Today's Friday 5 theme is FAVORITES (per the rules of the Friday 5 Link Up). Over the past couple weeks, Paul and I have been systematically spring cleaning our house. Today, I'll share with you my five favorite things about spring cleaning!
1. I feel in control of my life when closets and drawers are organized. Seriously, when I open my closet and see every item of clothing, shoes, and purse in place, I feel like I can take anything the day throws at me.
2. Getting rid of "stuff" is cathartic! Whether it's pitched, given to Good Will, are handed over to a friend, getting rid of things we don't need feels so good. And boy, did we have a lot of things we didn't need! I mean, I didn't count, but my best guess is we had somewhere around 30 coffee mugs. I'd like to think we'd have that many people over for coffee someday, but the reality is, we won't.
3. Less stuff = more space. Our closets, drawers and cupboards are not packed to the brim anymore, so it is extremely easy to find the things we actually do use.
4. Christmas has been peeing less. Christmas has his favorite little corners to pee in. I seriously could have done a Friday 5 post called "5 Favorite Places Christmas Pees". But now that I have scrubbed the floors and gotten rid of some furniture that he "likes" he has chilled out a bit.
5. We know what we need and don't need. Taking stock of what we have opens our eyes much more to things we don't need. For instance: Now that I have gotten a really good look at my purses, I know I do not NEED a new purse at all. Same for shoes. And gloves. I could use some more head bands for running though!
Now that the main part of our house is cleaned and organized, it's time to tackle the basement storage room... dun dun DUNNNN!!!!!
Yah, this could take awhile!
Today, I'm linking up with the DC girls for Friday 5!
Ahh, we just started the clearing out process too. I don't know why it is so hard for me to pitch stuff that I think we might need. Sooner or later we will have a nice cleared out home. And your basement looks like a big job!
ReplyDeleteIn the past it has been hard for me to pitch stuff too. But once we started, it got a little addicting. Like running! Maybe after the first couple pitches you will be like- ooh this is fun!
DeleteI need to clean out my closet! Now that I'm not training for anything, it's on my to do list. But then my son had to go and break his leg. Now that he's feeling better, hopefully I'll get back on track!
ReplyDeleteWay to go, son! ;) Not training will definitely give you time to tackle that closet!
DeleteOh, isn't it so cathartic to clean and organize like that? We aren't pack-rats so we are constantly doing this (and by we I mean me and Rick runs it all to Good Will). I had to laugh at the coffee mug thing--we had so many and we use 2! The biggest thing I have to stay on top of is my closet. I only have a set amount of hangers so if I buy something new, then something must go. Now, you need to go drink some coffee (lots of coffee) in your 1 coffee mug and tackle that basement!!
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA what makes you think we kept only two coffee mugs??? I bet we kept 12!! LOL! Hey but that is a BIG improvement. And that way we can both have coffee 6 days in a row before we run the dishwasher. ;)
DeleteI am so bad, I don't know where all my hangers go. I buy new hangers all the time. I know you guys are so good at keeping things uncluttered. Our house is not cluttered in the least, it's just all the "stuff" is put in cupboards, drawers, etc. So our house usually is neat and tidy BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT the parts of the house you can't see (BASEMENT STORAGE ROOM!) is in direct opposition to that!
We kept more than 2 as well, but really only use 2. The coffee mug I have is GINORMOUS because I add a cup of almond milk to it and I don't want all milk so obviously also need a lot of coffee (adding a cup of milk and drinking decaf is how I justify drinking so much darn coffee!! I feel like it's healthy).
Deletelol well there are way more unhealthy things than drinking a lot of coffee!
DeleteI love when everything is clean and organized but I HATE cleaning and organizing. Is it really bad that Adam and I splurge on having a cleaning person come to our place? We are lazy, lazy people when it comes to this type of thing! Also I am super allergic to dust and my doctor says I shouldn't clean because it just aggravates my allergies! :) :) :) Adam does sweep the floors in the kitchen when he's talking on the phone, which is kind of cute!
ReplyDeleteIf you held a blog meeting up your house I bet you would get 30+ people to show up, and I bet we all love coffee!
