The Great Spring Clean of 2018: Part 1

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Ah the Great Spring Clean of 2018.

At least the calendar tells me it’s spring. We had freezing temperatures this morning.

And to think that I was wearing shorts and a tank top a couple days ago.

*shakes fist at mother nature*

Pretty soon I’ll be wishing it was cooler.

In the meantime, I could do with it being just a tad warmer.

I started spring cleaning, which I skipped last year when I had a newborn, a couple weeks ago. I wouldn’t call it “great” like I enjoyed doing it. I enjoy the end product for sure, but not all the dust.

I definitely don’t enjoy any surprise gross things that I find in my kids rooms…ewww

We’ve been way behind getting organized in this house. I was more focused on being pregnant and having a baby to be bothered with it, but it’s wayyyyy overdue.

I started with just donating and throwing away everything that I can.

We really need to downsize.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately on what are things we need.

I do not recommend trying to do everything in one day. It can be discouraging when faced with a huge task like this. Chip away at it. You can eat an elephant, but you have to do it one bite at a time.

I’ve probably donate at least two van fulls of stuff and recycled or thrown away another three. My kids have been keeping loads of cardboard for various projects and it was time to reduce their stashes.

I went through all of our clothes and even downsized my fabric stash. I have a terrible habit of buying remnants that happen to be soft or pretty and never using them. I also got rid of an entire garbage bag of yarn.

I don’t know how we haven’t ended up on one of those hoarding shows…I’m ashamed we had sooo much stuff.

I’m lucky that we have a recycle center across the street that takes most everything. It’s included in my property taxes and barely 5 minutes drive from the house.

Check out The Great Spring Clean 2018: Part 2 to see what I’m doing to start organizing now that I’ve downsized some things.

What do you find yourself keeping too much of? What changes have you made to downsize in 2018?