Spring cleaning... in January!

OK, I know Spring cleaning is supposed to be reserved for, well, the spring... but I thought, what better way to start the year than with everything cleaned out and organized?? Everything has a way of getting cluttered and stacked up and stashed in a drawer throughout the year and you end up with closets you're afraid to open without something falling on you and drawers you can't open!

This is going to be a pretty long process because I can't do it all at one time. I can only invest an hour or less a day so I am trying to focus on one room, or one closet, or one piece of furniture to go through per day.

I started with a new bookcase (well, new to us anyway... it was given to us by a dear friend). We didn't have one and Chris wasn't convinced that we needed one, but I insisted anyway. After I finished pulling out all of the books from all of my "hiding" places around the house and had them stacked in the living room to organize on the bookshelf, I think Chris was convinced! :)  He said, "where did all of these come from???" Bahahahaha... I guess I'm pretty good at finding places to stash things.

Next I had the boys go through all of the toys in their room and we picked ones that they don't play with all that often to take down to the basement. I'm not getting rid of them, but I'm putting them away for now and the plan is to pull them out in 6 months or so and switch them for any toys they may have become bored with. They tend to get excited to see toys they haven't played with in a while. While we were going through their room, we also cleaned out drawers and their closet. I am still slowly working on Sam's room. His closet has just been a place to put things I don't know what to do with.

Next was our closet. I had to put away flip flops and sandals and other warm weather items. They had taken over the floor in our closet.  I did it when Chris was at work and after he came home and went upstairs to change, he came back down and said, "Hey, did you know there's carpet in our closet??"  Smarty britches...

I still have to go through our night stands, dresser, and armoir in our room and all of the drawers in our living room tables... but I am already feeling decluttered! If anyone were to come over, no one would notice anything different (except the bookshelf), but I know there is less of a mess in drawers and closets and if I want to find something, I may just be able to do so! I love it!!