Spring Cleaning / De-Clutter One Drawer at a Time

In March I did a series on Contentment.  My thought for the day for April will come from  a display I keep on my kitchen windowsill.  Here is today's:

Spring Cleaning...for some that phrase strikes terror and anxiety; for others, it's like a new lease on life to start cleaning out, throwing away, and starting fresh.  Far beyond putting away Christmas decorations and the tree, it's a deeper, more thorough aspect of getting your home and office tidier.  For me, I look at some decluttered spaces and it's like I can breathe more easily.  Desktops and wood appear where before, there was just stuff.   

I usually begin with the two desks I use most often. The tall one is in our bedroom; the shorter one (rolltop) is in our dining room.   I should have taken BEFORE photos of these because you could barely see the wood in both of these.

Then I moved over to my Ebay shipping center which is in a corner of the dining room hidden behind this screen.  Before I started, you could see a lot of stuff sticking up above the screen.  

Now it really is hidden and all the supplies are neatly organized in this red sectioned box which I got for free at Sam's Club.

My cardinal rule:  ALWAYS make the bed when you first get out of it. This is our spring/summer bedspread.  We have another for the fall and winter.  A cheerful bedspread makes a big difference in your bedroom.  I love the red in this one.  [On clearance at Bed, Bath & Beyond last year, plus I had a 20% coupon!]

Yesterday I started on my dresser. This one drawer full of nightclothes was organized while talking on the telephone for about 10 minutes.  Big projects are best done piecemeal. First, I emptied the drawer onto my bed.  This is pretty much how it all looked in the drawer.  :(

Then I spread everything out on the bed and sorted it all in "outfits" or by color.    If you try to do this while it's still in the drawer, it's a mess and you really do a thorough job.   This way you can easily see what you have, what you might need and what you want to discard, donate, throw away or put elsewhere.  There were two tank tops in there that I wear only in the winter, so they were put in the winter clothing drawer.  Everything was in great shape, clean, with no repairs needed.  I had about six completely different sleep outfits and most things can be mixed and matched with each other.   

Then everything was put back into the drawer where it belongs.

One step at a time, little by little, the house will be done.  I'll be working on this project throughout April.  Have a great day.