Changing your home from winter to spring that is. It’s actually called spring cleaning but that name has such a bad connotation sometimes. Many of us feel that we have to turn the whole house upside down but that’s not true.

It’s mainly focusing on the things you might not get to on a regular basis. So it’s good to take room by room over a course of a few weeks and clean and rotate.

Some of the main areas to focus on would be: the kitchen and pantry; bedrooms; bathrooms; closets; routine maintenance on the furnace; ceiling fans and light fixtures; walls and baseboards; windows.

Let’s start with closets today. I just “did my closet” this weekend which means I put away all my winter items and brought in my spring/summer ones.

I need to make a confession here! I write and speak on organization but sometimes I really have a hard time tackling a project and that would be my closet. It may take me two weeks before I can get the emotional framework, time and energy to “switch over my closets” from one season to the next. But what a huge difference it makes!

This year I went a little crazy: I had four large piles of clothes to give away. No, I don’t buy a lot I just don’t clear out as I should! I keep thinking I will need “it” some day! But giving away clothes to a center can benefit others so much.

I also went through my belts, lingerie drawers, shoes, you name it! And now I feel like I have a new closet and new clothes. It’s just wonderful!

I hope this will inspire you to “just do it” too. We all need a little encouragement and that’s what this blog is for – to help you down the Pathway to Organization.

Action Plan

1. Look at every item hanging in your closet and decide: keep it; clean it or give it away. Some people put the old season in another area of their closet; some take it to another closet.
2. You may want to buy special hangers to keep the clothes from not packing together as well as making the closet look great.
3. Sort clothes by color and sleeve length – white and sleeveless first. Also place skirts together and then dresses together, etc.
4. Sort your shoes by type: dressy; casual; sports. I keep my shoes on shelves but my slippers are on the floor for quick foot therapy!
5. Have a good cleaning rag with you to wipe down shelves.
6. Keep an area where you put clothes you have worn once so you won’t get mixed up as to what needs washing next. Some people will turn a hanger around when the item is worn which will show you the items you didn’t wear at the end of a season.
7. Don’t forget sweaters. These need to be cleaned, folded and placed on a shelf.

Manna from Heaven

“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” I Corinthians 14:33