Spring is upon us…FINALLY!!! Who else didn’t think that winter was EVER going to end? (I have both hands raised!!) I for one, have been miserable this winter! I am just over cold weather completely. So, to say I’m excited about SPRING, is an understatement!

With the warmer weather we get to enjoy so many things that we’ve been missing for months, such as birds singing, flowers blooming, the colors green and blue… lol It’s the little things that bring such happiness back into our souls and brighten our spirits.

SPRINGTIME and SUNSHINE!!
Makes me so happy, I wet my plants!!

This is a popular time of year to do a deep cleaning in your home as well. That’s why they call it ‘spring cleaning’ I guess! I hate cleaning my house, but I do love the way it looks when it’s done. And there is something about cleaning in the spring when you can finally open your windows and let some fresh spring air in. Even when I don’t plan a ‘spring cleaning’ it usually just kind of happens on one of those beautiful days where the breeze is blowing in, the sun is shining, and the music is pumpin. This year, we have actually tentatively planned our attack, though. Micah and I are taking a few extra days off during the kids’ spring break and the entire family will be tackling this chore. I’m hoping to only spend one full day doing it. Between the five of us, should be no problem, right? (Although that’s on a list of many things we want to do… so I guess it will depend on our other distractions that week… lol)

WHY CAN’T WE JUST HIRE SOMEONE TO CLEAN
SO WE CAN HAVE MORE FUN!?!?!

Besides the deep cleaning inside the house, it’s also a good time to think about de-cluttering and minimizing your life as well. Spring weather, brings garage sale season too. No better time to start going through closets and getting rid of clothes that the kids (and adults ?) have outgrown or just no longer wear. (Good rule of thumb, if you haven’t worn it in two or more years, get rid of it! Or, a better way to judge is if it has dust on it…it’s time to go!)

I didn’t wait until spring to start this project. I purged my closet in January. Eliminated at least 1/3 of my clothes plus several pairs of shoes. After I did it, the whole family followed suit! I didn’t wait until spring for garage sale season either. I gave a lot of stuff away, some to friends and family, some were donated to charities or churches. What was left was grouped into sizes and sold on facebook. I am a member of several local ‘garage sale’ groups on there and it worked very well for me. It was nice to make a little extra money on the side and it is very satisfying to get rid of stuff you don’t need.

(HINT: If you aren’t familiar with facebook garage sales, just go onto facebook, click on the ‘f’ in the top left corner, you will see a large menu on the left side. Go down to ‘explore’ and click ‘groups’. Look for garage sale groups. It will show you groups in your area. You will have to request to join, but once you are approved you will be able to buy and sell from there. Feel free to join multiple groups in your area to maximize your exposure when you sell and buy.)

I’ll admit, I haven’t gone through my closet, or any part of the house, like that in a LONG time. Definitely not something I do every spring. (I used to be better at it with the kids’ closets when they were younger, but once theirs were done, I didn’t want to do any more! lol) However, this winter I was watching a lot of documentaries on minimalism and I am HOOKED!!! It was really eye opening to me, watching these, I realized how much ‘stuff’ we have around here that we do not use and do not need.

Just because we have a house with a basement, means we have the space to store extra stuff, does not mean that we should have extra stuff. We have things down there that have been stored away for the entire 14 years we’ve lived in this house! We have stuff from our childhood, our school days, our wedding…WHY!!?? It’s all stuff that gets looked at each time you move, and that’s about it. So I decided it was time to eliminate the stuff we don’t need!

We would like to move eventually anyway, so why not get a jump on it. When we move, we want a much smaller house than we have now anyway, so we this is a good way to start deciding what the most important things are, and letting other stuff go.

Once the closets were done, I moved on to the biggest beast of all…that basement!! Besides the large area that’s just extra stuff, my art studio is down there. It had become 1500 sq ft of madness over the past year or so, so I knew it was going to be a huge undertaking.

I started with the clothes that had just been removed from the 5 closets in the house. I separated them all into piles based on sizes, seasons, & gender. I also had a “DONATE” and “TRASH” box. I’d say at least half of the stuff went into one of those two boxes. I took pics of the rest, for facebook selling, then organized them into labeled boxes so they were put away but easy to find when sold.

