SPRING CLEANING (MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR)

If you haven’t realized it yet, I love to clean and have an organized home. I don’t wait until spring to start my “spring cleaning” because it is something I keep up on throughout the year. It’s something I hope to have a career in the future because I love to organize and clean rooms. It is one of the reasons why I got a part time job in retail because while most employees hate closing and cleaning the store, I actually love it! I thought I would share some of my rules for spring cleaning, organizing your home and share some previous posts on the blog you may find helpful!

You might think that your bedroom or apartment is already clean so why bother taking everything out and do a big spring cleaning. But when was the last time you saw the back of your closet or took out every shirt in your closet or vacuumed behind your dresser? With this new season, I like to reorganize, reevaluate what belongings I have and start fresh. When you declutter and clean, you make room for more positive things in your life. This is my third week cleaning my room and so far I have donated 10 garbage bags to Goodwill and thrown out countless bags of trash. I also was able to get rid of a dresser in my bedroom and an extra desk because there was nothing in them.

Spend a few days after work cleaning your room, put on Netflix and you will be amazed at what you find and how much stuff you can get rid of.

My number one cleaning rule is to tackle one area at a time. Even cleaning your bedroom is too big of a project to do correctly. Instead of doing the daunting task of your entire room, pick your closet, dresser or space where your bed is and break it up into small tasks. Take everything out, Clorox and Endust the entire space. Then decide if you really need it or if it needs to go back to where it was. My bedside table is where magazines and books pile up making it look messy and overcrowded. On Sunday nights, that is when I bring glasses down to the kitchen, put books away and do a quick wipe down.

I had two small (like childhood furniture small) dressers in my room that just took up too much space. When I took everything out of the dressers, I realized that I did not need to have dozens of t-shirts from college taking up space and put the majority of them in a bag to give to my aunt to make a college t shirt memory quilt. Each dresser had an empty drawer and work out clothes were taking over both of them. Using the Marie Kondo Method (Keep scrolling to learn how this changed my life), I was able to put all of my work out gear in own drawer. I donated the second empty dresser and now have even more room in my bedroom!(Before)

Organizing Trick #2: Baskets

I use baskets for everything that it is actually becoming a problem. If you don’t have the budget to buy baskets, I also use brown boxes to store a lot of items as well.

My laundry basket is actually a basket with a lid and it never looks like it is overflowing with laundry (as it usually is) but instead it blends into my bathroom better.
I store my slippers next to my bed in a cute basket and my closet is filled with baskets that store items as well. I
store extra throw blankets and throw pillows in a basket next to my bed because it is the best catch all solution for the space. In the morning I make my bed with my decorative pillows and at night I can easily throw them into a basket.
Since I have zero space in my tiny closet, I use a basket to store all of my purses making them easy to grab but they are all stored together.
My bathroom has very little storage, so I found a basket at Target that can hold toilet paper and looks decorative not sloppy!

If you have the money, I highly suggest Pottery Barn baskets!

Organizing Trick #3: Hooks & Hanging

I own a lot of necklaces and wear them everyday so instead of keeping them in a drawer or a jewelry box hidden away, I like to hang them on my wall. I found both of my necklace organizers at Goodwill and they are a blessing! Instead of keeping items hidden in your closet or a drawer, be creative and find ways to display your treasured belongings. I rarely wear hats, but instead of getting crushed in my closet, with a few thumbtacks I was able to hang them and make them wall decor. With my parents in the eye business, I have accumulated a lot of sunglasses over the years. I found that the best way to store them was to put them on a tray (also a Goodwill find) on my dresser so I can easily grab a pair when I am leaving the house. Sometimes the best way to organize something is by having it out on display.

Organizing Trick #4: Canisters

I think it started in college when my living situations had zero storage and I had to get creative. My biggest OCD is seeing clutter on surfaces. Like I can’t go to bed at night if I see stuff on my dresser that is not put away or if there are too many clothes on the chair in my room. With that being said, in college I only had a wardrobe, a desk and a small bedside table to store things making me find ways to get creative. I started to use pretty canisters to store things like nail polishes, makeup tools and other items.

A few months ago picked up plant canisters from Ikea but use them to hold my mascaras, brushes and a larger one to hold miscellaneous things I find in my room. At Target on clearance I picked up a cute canister that now holds all of my nail polishes and at Goodwill I found a glass canister that holds all of my lip products. As much as I like to have everything in its proper place, I also like to make things easily accessible as well. Canisters give me this nice solution where everything can be put away, but I can have them accessible on my dresser.

Organizing Trick #5: Multitasking Furniture

I have had this desk in my bedroom since we moved into the house more than 10 years ago, but I have my own office so I rarely used it as a desk. In the drawers there was clutter and dried up sharpies, the shelves had books and journals that looked cute but was all unnecessary. Ed helped me purge the desk and right now it is waiting to be dropped off at Goodwill in my hallway. The top portion of the desk is ideal for storage, so I took that part and turned it into a bookcase. I recently inherited a Pottery Barn trunk and I wanted to make the the most out of it. Instead of it taking up room in my bedroom I needed to make it useful. I decided for now to have it hold my off season pillows and soon it will hold my winter throw blankets.

(before. I don’t think Ed wanted me to get rid of the desk!)(after)