Spring (Semester) Cleaning!

It's that time again! School starts in a week, and my house is just barely recovering from the holidays. Today I'm finally putting away all the ornaments, decorations and the like in red and green bins to be stashed in the garage until next year. This is the first year I've purchased holiday-specific bins, and for 4 dollars, I have a feeling they'll be worth their weight in gold. I also managed to shape up my office, which was getting a bit bedraggled under the weight of a bunch of excess paperwork that wasn't properly stored.

The serenity that is my office.

I'm also doing a few other things in the coming weeks to make my life this semester easier:

1. Taking out any and all clothes that don't fit or are stained beyond saving and donating/trashing/cutting into cleaning rags anything that I don't plan on using in the near future. (CHECK)

2. Straightening all drawers in my house, and organizing their contents.
     Bedroom drawers: I use old shoe boxes to house socks, underwear, bras and hosiery separately.
     Kitchen drawers: I bought a collection of adjustable drawer organizers at a local superstore for ten dollars.
    
3. Dumping out all the toys in a giant pile, and doing my quad-annual sort/toss. Most of the toys are going to the kids' preschool, (they asked for donations - perfect) and FOUR BAGS LATER, there is plenty of room for everything to have a place again. (CHECK)

4. Cleaning out behind, under and inside the couches. This took me a good half hour to do for my love seat and chairs. I found game pieces, a pair of underwear one of the boys stuffed under there when they had an accident, countless matchbox cars, a stash of cookies, a flashlight, twelve dollars and a couple melted popsicles. Yikes! (CHECK)

5. Repairing any minor broken items and getting necessary replacements from the local Habitat Re-Store. They have tons of stuff for a tiny fraction of the big box home store.

6. Planning out my garden and ordering seeds for spring, so I am ready when the weather turns.

7. Clearing out any old craft supplies I no longer use from my office, so I can outfit it to grow some seedlings.

8. Taking out any old novels and magazines I don't plan on reading right away to donate or sell. (CHECK)

9. Taking the spring/summer clothes from last year that the boys have outgrown and trade it in at my local consignment store.

10. Getting my carpets professionally cleaned with some left over Christmas money.


Wshew! This will be a lot of work, but I'm checking things off the list every day. What do you have laying around the house that is cluttering up your life and makes it hard to relax? Is your bedroom a haven or a stress-magnet? What things could you do in the next couple weeks to make your life easier?