Spring is coming, possibly already starting to arrive… we’ve got water running on the inside of our walls again, so I’m fairly certain the ice and snow from the roof is starting to melt and leak through.

For most people, this would be a time to panic, but for us, it’s become a way of life. Warmer days in fall and spring, or heavy rains in summer often lead to leaks. Our landlord is… well, this year I’m handing him a stack of quotes to get the things repaired that need to be repaired. If he won’t or can’t do it by fall, we’ll redouble our efforts to find new accommodation.

As with every spring for the past several, the girls and I are beginning to cull our possessions. Somehow, we manage to build up to the same extent of clutter, worse this year for some reason. I think the lack of finished repairs last year, along with something bordering on depression for all of us, has fed our laze and lack of caring to our own situation. That’s going to end this spring/summer, and we’re going to not only de-clutter, but organize again as well.

Here are some of the things we’re going to put in place:

1. Use old baby-food jars to hold spices.
2. Sort cookbooks & print/write out favorites to place in one regularly used binder.
3. Hang more towel racks (from thrift store) in bathroom.
4. Sort otc and scrip meds into cabinet.
5. Clean out/sort junk drawer into stackable baskets.
6. Sort fridge/freezer contents into pull-out baskets (from dollar store or thrift store).
7. Store family information, pet information, combinations/passwords, copies of relevant papers.
8. Start planning meals in advance, buy perishables only for those meals (big calendar comes in handy!).
9. Go through clothes and donate, rag, or pack anything not worn in the last 6 months.
10. As many of these as possible.

A friend suggested the baby-food jars for spices, stacked in single layers in pull-out baskets in the cupboard. Labels can be printed for both the sides and top of each jar.

We have more cookbooks than we ever use. I have one or two go-to recipes in each one, but they’ve taken over the drawer where we used to keep kitchen towels and dishcloths, along with a huge amount of loose recipes printed out from the internet. One day – choosing our favorites and getting them sorted into a single binder – will significantly tidy up the kitchen area.

Due the leakage in the bathroom, we’ve had to remove our towels from the shelving, and thus have also lost most of our facecloths and half of our towels to the mysterious laundry gnomes. Racks will save us this bother.

We’ve done a bad thing, and that’s to let ourselves leave our meds of varying sorts out on a shelf in the kitchen. Time they went back into the cabinet that was made for ‘em!

We’ve got one heck of a messy junk drawer. I’m not even sure what all is in there; one cord for a broken appliance for sure, and a multitude of bits ‘n bobs that we don’t need. We probably haven’t even seen half that stuff since we moved in here.

The landlord replaced two fridges since we’ve been here. Actually, he replaced one, and then had to come back and replace the replacement less than a month later. The fridge we have now is very deep, and very low. The top shelf is where the second-to-bottom shelf of my fridge is (it’s in the garage, and I’m not even sure it still works. It won’t fit in through ANY of the doors of this house!). Unfortunately, with my SJD/HD, I can’t bend far enough and lean in far enough to get anything from the back of the shelves, and nothing from the bottom shelf unless it is right at the front. Baskets will be the cure!

Right now, our family information etc. is scattered all over the place, and if anything were lost, we’d be done for. We’ve been saying this for a long time, but now it’s time to implement it: we’re getting it all copied, and putting it into safe, easily accessible places.

A lot of our fresh produce spoils rather quickly, and this comes from not being sure what we’re going to have, as well as the issues with fridge space as noted above. Planning our menus, at least for dinners, should alleviate this somewhat, sparing time and money!

Some of us have far too many clothes in this house. Like, an obscene amount. I have about 15 pieces I’m planning on ragging or donating, but I bet I could fill the back of a vehicle with clothes that haven’t been worn from my eldest’s room. Just the thought makes me tired.

While a lot of the Buzzfeed tips won’t fit with our lifestyles and/or needs, so many of them are going into play here in the next few weeks!

Plus a shredder. I have mountains of paper that needs to be turned into rat-cage-fodder.

What are you doing towards spring cleaning?

’til next week…
<3 JL