One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Spring is on its way! Come March I always abolish all traces of winter from my preschool classroom. I love winter, but by this time of year I am so sick of it! Spring will be here in the next couple of weeks (even though it will be another month before it will feel like spring), so it is time to start thinking about spring cleaning!  


So anyone who knows me, or has been to my house or my classroom knows that I tend to accumulate clutter. And I also tend to need to have all my stuff out where I can see it. Why? I don't know, maybe because I am becoming a bit forgetful and I can't find it when it is put away. Maybe because I am a spur-of-the-moment kinda gal and I need to have my stuff at my fingertips. Maybe because some of my stuff just doesn't really have a place. But it all boils down to... I have too much stuff.


I come from a long line of clutter collectors. My dad, a farmer, saves and collects random pieces of treasure. We cleaned out an out building (it was once a detached garage, but that was before I was born) a couple of years ago and he finally had to leave because he could not part with the stuff that we were tossing. His mother was one of those depression-era collectors of treasures. Her persona had developed during the depression and when she moved into senior housing and we had to pare down her possessions we found a whole cabinet of cool whip containers and the like. She had a gigantic chest freezer and there were cherries from 1972. My mom's mom has every greeting card she has ever received tucked away somewhere. (Mom I know you are reading this, don't freak out--I don't have that many followers and no one will look at us any differently.) And I married a guy whose bedroom when I met him had a path through the clutter from the door to his bed to his closet. His cousin and brother cleaned his room for him and he complained that they threw away bits of speaker wire and, "You never know when you will need just a little bit of speaker wire."


I am in a profession where we tend to accumulate things in the hope to use them someday. That is not a bad thing, but I really need to figure out a system so that I can keep things without the risk of losing the treasures in the closetful of stuff.


So after that meandering train of thought... I found a blog that will help me to focus this month to make some changes. (I also love FlyLady and I may have a post up my sleeve about her someday when I am back on the FlyLady wagon.)

Clean Mama is holding a 'clean sweep' during the month of March, complete with low-key weekly suggestions to help to deep clean and declutter. Love the low key suggestions, because I have learned from FlyLady that I need to take baby steps to be successful.  

I am a bit late to the party so I am pushing her first week's challenge back a couple of days to this weekend. (Luckily I have already got a bit of a start on this, because I've got a lot to do.) This week we are decluttering our clothing. I will keep slogging through all the clothes in this house and separate it out into four categories:

keep and put away in dressers or closets

pack away into totes Colby's clothes that he's outgrown that are good enough for Brody to wear in a couple of years

give away Brody's decent clothes to Drayson and any other clothes to the thrift store

and throw away those items that need to go.

I'm also supposed to start a cleaning routine. Hmmm that will certainly have to be a baby step since there is a lot that needs to be done, but I know I will get sidetracked if I try to do too much.

Who wants to join me? I know I have others that read here that have mentioned the need for this. (ahem, there's two of you specifically, but I don't want to call you out) I'm challenging you to join me and we'll blog about it a bit to support each other.