Spring Cleaning Breakthrough

This week when I dove into spring cleaning, I realized that I'm a bi-polar decorator. Decorating, de-cluttering, cleaning, shopping for housewares - all of it - can make me feel utterly lost and discouraged one minute and then suddenly, madly inspired the next.

Like when I feel that a piece of furniture is bossing me around. Unwilling to move. Impossible to get rid of. Glaringly ugly and there's nothing I can do about it. But then a moment of clarity strikes, and it finds a perfect home in another room. In its new home, the once bossy piece of furniture solves yet another problem that I was struggling with just a moment before. And the space it once inhabited suddenly has the potential to be re imagined. This is one of the best feelings in the world.

Basically spring cleaning this year was about cleaning out one space so that I could re-arrange and clean another. 

Breakthroughs: 

1) I got rid of half of my wardrobe, tossing painful shoes, skirts I can't zip up, clothes I haven't worn in a year, that dress I told myself I would wear for halloween. I didn't intend to get rid of half my wardrobe, I just kept coming back to my closet and editing out more and more stuff.

2) Replaced all bulky/broken hangers with those streamlined felt ones.  You can get them at winners or home sense and they are often on sale. Clothes don't slip off of them and they take up less space in the closet.

3) Forced myself to stop hanging on to things I hate just because they were expensive. Not only do I not use them, they make me feel guilty AND take up valuable real estate in my space for things I do like.

4) Moved the bulky daybed that was standing in my doorway for almost a month into the storage unit in the backyard.

5) But first, I de-cluttered the storage unit in the back to make space for the daybed.

6) Made a plan to apply a new coat of paint to any and all objects that don't fit in.

7) I broke down the ikea unit that was in the apartment when we moved in. We've hated it for 2 years but were afraid to get rid of it in case it was the landlords. Finally I made the executive decision to smash it to bits. YAY!

8) Removed the layer of dust that has settled on everything I own.

9) The most impactful thing I did was get rid of the cage thingy that my box spring and mattress rested on. Whats it called again? Well anyways, now the box spring and mattress are resting directly on the floor. The bed doesn't wheel around anymore and being low to the ground has made my room feel 10 times bigger.

10) Took the carpet out of my room and rearranged the living room to make space for it.

It feels like it will never be over and I will spend all spring cleaning. But I know that when it's done every area of my life will run more smoothly. Now I have to go take a hot bath, because my bones are aching from all this work!