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Today, I threw up my hands, yelled out my frustrations and then finally decluttered a bunch of junk from my laundry/storage room.  

Let me explain a bit.

I live in a ranch style house.  I love it dearly, especially since I don't have to worry about stairs for the urchins.  Especially nice is our laundry room.  Growing up we had a hole-in-the-wall laundry room that you could hardly open the doors of the machines in.  My laundry room now is huge, we use it as a storage room as well.  Currently we have the washer and dryer, a stand-up freezer, a big shelf on the wall with a 6' table underneath and three metal shelves from Ikea.  There's also my fabric bins hanging out in there.  

There is some level of organization in this room. The shelves are really organized and I actually didn't need to declutter them.  The bigger problem was under the table and the big shelf on the wall.  Under the table was just a bunch of junk, the shelves had a lot of bakeware and such on it.

So I had Chris grab me a big box and I just started pulling stuff off the shelf.  The problem with bridal showers is that you register for EVERYTHING and then you get EVERYTHING and then four years later you go "Huh.  Guess I didn't need a springform pan after all".  Because I am all about recycling and reusing, I'm gifting all these wonderful items to my brother who is getting married this year.  He's about to buy a house, so all my junk can go over there.  You're welcome brother.  ;)

Seriously though, it is SUCH a weight to get all that stuff out of there.  Most of it was stuff I used once a year at most.  Some of it had never been used, or maybe once in the last four years.  

Try it soon!  Get a big box, pick a room where you know there's a concentration of clutter and clean it out!  Storage room, laundry room, garage, linen closet or a bedroom closet are all great places to start.

Happy cleaning!

Announcing: a Spring Cleaning Series

I'm so excited to announce a series I'll be starting now, Spring Cleaning for the Lazy/Busy/Procrastinating Mom.  I'll be sharing some tips and tricks that I've learned that help me get my house clean!  And I'll be cleaning right along with you!  Let's get started!

First step for you to do today: gather your supplies.  My list:

• Unpaper towels/dish cloths/paper towels- make sure you have some clean rags or a full roll of paper towel
• Cleaner of choice.  I use a solution of half vinegar, half water.  But just make sure you have some of your favorite!  
• Broom and dustpan.  I know someone who's broom recently broke in half.  If you have needed to replace yours for whatever reason, do it now!
• Mop and bucket.  Make sure your mop head is good to go, replace it if you need to do so!
• A good attitude!  

Next, get ready to get to work!  Prepare yourself by one simple task: washing, drying and putting away ALL your dishes.  If you have a build up, take the time to get through it earlier in the day or before dinner.  That way after dinner you just have the dinner dishes to do.  By the time you go to bed tonight, try and have everything put away.  This means that tomorrow, when you get really started you will have one task done.  

It's also important to keep up on the dishes throughout spring cleaning!  So make a pact with yourself that you will take 5 minutes after every meal to handle any dishes from that meal, and that you'll take 10 minutes before bed to finish things up.  25 minutes out of your day and I can promise you that you'll have a clean sink at the end of the day!  Set the timer when it comes time to do your dishes and you'll be surprised at how much you can get done when you focus.  Anyone can focus for 5 minutes!

Bonus task: laundry.  Get as much laundry washed, dryed, folded and put away as you can today!  If you have a backlog, at least try to get everything that's already clean folded and put away.  During this process, we're only going to do one load at a time from start to finish to help make sure we don't have any piles of clean clothes cluttering things up!

Happy Cleaning!

Happy Spring!

Happy First Day of Spring!  I've been spending my days outside with the kids.  They play in the backyard and I sit in my Adirondack chair and read L.M. Montgomery novels on my kindle.  It's pretty idyllic.

As the weather has been ridiculously warm (over 80 today!) I've really been in a spring cleaning mood.  This has been very good for the children's new playroom.  It's also been good for the state of my home in general!

One thing I've noticed though, is how much I use my unpaper towels in a day.  I easily go through 3, 4 or even 5, and currently I use them only in the kitchen and for wiping up random spills in the house.  I don't currently use them in the bathroom or for mirrors (although I'm planning on starting to do so when I get around to cleaning those, lol).  A deep clean of my kitchen used 2 unpaper towels.

But how many paper ones would I have used?  10, 20?  How many rolls would I go through during spring cleaning?  2, 3, 4?  More?

Here's my challenge for you.  Pick one room in your house, the kitchen, the dining room, the living room or the bathroom, that you will only use cloth in.  Maybe you can only commit to using a cloth dusting rag instead of paper towel with pledge.  Maybe you're ready to cut paper towels in the kitchen.  And maybe you're ready to get over your fear of the germs lurking on your rag after you clean the bathroom.  Whatever it is, for spring cleaning, use cloth!

To help you out, I'm giving you two things!  For the next week (until 3/27) unpaper towels are 10% off, and there's a coupon code for free shipping on anything in the shop (Code: SPRING2012)!  Happy Cleaning!