Spring cleaning: Tips to help you get organized

Today is the first day of spring and we’re featuring a product called the Fridge File to help you kick start your spring cleaning and organizing efforts.  And we’re excited to feature Schmutzie as our guest blogger who is sharing some of her favorite tips to reduce clutter and get organized.

Spring cleaning: Tips to help you get organized

by Schmutzie

I have always seen spring cleaning as the best time to downsize the things I tend to squirrel away in to closets, drawers, and cupboards throughout the year. Clutter hidden away is still clutter, and it weighs us down physically, psychologically, and emotionally, so Spring, the season of rebirth and renewal, is the perfect time to open up all your storage and start purging the excess.

I ask myself three questions that help me to decide whether to keep or give away each particular item:

1. Have I used this item within the last six months? If usefulness is rent, they’re taking up otherwise valuable real estate.

2. Do I have another item that also serves this item’s purpose? If so, choose the one best suited to its job and discard the other.

3. Does this item serve a practical purpose, and, if so, does it serve it well?

If an item serves no purpose, is not on display, and/or is irritating to use, it must go. Recently, I went through a single cupboard using the above three questions as guidelines, and I was shocked to discover that I had three set of mixing bowls in plastic, metal, and ceramic. In answer to my questions: 1) I had only used the equivalent of one set in the last six months, 2) one set alone would do to serve their purpose, and 3) the set that served its purpose best was the ceramic one. I gave the other two sets to friends who needed them and managed to free up two-thirds of the space in that cupboard within about five minutes.

The key, though, is to stop collecting mixing bowls, as well as half-bottles of lotion, fifteen years of shoes, and that collection of Allen wrenches in the desk drawer, but that’s a lesson I’m still learning.

Do you have any favorite get organized tips? Share in the comments!