Springing into Spring!! Day 1 of Spring Cleaning Party ...

Oh yeah! Decluttering ... I love this task. And we have lots of clutter to de... With only three of us one would imagine that it is pretty easy to keep things tidy and clean. Ummm, no ... must be our personality types that work against us. :) Scott is a pack rat ... he keeps everything. Casiday is a hoarder ... she keeps everything. I am a perfectionist ... I let it all pile up until it's overwhelming and then kill myself to get it all put back in order. None of these personality types are useful in daily household tidying.

Today's specific task was to clear off areas and put things in their proper place or into a give/sell or trash box. We just had a huge yard sale at our church this past weekend so everything to be sold or given is already gone - one major part of this task is already complete! Yea me!! But, we seem to have a paper bunny in our house that multiplies every piece of paper exponentially. So, I'm sure the trash bags will be plentiful.

I took my before pictures in every room but Casiday's ... it's just too much! That will have to be a project unto itself. I think she's going to spend the next 10 days having her own spring cleaning party in there. If I get up the courage to let the whole blogosphere (or the three people who read my blog anyway) see how incredibly messy her room is most of the time, I will take pictures and post them. But, to be honest, that is highly unlikely!!

Right now, the main "clutter" in my house is the laundry. We were gone all weekend and so it has really piled up. So, as I declutter today, I'm going to try to tackle the laundry too. Would be nice to have that task accomplished by time to pick up the girl at 2:30 this afternoon ... we'll see.

So, here are the before pictures ...


Okay ... so I managed to get it all done within the two-hour time frame ... at least the decluttering part. LOL Laundry is the project for the remainder of the day but that is a normal Monday task.

Here are the after pictures ...


As for the question asked on Simple Mom about today's task ... well, I think I am more sentimentally attached to some things than I realized. But I am getting better about letting things go. I even put cookbooks (gasp!) in the yard sale pile last week when we were cleaning out stuff. I am very good at getting rid of Scott's and Casiday's stuff, does that count? LOL

So, I enjoyed Day 1 of the party! I had to focus on doing the task at hand and not get distracted by the other things I "should go ahead and do while I'm here" ... so I didn't dust the areas I decluttered ... because I know that I'll be CLEANING those rooms soon. But it is nice to walk through the house and it's all neat and tidy (except Casiday's room but I just closed the door!! Is that cheating?). I am looking forward to hearing everyone else's stories and seeing pictures - I think that is my favorite part of this ... finding out that everyone has the same battle with "stuff" and "piles" that I have. Makes me feel much less like a failure and much more "normal."

Party on everyone!!

Okay ... so Beth challenged me to put up the pics of Casiday's room ... I guess before pictures will make the after pictures even more impressive. I confess that I am utterly ashamed that any room in my house looks like this but even more embarrassed at the sheer quantity of STUFF my child has. Please don't judge me!! :) Keep in mind that she "cleaned" her room on Friday ... and did a pretty good job so this is the work of two days most of which we were not at home. I would like to think this is a phase she will outgrow but I am not betting on it. As I said before, she is a hoarder so I think clutter and mess are going to be in her life for the long haul. :) (But only in my house for another 10 years or so!! LOL) She's a wonderful, funny, beautiful little person and I adore my daughter ... but this makes me crazy! Can I get a witness? LOL Well, enough stalling, I'm adding the pictures and removing all question of my supposed perfection as a housekeeper. Enjoy!!