It is not bad at all that you splurge on a cleaning woman! That is not in my budget, but you better believe as soon as our house is paid for that is something we are going to do!! I keep counting down the years until I don't have a mortgage payment and dream about all the vaycays we can take, salmon we can eat, and cleaning persons I can hire. :)
DeleteOh my gosh I wish I could have a blog meeting at my house!!!!!! I would go out and buy coffee mugs for all of you to take home as a souvenir!
K--Rick and I have a cleaning lady, too! Even though it didn't take us long to clean our house each week because we really are not messy, we hated it. Having Jenny come every other week has been awesome. Rick didn't think I would not clean but I just told myself that if I kept cleaning it would be a waste of money. And just like that, I stopped and let her do it all (obviously we pick up our crap and I do clean my kitchen because I cook and bake all the time!). I see it as our Christmas gift to ourselves each year and I will never go back (if I can help it).
DeleteThat is a great Christmas gift to yourself!
DeleteI love that you think of it as a Christmas gift!
DeleteEvery single time I am always SUPER impressed at how clean our cleaning lady is able to get the apartment. I mean, week after week I literally look around and am in awe. I could never do what she does!
Cecil likes her a lot. Adam says he follows her around from the moment she comes in. Prob thinks he can con her into giving him a treat!
I like getting rid of stuff. It makes me feel good to know that I just made more space. However, I'm not really much of an organizer. Since I move so often, I only have as much stuff as I can fit in my Kia Soul, so I don't own much at all. I can only be so messy when I don't own much stuff.
ReplyDeleteI am sure not owning a lot helps! Now you would think between Paul and I and having no kids, that we wouldn't have a whole lot to store in the basement. Wrong. I don't know how we have so much but we do. Okay, I guess it's mostly my fault. I have A LOT of Christmas decorations. I use them all, so they give me a lot of joy, so I won't get rid of them. I also have a lot of books and CDs from growing up that I have a hard time parting with because they give me warm feelings of my childhood and teenage years. I think it's decision time though. Do I NEED 50 Fear Street books and 100 Baby-sitters club books???
DeleteI Love spring Cleaning!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'll trade you a headband for a purse....lol
I'm not a purse person but I have come to realize that the one I carry desperately needs to be replaced!
LOL I like your headband/purse swap idea!
DeleteI think I'm a bit of a hoarder, I keep everything "just in case" we need it down the road. I basically need to purge everything and I'm sure we would have a lot more space lol
ReplyDeleteI worry about that too but I think I have changed my mindset!
DeleteI laughed at loud about the 30 coffee mugs. Same here. It would be so weird to have thirty people milling about in our kitchen drinking coffee!!!
ReplyDeleteYah and then they'd all blow up the bathroom!
DeleteUgh, you're making me feel guilty for my pack rat status! I really need to clear things out this summer and set up our office, etc. We've been in the new house almost two years and I still have boxes to unpack!
ReplyDeleteAli!! Get those boxes unpacked!!! Do I need to come down and run another race and help you unpack??? ;)
DeleteI know it does feel good to get rid of things, but I still have a hard time parting with things I might want/need some day.
ReplyDeleteI definitely understand that. It was hard for me at first.
DeleteI love the feeling of doing a big clean/de-cluttering! It definitely makes me feel more in control and know what I need and don't need. I always feel so much better when everything is organized!
ReplyDeleteOH yah it's a great feeling! Just looking at the picture of my basement makes me feel out of control!
DeleteJust out of curiosity... did you just read Marie Kondo's book? I took out a tons of things after reading her book.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the cleaning, You have inspired me to go back to finishing cleaning the dinning room.
You know what, I bought her book but never read it!!!!! Should I throw it out??? ;)
DeleteI love cleaning things out! Today I drove over to the donation bin and jammed a giant garbage bag of clothes and shoes in it. A lot of which were race shirts!!!
ReplyDeleteWell you race a lot so I am sure you have a lot to spare. :)
DeleteIf I worked all summer there would be no way I would make the time to clean!
ReplyDelete