Spring is Coming

So, every year, around this time of year (Spring Break, Daylight Savings, Easter), I get the giddiness of a young girl with pigtails about the sun coming out after the long, cold, and harsh winter.

I delight when I feel the sunshine that streams in through my bedroom windows, only to shudder when I walk out into the 20 degree cold to go to work.
So, instead of trying to surpress my bitterness through clenched teeth, I have decided to embrace the next couple weeks (as the last of my cold New England winter) and focus on the beauty of spring!

Here is my inspiration for the coming month.

Photo: Real Simple Magazine

Spring Cleaning
I realized this winter that I am a Hoarder...not the Hoarder: sitting in a rocking chair barefoot eating an uncooked hotdog with no teeth, but the organized kind. That hides her addition to stuff with pretty bins and underbed storage.
This Spring, I plan to De Clutter!!
With the help of my friend Martha. Her ideas are as follow:

Look at and rate all the things in the room you are trying to de-clutter

I love it and/or absolutely need it.

I'm not sure if I love it or need it.

I don't love it or need it anymore.

This will be the foundation for emoving and keeping the things you have.
The next step is to CREATE A PLAN-to prevent more clutter and diorganization. Invest in bins-clear (to see contents) if they are going to be hidden, or cloth bins with label viewers in them! They are cute and perfect if they cannot be hidden.

Start thrwing (or preferably DONATING) the tiems you rated as #3. Then deep clean-break out the bleach, the rags, the gloves if need be! and Attack attack!!

Will I accompish this? Probably not as well as I would like.

Let me explain my Hoarder tendancies.
I like nostalgic items-that serve no purpose. I also see something that I know I may want in the furture even if I do not have sue for it now. So i get it...and store it. Hide it away in my attic or under my bed or in the hallway. So items only collect and collect and collect.

My roommates roll their eyes when I come in, out of breath from lugging a leather automan that I found on my way to work up our flight of stairs, yelling 'Look what I found!!! Ahh, I love it and had to have it, and its FREE!"

Photo: www.tauzero.com

Free gets me in, it intices me and then lets me stay a while in its lair...damn.

So what I need to really do is fight off the urge to spend and collect. Maybe have a real colest would help and not just a clothing rack...hmmm.

I have some things to think about before Spring really hits.