My Dirty Little Secrets

Are you tackling your spring cleaning with Simple Mom? Here are my updates for Days 1-3:

Day 1: It took me 45 minutes to sweep through our 3600 square foot home and pick up all the little stuff lying around, clear off the surfaces and just generally tidy up. I recently went through things and purged what we longer needed so this day was pretty easy.

Simple Mom’s reflection question for the day was:

Am I feeling emotional about any of this stuff? If so, why? Do those knickknacks create your memories, or are they just things you happened to collect during those times on which you enjoy reflecting?

In her e-book she mentioned that knickknacks do not create memories and I agree but I firmly believe some of these little trinkety items will help you recall memories you otherwise might have forgotten. If it’s not something you love but hold on to it for sentimental reasons, I suggest taking a picture of it before letting it go. You can even journal about it. I find that every time you look at something a completely different memory might come to mind related to the same event. Like my outfit I wore on my first day with Hubby, I won’t ever forget that first date but every time I look at that outfit I remember something different about it. Little things I might not have thought of otherwise.

So here is my dirty little secret after day 1:

My pile of perpetual procrastination. Over the past couple of weeks things that need batteries or repair or put away elsewhere (example… Christmas ornament found under couch) have ended up here. And my kids color here sometimes as well. I will tackle this area when I get to my office.

Day 2 and 3: I worked on my living room for about 2 hours today. From top to bottom all clean!

Reflection Question for Day 2:

How easy or challenging it is for you to keep only those things that are either useful or beautiful to your family?

I have no problem getting rid of stuff! :)

Reflection Question for Day 3:

What’s your style? As you’ve decluttered, cleaned, and organized, have you explored your different tastes in decor? I’m curious if you’ve enjoyed the more minimal look in your living room, with your surfaces emptier.

My style is more contemporary and I like my surfaces to be emptier. It’s been easier with small kids to have surfaces clear and easier to clean. I am all about making things simple!

My dirty little secret #2:

I always notice the dust creeping around the bottom of our gas fireplace and always wipe it down on the outside but I never thought to open up the bottom access door and eeek! That’s gross.

Just to you inform you, I still don’t like cleaning. Nope, not at all. I do however love the clean sparkly look when I’m all done!