Then we moved onto the stuff we had stored away in totes on shelves for 14 years. We had kept so much stuff from our wedding, like all the cards, our napkins, matchbooks, etc. Again…WHY? We even had fake flowers, and ribbons/bows off of presents in there! LOL After going through all of that and our stuff from our childhood, we were able to condense what was left into just two totes instead of 4+.

I started a Coca-Cola collection as a teenager. I love the stuff still, but I have not displayed it or actively collected since I met Micah in 1998. I don’t see myself every really displaying it again, or at least not all of the things I have. So I decided it’s time to let that go as well. I got it all out, set up a spot in the basement to display it temporarily and started posting on facebook. I’ve sold some things already… but my dad loves the stuff too and hates to see it go. I haven’t been pushing the sales too much yet, because I still consider boxing it all up and giving it to him. Maybe I’ll sell half and give him the rest. ??? Anyway… that’s still up in the air. But since I was torn on that subject, I moved on….

to the art studio!!! You see what a hot mess this section was in the photos here. It was to the point where I just had a small path to walk around my work table, and I was usually tripping over stuff! I had let it get way out of control!! Probably why I wasn’t going down there to create as much anymore. I felt like I was boxed in…in chaos!

I started out by organizing all of my completed paintings that are for sale. (I have hundreds!) Most of them are from classes I’ve taught. These paintings are different to me than my ‘artwork’. With these, my purpose was to teach others to paint. It’s not me, pouring my soul onto the canvas, it’s me teaching you how to hopefully be able to do that on your own someday. While I do love teaching others, I don’t feel that these are the same as when I just go create a piece just for the fun of it. Therefore, I refer to and price them differently. So, ‘paintings’ from classes were separated into different piles based on size and priced very low. The ‘artwork’ went onto the walls, until I ran out of space. Then I made more piles, but it is all on a different table now. (That’s just for my benefit) At this point, it was already starting to look much better

Then I moved on to my work area. I looked at stuff on shelves first. Pulled the items off that I no longer use and set them aside. Now I had room to put stuff that was on the floor on shelves, and again set stuff aside that I didn’t need or want. I threw away a lot of stuff, and I have a lot of stuff to get rid of. Slowly selling it on facebook, but I will probably have an actual garage sale soon as well. I was surprised at how quickly I got this place back into shape. I still have a few things to organize and some changes I’m going to make, but it’s SOOO MUCH BETTER already! Now I just need to get better lighting down there. It is so bad. I’ve been using a photographer light on an easel for lighting… it’s not the best, but it’s what I have to work with for now. (I’d love something fun n funky like this, from 1-800-Lighting…)

It does still look a bit messy, but that’s because there’s paint all over the floor. LOL And that table is full of WIPs (works in progress) They are all pieces that have acrylic paint and epoxy resin. It takes a lot of supplies for these, but it’s organized chaos. The kids and I have been making a lot of things with resin lately. I need to cut them off, because we have used a 1/2 gallon of resin in less than a month already! The stuff isn’t cheap. But it’s SO fun to use! (We will be making videos of us making resin, once we get our lighting upgraded. Stay tuned!!) If you’d like more info on resin, how it works, etc, click here. I buy mine on Amazon or Ebay.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrIipEKhqvD/

As you can see, I still have a lot of stuff I need to get rid of, but getting it all organized was the first step. I will be posting more about ‘THE purge” as I progress with it. In the meantime, think about your own home, and ask yourself if there are things you simply don’t need, or use anymore. What can you get rid of? I’m not saying you should get rid of anything that means something to you, but if it’s something that you don’t enjoy as much anymore, especially if it’s something that could bring you some money, honey! It is something to consider.

If it’s not being used, why not sell it
and let someone else enjoy it while
you free up space in your life and
add some money to your pocket (or vacation fund!)

Comment below if you need to purge or have recently purged any part of your home… or life. 🙂 Also, let me know if you’re interested in buy any of my art or art supplies. Making great deals!

If you need to purchase some comfy clothes to do all of your cleaning in,
or for that new exercise routine you’re going to start…
here is a coupon for active wear on Ebay. (Just remember, you’re purging, so for each new item you buy, retire something old to make room for it. 😉

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