Early Spring Cleaning

Hi everybody! I hope you all are having a good Sunday. Now I know it’s still technically winter, but in this blog post I am going to talk about my early spring cleaning, any tips I have, and before and after pictures so you can see how I like to clean and organize my things. Before and after pictures are always my favorite, they are soo satisfying!

So, if things go as planned, we will be moving sometime this year. I’ve been getting so anxious to move that I decided it couldn’t hurt to get a head-start on spring cleaning and purging out some of my unnecessary junk. Lots of clutter does not help when selling a house, and this way I’m getting the house somewhat ready in small steps. Also, getting rid of and letting things go is one of my favorite cleaning tasks, it always feels so freeing and satisfying.

Once I started, I definitely got carried away, which, I admit, is partly due to the fact that I had too much time on my hands. Because of this, I sadly did not get pictures of all the spots in my house that I’ve cleaned out and organized. The photos below are mainly just of my home office, laundry room, and closet.

Office:

My desk drawers were so disorganized and messy. Sometimes it is so easy to just toss things in a drawer and not look back, but over time these drawers became overwhelming with so much junk! So glad I got rid of some things and got them organized. I’m looking to get a new desk soon and this is definitely going to help when I switch everything over from this desk to the new one.

So much better! Now for my crafting supplies.

*Tips: I use a hanging shoe rack that I no longer used for shoes as an organizer for all my gifting and crafting supplies. I tend to always have a supply of cards for various occasions. I find that this often comes in hand when I’m unprepared for an upcoming event, such as a birthday or baby shower. As a way to organize my cards, I just use post-its as tabs to categorize them by occasion.

My crafting supplies were all over the place since the holidays, and it was driving me nuts! By getting rid of some things, I was also able to fit more supplies in my shoe rack. I’d really like to have an entire craft room in the future, but for now my office closet and repurposed shoe rack will suffice.

    

Laundry Room:

These two laundry cabinets are the only places for storage in my laundry room. For me, the laundry room is kind of the catch-all for my cleaning supplies and other random items. I also keep my sewing box, watering cans, tool bag, and cat supplies in these cabinets. Cleaning is not always my favorite task, and many times after cleaning up the house I’m so exhausted that I tend to just toss things in these cabinets. Over time my laundry cabinets became a mess.

*Tips: So, I have an amazon parrot named Yoshi, and he can be very messy. This may sound weird, but I like to save napkins and used dryer sheets and reuse them to clean the bottom tray (poop tray) of his cage. The used dryer sheets are great for scrubbing, and this way I’m creating less waste by using up things I would’ve just thrown away.

Because the dryer sheets I use contain toxic ingredients, I make sure to wear gloves, and use the napkins and NOT the dryer sheet for any area Yoshi will be in contact with, then I just store them in an old shoebox in the laundry cabinet. While you may not have a parrot at home, you can still use old dryer sheets for scrubbing other things that need a good cleaning.

Closet Shelves:

My closet shelves were such a mess. The first before and after picture shown below is above my boyfriend’s side of the closet. At first I had all my purses above his clothes, but after getting rid of some things and making room, I was able to move my purses over to my side so I could clear out the shelf for his things.

*Tips: Bags and purses can be hard to organize on shelves because they come in all shapes and sizes. Some bags can be lined up on a shelf, while others can be stacked on top of each other according to their size. Wallets are also kind of hard to organize, so I like to use an old bag that I don’t use often to hold all of my wallets so that I can keep them on the shelf with all of my bags.

I am really lucky in that I have a tremendous amount of space in my closet, and the way I had things strewn about was not helping me fully utilize this space. Now, everything is more organized and I have much more free space than I did before.

I hope you guys like this early spring cleaning post, and if you have any cleaning/organizing tips you’d like to share, feel free to comment them below!