Spring cleaning in the fall

I finished the book "It's All Too Much" last night. I feel like I have learned so much and it has completely motivated me, given me hope, and empowered me to make changes. For years I have wanted the skills for decluttering, but I never knew where to start or how to do it. I have made many failed attempts to organize and get rid of things, but I feel confident that THIS IS THE TIME! I have been working on the house since the beginning of September and already I can see the gains I have made. My main goal when I started all of this was for Natalie to be able to have her 1st birthday party AT OUR HOUSE. I have 7 more weeks until her party and if I keep going at this rate I know I can have the house ready in time. I had an unexpected day off of work with a sick little girl today so I took advantage of organizing and declutting while she napped. I primarily worked in the kitchen today. Here is an example of what I got done:

Food Cupboard BEFORE



Food Cupboard AFTER



All of the food that was old and had to be thrown out


I went through each cupboard one by one in the kitchen (I didn't finish all of them yet, but got through over half of them today). I took everything out, wiped out the shelves and only put back the things that we currently use. If anything had not been used in over a year I put it aside. I now have about 5 boxes of "things" that need to be sorted into sell or donate. I fortunately have been throwing things along the way so I don't have to sort a throw pile also because that step is already taken care of! I feel incredibly accomplished and so happy with my progress.

Today every time I hesitated about getting rid of something I said to myself, "do you want a clean house or do you want these things?".  The answer was always, "I want a clean house". If I thought, "But what if I need this one day?" I then countered that with, "then I will buy it when I need it if that day ever comes - EXAMPLE - pie tins - I've never made a pie in my life and quite frankly I don't really ever aspire to ;) So...out they went!

Have you every gone room by room in your house clearing out all of the things you haven't used in a long time? Is it hard for you? Do you have the urge to hold on to things thinking that you one day may need it?