Can you feel it? The length of daylight is changing, the temperatures too!
You might’ve moved house or started working from home permanently. Or maybe you’re thinking about your next-seasons clothes? Will your fav winter pants still fit? Have the kids grown out of their clothes? Of course they have, it’s their job!
Maybe you’re looking forward to the next season. Where’s that sports gear? Is it gross? Clean? Where the heck IS it?
If you’re feeling the need to refresh your home, run with it! You’ll be prepping for your happiness and just making the next season so much easier for yourself.
Here are a few things you might like to do, to get yourself organised:
Kids Clothes & Toys
Now is a really good time to check the sizes of your kids clothes. You’ve probably noticed that some of the clothes they’ve been putting on have been a bit too small. You’ve had to buy more, in their new size.
When they get dressed and something doesn’t fit, take it off and toss it in a bag for donating. Or toss it in the hallway, so it’s out of their room. Then bag it up, with the rest of your kind donations.
Now you know the size they won’t fit, for last season’s clothes. Pull them all out, check the labels (and the actual physical size) and start tossing anything that’s not going to fit. Grab an armful and do it while you’re watching tv.
If your kids are Keepers Of All The Things, you might want to do some Secret Mum Business. Ie: do it when they’re not around. The following article link is all about decluttering toys, a special subject that deserved its own post.
Your Clothes
Be bold, you deserve better. If you don’t like it, for any reason, out it goes. Be kind to yourself. Don’t punish yourself with clothes you’re never going to fit. Don’t make your life harder by keeping everything, just because of how much it cost to buy it.
I want you to have a vision: A vision of yourself, reaching into your drawers and wardrobe and easily finding exactly what you need. It’s so easy to pull it out. You know where it is, it’s easy to find, easy to get to and easy to put back.
It’s not stuffed so tight that everything comes out with the thing you want, and has to be shoved back in. You don’t have to scrabble around, or hunt from drawer to drawer to find the thing you know you have… somewhere.
Click the link below to find 3 articles which give you details on how to weed your wardrobe and organise it, even if you LOVE clothes.
The Kitchen
There will be random lids of plastic containers with no bottoms. You will no longer love those wine glasses that were a gift from your ex-mother-in-law. You will find that you have somehow accumulated more baking pans than you could ever use and some are really gross and sticky.
You might have gadgets that the kids loved when they were five. Have you used them in the last year or so? (Most gadgets do things that we and our mum’s have been doing with a pan and a bit of butter forever.) Let them go.
Make room for your life. Make it so your cupboards and drawers have the luxury of space. This way you don’t have to move the lettuce drainer, bread maker and your nana’s colander with the broken handle to get to the rice cooker.
Make your kitchen so easy to use, you could cook in the dark. Declutter like a Mother, organise like your time and energy matter.
The Garage
Poor old garage. It’s often the poor cousin of the house. It’s the dumping zone, the place we put things we don’t know what to do with. Wouldn’t it be brilliant if your garage not only fitted your parked car but was also a Really Useful Space?
Imagine the kids bikes in a rack, or hung on the wall.
Imagine a tidy and functional workshop space, where noise and mess is good!
Imagine all your useful things stored on sturdy spacious shelving.
Change how you think about your garage. It can be a truly useful, practical space, instead of being storage for things you don’t use (or can’t use because it’s too hard to get to.)
Cleaning
Spring cleaning can be done any time of the year! I like to do a little bit of extra deep cleaning before winter sets in.
It’s SO much easier to keep your home clean if you don’t have to keep tidying up first. Having a clutter-free, organised home means:
- Less mildew in wardrobes.
- Fewer funny smells that you can’t trace.
- It’s easier to dust (really important if anyone is a bit sneezy, asthmatic or has allergies.)
- It may be an illusion, but your house will look cleaner.
- Cleaning is faster and easier. That’s why cleaners often ask clients to clear the floors.
Basically it’s all about getting rid of stuff you don’t need, so you can really enjoy the next season and all its pleasures. Wouldn’t it be so nice if your daily life was easier? Getting out the door is smooth and simple. Getting ready to do something special isn’t a burden, because you’re so organised!
You’re the envy of your friends and family. “How do they do it!?” they’ll ask. You can be smug because you know the secret.
Decluttering!
Liz The Tidy Lady
Declutter & Life Coach
Tidyness Expert.
