Last Day to Enter Giveaway, Spring Cleaning, & More

Before I start my post on spring cleaning, I would like to share some information with you.

Today is the last day to enter my blog giveaway. You have a chance to win a pair of vintage earrings and a surprise gift. For more information, click here.

Today is also the last day of my sale in my shop. All items are currently discounted, even the ArtFire Stimulus Package Items, which were already discounted prior to the sale. If you would like to check out the sale, please click here.

The ArtFire Easter Egg Hunt starts tomorrow. 50 participating shops have hidden Easter eggs somewhere in their shops. Each egg has a letter on it. Find all the eggs and unscramble the message. The first 3 to send in their entries win gift certificates to be spent in the participating shops. For more information, click here.

Spring cleaning - I hate it and I love it. Let me start by saying, I hoard things. I have craft items for various crafts and dishes I rarely use, but I love them. My husband, on the other hand, was brought up in a military family. He hates clutter and he considers anything that isn't used on a regular basis to be clutter. This has posed an interesting challenge for me, trying to find a happy medium between the bare necessities and the things I love. I have found spring cleaning to be very helpful in reaching this medium that allows me to continue to have a happy marriage.

Since it is time for spring cleaning again, I thought I would share of the guidelines I use. These may be basic and you may know them already, but hopefully someone can take something useful from them.

1) If you haven't used it in a year and aren't attached to it, get rid of it. It sounds simple, but a lot of people don't follow this guideline. I used to keep things I really didn't need and would run across them during the next year's cleaning & decluttering expedition. I finally decided that if it doesn't have sentimental value & I'm not using it, I can get rid of it.

2) Go through everything. Every drawer, cabinet, and closet should be checked. I used to just clean house and go through the areas I used often. When I started going through every drawer, I found I was able to get rid of a lot of things that would have stayed had I not changed my tactics.

3)If you are going to donate or sell the items you are getting rid of, don't procrastinate. This was one of the most difficult things to do for me. I would get everything ready to go and then wouldn't find time to take the items to Goodwill or Hospice or the Humane Society or wherever they were going. Three weeks later I would still have the items waiting to go. If you find you have trouble delivering the items, try calling to see if the charity has pickup. If you have to deliver them yourself, like I do, try setting an appointment on your calendar, even when no appointment is required by the charity. Treat it just like a doctor's appointment and don't miss it.

4) When you start to clean, work from the top down. When you dust the top of cabinets and bookshelves, that dust moves toward the floor. If you have already dusted the front of the bookshelf before dusting the top, you will have to do it again once the dust settles.

5) Do the chores you hate the most first and do them in the morning when you're fresh. That way things get easier as the day goes on and you'll be less likely to want to quit early.

Spring cleaning can be a pain, but it really feels good to know you have done a thorough job. The extra space from all the items that have gone away is nice, too.