Spring Cleaning: Hide ya kids, hide ya wives, cause they cleaning evrythang up in here

I realize the title reference is “old news”, but it still makes me giggle.

Anyways, I very clearly have things I want to change in my life.  Following my own advice, I have decided to take it one step at a time.  Otherwise, making the changes would be extremely daunting and very little would get done.  Read: the past 5-7 years of my existence.  Yikes.

First thing on my list: CLEAN.  I’m not talking about your typical “oh, let’s organize that messy pile into a neater pile” cleaning, or the “it’s spring, maybe I should dust” cleaning.  I’m talking about full on, “go through everything you own and throw 1/3 of it away because you didn’t even know you owned it” cleaning.

I am a firm believer that a cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind, and I have enough going on in my mind as it is.  Hence, major habitat cleaning.

Since I’m living at my dad’s, the only spaces I really have to worry about/gain control over are my bedroom, closet and bathroom.  That’s right, I have my own bathroom.  Boo yah.  Makes the living at home thing about 16 times easier.

Let’s start with closet/dresser organization.  I’ve grouped them together because I want to go through all of my clothing at the same time.  Here’s what I did:

·       I started with one “type” of clothing ~ e.g. t-shirts ~ and went through each item within that category, throwing out anything that was stained, ripped, obviously didn’t fit (before even trying it on) or that I was positive I would never wear again.
·       I continued to clean out each category of clothing this way, one at a time.  This included shoes, off-season clothing and jackets.  Scarves, hats and gloves also got the once-over.
·       After I removed the items I knew I wouldn’t miss (to later be turned into rags, donated or simply thrown out, depending) I went back through everything one category at a time.  This time through, I tried on literally every single item I owned to see how it fit.  That’s right ~ underwear, bras and socks included, plus bathing suits before official bathing suit season.  This may sound like I’m overdoing it, but I owned some things that just didn’t fit.  If underwear fits awkwardly I’m not going to wear it and it’s just taking up space in my drawers (no pun intended).  Same with socks that are too big and slouchy, itchy sweaters, shorts that I can take off without unbuttoning them (true story) and things that I just don’t like anymore.  All good items went into a donation bag and were whisked away to be, well, donated.

All remaining articles of clothing are pieces that I like, that fit well, that match things in my closet (meaning they can be made into outfits) and that I know I will wear.  It’s awesome.  I don’t have to dig through things that I don’t wear to get to the shirts/pants/booty shorts I enjoy wearing.  Wait, what? That’s a lie, I don’t wear booty shorts.

It also helped me to see just how much clothing I had that I didn’t need.  I wear old t-shirts to bed, and I had started accumulating pajama tops like there was no tomorrow.  I try to do laundry once every week or two, and I tend to wear the same PJs at least two nights in a row.  I don’t know if this is normal or gross, but that’s just how I roll.  Therefore, I don’t need 14 old t-shirts just to wear to bed.  It’s science.  I tossed the extras.

Keep this in mind when going through your wardrobe.  Even if they all fit, do you really need 7 white tees?  If you do, great.  If you tend to only wear one or two before doing laundry, the rest are just taking up space.

Remember: digging through clutter, searching for things, and holding on to items for no reason just adds unnecessary stress to your life.  Take the time to really decide what you need and what you can get rid of.

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