Spring Cleaning

Last night as I was beginning to unpack, I had the hair brained idea to take the opportunity to shift my clothes from cold to warm. Truthfully, I would've been better off if I had left my summer clothes out all winter as we hardly had any cold weather, but I digress..... Admittedly I was thinking to myself I wonder if I'll ever have a closet big enough to just leave all my clothes up year round.  Then I thought, Africa is always hot so I'll only have one season of clothes anyhow.  Another thought followed, I'll probably be doing well to even have a closet.  And that fixed that little problem.

Am I the only one who has this problem?  I start cleaning and I make a bigger mess.  The concept of it must get worse before it gets better seems to aptly apply to my cleaning habits.  Because of that, and a busy one year old, I put it off until I can't possibly take it any longer and then the house seems to explode. 

The Start of the Explosion

Containers of my clothes, which haven't seen the light of day in years, came off the closet shelves and Kyle's 3-6 month clothes, which were still in his drawers waiting to be put away, were dumped on the floor.  I was out of containers and too cheap frugal to go buy more so I knew I'd have to go through mine before I could pack up his.  When I get in this mode, a rarity I assure you, I begin purging.  I am resigning to the fact that I'll never again wear the clothes I wore when I was 17.  And I'm weeding through my winter clothes with a life in Africa on my mind.  I converse with myself inwardly about any questionable items and so it goes....

Will this dress fit me even if I starve myself for three weeks? Nope.  This is a sweater made for igloo dwellers and I'm moving to Africa, it's going.... Wait, I still need some heavy clothes for if we're home in the winter on furlough; but would I really want to wear THAT sweater during my only chance to wear warm clothes? Probably not, it's really going.  Gone.  These jeans are a little snug still.... Plus, they don't wear jeans in Africa - out.  Do I really need a tank top in every color of the rainbow? No.  They're all going.  I don't need any colors.

Ready for Spring!

And thus, I was able to condense three buckets of old clothes into one and free up space to pack away Kyle's baby clothes for any little brothers he may have someday.  I also cleaned out the linen closet, coat closet, organized my closet, straightened the gift wrapping supplies and pitched a ton of junk I knew I would have to get rid of sooner or later anyhow.  It feels great!  Now I'm ready to go purchase a few potted plants and the supplies to make a wreath for my front door.

How is your spring cleaning going?

~Abby