The Start of Spring Cleaning

It's that time of year again. The time when I can't stand to look at my dirty cabinets one more day. The time when I hear about other women who have figured out the perfect organization plan for their homes. Something that seems to elude me year after year! It's time to purge purge purge. I hate clutter but almost all of my family members love to surround themselves with "things". They feel cozy and comforted by it. Me, not at all. I find my skin crawling and feel like I can't function. I can't think and I feel disorganized. I've tried to compromize over the years. I let my daughter have her room the way she wants as long as it's not dirty, ya know, no food, drinks or trash. My hubby has his garage, even though I had to help him clean it out to fit his project car in it last fall. I have claimed the rest of the house, or tried too. Right now it doesn't look decluttered or even organized. I can't stand it, soooo, that means it's time. Time for me to reclaim my house. Time for me to put my foot down and say "No More".

I started last Friday and we got all of the food cabinets cleaned and put everything out on the counters. That was it for the whole weekend. Wasn't too bad, because we got to eat out since I couldn't even find my stove. Then I got to go ShoPPing! Not something I normally enjoy but I put it in my head to just have fun and be open to new organization ideas. My hubby joined in by buying a new cutlery set. On the first day I bought a new media storage tower, plastic storage trays for my spices, and a rack to hold my skillets. On the second day of shopping we went to Bed Bath & Beyond. Love It!!! I wanted to buy everything so instead I just bought a spoon tray and a small spatula. I don't know why I do it but when I see alot of things I want normally I can't buy anything. I have a bad habit of putting items back on the shelf before check-out after I've already had them in my cart for an hour. It drives my mother crazy. It's not that I don't have the money for them, it just feels like I'm being selfish or overspending if I have too much in my cart. My hubby doesn't have this problem at all. At BB&B he bought a $15 dollar plastic 16oz cup. It had a "Panthers" emblem on it (he collects anything with Panthers on it) making it worth it to him. I didn't mind and encouraged him to purchase it. He doesn't often get a treat with 4 kiddo's that come first.

So, where am I at now in my spring cleaning?

Well, the short answer is that the counters are almost cleaned off and most of the cabinets are organized.

The long answer is that above the stove, the inside of the fridge (oh, what horrors await me there), above the fridge and under the sink are all waiting to be cleaned and organize. My kiddo's are already tired of helping and are hiding somewhere in there rooms, trying to come up with a good excuse as to why they can't help tomorrow. We also still have the floors and outside of the cabinets that need washed too, and that's just the kitchen.

Cyrena must have my organizing genes. I found her in my bedroom putting my hubby's CD collection into some empty CD containers. I've had the containers for a couple months now but never got around to putting the CD's in them. She somehow figured out what they were for, even though they weren't sitting close to each other. Such a smart baby (22 months).

Here's some pics so you can see just how bad my kitchen looks!


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