentimental person, especially as an adult. I am 1,185 miles away from my parents and 2,141 miles away from my only sister. I miss them terribly. Sometimes I feel that by keeping everything they've ever given me (and when I say ever, I do mean ever- stuff from when I was in elementary school) that I feel closer to them. Recently, however, I've learned that things do not represent my relationship with my parents or my sister. I don't need to attach meaning to every single piece of paper or knick-knack that they give me. They want me to be happy as much as I want them to be happy. Part of being happy for me is having a clean and clutter-free home. Trust me, your loved ones would MUCH rather you be happy than keep the pair of tennis shoes they bought you when you were 10.
  
• Bathrooms are an organizer's dream. There are so many things to find places for and it usually is the
  
  smallest room of the house. You can try a magnetic strip on the wall, behind the cabinet door or in a drawer for your makeup brushes, bobby pins or whatever you can attach a small adhesive magnet to. This will make use of otherwise unusable space. Another tip that I've learned is to use cabinet door hanging organizers normally designed for your kitchen in your bathroom. It will cut down on the amount of real estate you use to organize all the little things in the bathroom. Towels can sometimes be a challenge as well. First thing I would do is get rid of your towel racks and replace it with a long piece of wood with hooks. This will make it so your kids can hang up their own towels, and won't rip out the towel hangers by hanging from them. For the smaller hand towels, you can use a wine rack and
  roll them to fit inside the rings, or roll them and put them into a basket or whatever you find around your house that could work.
• You can re-purpose just about anything. I use a roasting rack (normally used for roasting turkeys) turned upside down as a divider for my cutting boards and cooking stones. If you have a wooden peg plate rack, you can use it for yarn storage or scarf storage, and you can reuse a TV tray as an ironing board, nightstand, or bar. You can even use a glass-less picture frame for a new cork message board by your front door, or attach it to your fridge. What have you re-purposed?
  
• My last tip is a plug for a couple of organizations most of you are familiar with. The first is Deseret Industries or "DI". It is an educational program for people with disabilities. PLEASE donate your purged items to a place like DI that will put it to good use. The other organization I want to mention is Dress for Success. They take gently used professional women's clothing to under-privileged women entering the workforce. It's a good cause and we could all stand to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

To quote one of my favorite '90's Nickelodeon shows "Rocko's Modern Life", "It's a sick, disgusting job, but it's got to get done."  Happy Spring Cleaning Everyone!