Spring has Sprung so let’s clear the clutter

I love every new season and what it brings! The change in weather is always exciting; watching those buds start on the trees and in the ground give me immense pleasure!

Another thing I love is putting away the winter gear and clothing and bringing out the spring stuff! SO, this is your perfect opportunity to clear away/donate and organize this stuff!

I like to keep under bed bins for my seasonal clothing, others have a large enough closet to keep everything, and still others have more than one closet where they can store out of season wear.

Starting with your winter clothes, pull them all out and put them on your bed. Now I mean EVERYTHING!

Now, take each piece of clothing and fold it up (or keep it on the hanger if you’re just moving it) and recall the last time you wore it. If you can’t remember put it in a pile for “Questionables”. If you didn’t wear it at all, put it in a “Donate” pile, and if you wore it and love it, put it in a “Keep” pile. Do this one at a time until the pile is gone. After going through all your clothes go back to the “Questionables” and rethink these as a “Keep” or “Donate”. Once this is done, grab a bag, toss in all the “Donate” items and put them in front of your door to go out! This way, the next time you leave the house you will take it with you and actually donate it. Don’t just put it away or store is as this will just lead to clutter somewhere else!

Ok, next I want you to go to your front hallway where all the coats, boots, hats, scarves, mittens etc. are kept. If you don’t already have them, invest in 3 bins to store outdoor winter items: 1 for accessories, 1 for coats, 1 for boots. I want you to do a similar thing here with these items. We accumulate A LOT of winter gear it seems! Not sure why, but we just do (or maybe it’s just my family lol!!) Do we seriously NEED 8 pairs of gloves/mittens, 5 scarves, 15 hats, 4 coats, and 3 pairs of boots??? Maybe a few extras for style and comfort, but we, as a society just like to accumulate “Stuff” so now is a good time to consider doing this differently! Now go through each item separately and put it in the “Donate”, “Keep”, or “Questionables” pile, and then go through the “Questionables” pile as you did above, and put in a bag the donate items, and put this by the front door.

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That’s it! It’s really not as bad as you think it is! Mostly what gets people is the actual ACT of DOING it! Right now, take out your calendar and schedule in a 1 hour time slot (That is all it should take) and DO IT!! Often times when we actual schedule something in we are more likely to ACTUALLY do it!

That was pretty painless if I do say so myself!

Spring has sprung so go for a walk on the next bright day and enjoy the change of season!!!

Your Simply Susan tip of the day 😉🌼🌳

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To Purge or not to purge?

Do I or don’t I?  When did I last use/wear it?  Is it worth keeping it for that one time a year I use/wear it? Do I have the storage space for it?  Can I use/wear something else in place of it that I already have?

All questions we should be asking ourselves a few times a year when we chose to re-organize or purge our rooms or homes.  I personally think it is a good idea to go through your stuff seasonally.  Even if you choose a couple of rooms to tackle each season.

I believe that as far as clothing goes, every time you do your seasonal clothing “swap out” you should think critically about what you are putting away  and whether or not you wear it anymore?  I am not going to delve into this anymore here as I have already dedicated a blog to this called “Seasonal Clothing Swap-out.”

So, for the other parts of your house, think about setting up some time to go through your stuff and purge as needed.  I think the best way to tackle this is to actually schedule time in your planner for this and STICK TO THIS TIME! Don’t devote more than a day or a weekend to this purging task because you will more likely get frustrated, drag your feet, and not actually do it and get it done.  If you put aside the time to do it you are more likely to….well….DO IT!!!

More and more people these days are “collectors” or items (In actuality I want to say hoaders, but this term is denied my many!) People believe they need the  newest of everything and therefore are constantly feeling the need to keep up with others by buying the newest and best of everything.  They figure they need to for some reason.

What is happening to all the stuff that works perfectly well but is just 1 season out of date?  Nothing!  It’s likely sitting in your closet or your garage.  You don’t want to get rid of it because it is still pretty new; you only had it one year, so you don’t feel right getting rid of it?

Sound familiar?  I hear people talking all the time about how much stuff they, their spouses or their children have, and how they are not willing to part with perfectly good things.  Where does this leave us? With a FULL HOUSE!

My recommendations:

• Buy less stuff…..or at least think more about what you’re buying and if you really need it.
• Consider second hand.  I am a total and complete believer in second hand and love being able to buy things off people who need the newest things. (Even though I am benefiting from you people who like the newest and best, I still encourage you to try to cut back!!)
• Sell on all the websites that are available for free on line!  It is so easy and it’s a great way to both buy and sell good items.  You don’t even need to talk or see anyone, you can do “Porch pick up” which just requires some trust and a mailbox!
• Give or donate to a friend or charity.   The Salvation Army is my favourite charity with so many good points about them…check them out on line and you’ll see what I mean!

There you have it, I certainly hope that I have made at least a few of you think more about “Keeping up with the Joneses” as they say!

Your Simply Susan tip of the day! 😁