Aside from being a traditional thing to do, come Spring I feel compelled to sort out and throw out. There is something about the efficiency of nature – new leaves, new blossoms, on time and fresh, that wants me to replicate that in my home.
Here are my top 6 tips for strategic Spring Sorting this year. For me, it’s not the cleaning so much as the sorting that needs attention!
1. Start with your wardrobe: if you haven’t worn it for a season, box it. And look at last year’s box: if it doesn’t appeal anymore, throw it out. There is someone you know that is sure to get benefit from it.
2. Vacuum it: out-of-season clothes can take up a lot of space, especially those bulky winter jackets. If you put it in a heavy duty black bag (with some lavender and rosemary of course!) and use a vacuum cleaner to suck out all the air and secure it with some duct tape, you end up with a much smaller, more manageable stack of stow-aways. Put them in tote bins or under your bed till the cooler weather is back.
3. Sort the linen: we all have linen that we don’t use anymore. If you can’t upcycle the fabric then toss it. There are people who can put it to much better use than your linen cupboard. Same goes for tablecloths – really, they go out of fashion as well!
4. Pretty Pantry: I am always astounded at the amount of things I don’t know I have in the pantry cupboard. Flours that have gone off, tins that are way past their best-before-date, hidden sweets have gone all sticky and gooey…
5. TOYS: I am convinced that my kids have more STUFF than my husband and I put together. Every birthday party provides a souvenir, every trip to Granny’s produces a new treasure. And so the mountain of stuff builds and builds until mommy has a freak-out and starts to toss. Throw out anything that’s broken or missing an arm or a leg, and donate the things that have been outgrown.
6. Book Shelves: I don’t quite understand how, but things tend to accumulate on bookshelves like no other place in our home. It will start out almost empty, with only a few carefully styled and curated items on it and a couple of months later anything from random photographs to drinking straws can be found on it. And all those books that you have already read, that have no significant literary value or that you didn’t care for to begin with will surely find a better home at the second-hand book store. The same goes for old magazines: unless you find regular inspiration in them, toss them.
7. THAT corner: we all have it – the drawer in the kitchen or the cupboard under the stairs where things get stored for years on end. Do you even know why you have all the stuff that’s in there anymore? If you haven’t used something in 3 years, chances are you won’t in the next 3.
Be bold, be brave and sort things out 1 area at a time. Before you know it, it’ll be over and your home will have more space and freshness than you know what to do with!
Happy Sorting!
