It happens twice a year, I don’t know why it surprises me so. Every time I rotate the children’s wardrobes to prepare for the change in seasons I always get a shock at how much they have grown! I remember when we sold all of the infant clothes in the garage sale and now the toddler clothes are slowly trickling their way out. Say it isn’t so!

As I pack away clothes to donate or share with neighbors I like the little reminders I come across. “Ah yes, that stain was from the fall in the muddy water. This smudge was from the family portrait we made with finger paint.” I can remember the times when the kids received some of the clothes as gifts and how excited my daughter gets and sometimes the boys, not so much.

The best part of changing out the clothes for me is being able to pass them on to someone else to use. We live in a wonderful community filled with children around the same age. My daughter has some clothes that belonged to the girl next door. When we are done with our girl clothes they move on the the baby a few houses down. My youngest son of course gets clothes from the oldest and if those clothes survive they get passed to the little brother next door. We have a friend that opts for selling some of her girl’s clothes at a thrift store but she gets together with other neighbors and has a “pre-thrift sale” and I tend to snag the best dresses I can find there!

It’s a wonderful cycle… the changing of the clothes, full of memories, friendships and community.

What about you? Do you save your children’s clothes for their younger siblings? Pass them on to neighbors? Or do you opt to thrift or donate them?

Spring is here, and while it’s a great time to air out the house, go through the closets and get rid of what’s been building up over winter, it is also the perfect time to declutter your kitchen. When I think about tackling my kitchen I get a bit overwhelmed because it’s an area of my home that I use every day, so I find that it’s easiest to take it in chunks, and I am starting with the cupboards.

More specifically, I’ll be starting with the cupboard that houses all of the canned foods in my kitchen, the pastas, whole grains and rice (that isn’t in larger bulk containers in the pantry cabinets) and foods like dried fruit and some random ingredients here and there. It happens to be the smallest as well, and it seemed like a good place to start my project for that reason.

Step 1:

Empty the cupboards. Starting with a bare cupboard serves many purposes. It helps you assess the true amount of space you have, and it also forces you to see all of the possible items that were hiding behind one another in the cupboard before.

Step 2:

Categorize the items that have been removed. It’s easiest to locate things if you group them together. Plus, it will help you when you’re taking inventory and going grocery shopping so you know exactly what it is you do have and don’t have.

Step 3:

Clean out the cupboards. Using a natural, non-toxic cleaner, give all of the cupboards a good wipe down to remove any crumbs or dust that have built up.

Step 4:

Decide what to put back into the cupboard. Throw away expired food items, and determine what you’re actually going to use. That can of beets that you had an odd craving for but aren’t really interested in, will you really eat them before they expire? Donate any unexpired items that you won’t use to the local food shelter. Items that don’t have clear expiration dates can be tricky, so check to see how long things are shelf stable once they are opened or in their unopened packages to be sure.

Step 5:

Put the food back on the shelves. After determining what you’re keeping, what you’re tossing and what you’re donating, restocking is an easy task. Try to stock by food variety. For instance, I put all my grains on one shelf. I then places the taller packages in the back so that they would be easily visible once the cupboard was full. This way I’m not forgetting that I have something and buying it before I use it, only to let the old package expire.

I also determined that I needed to invest in a few containers for the foods I buy in the bulk food section. Having them stored in the bags is frustrating, and they go bad faster that way. Storing them in airtight, see-through containers will keep them fresh longer and make them easier to organize on the shelves.

What have you been doing to spring clean your kitchen? Which areas do you find to be the most difficult for you? (My difficult area is the cupboard with all the spices and baking supplies.)

This weekend has been an absolute blur, but it has been fabulous! We moved my mom into her new house and I have been unpacking and organizing like crazy! It feels so good to tackle those boxes and put a new space together. Between driving kids back and forth to activities and helping my mom get situated I have had little time to get my spring cleaning fully under way. I started with the winter jackets and blankets and there I stopped. Tomorrow I will be going full steam ahead! We have a community yard sale on Saturday so it is time to get to the decluttering!

I just wanted to share a few links with you to get you inspired to do some spring cleaning of your own!

Life as Mom is having a Spring Clean Along where she we be tackling three zones in three weeks… Dejunking, Organizing and Cleaning!

Simple Mom is hosting a Spring Cleaning Week and you are sure to find some great tips and thought provoking material!

Bye-bye bulky winter stuff… spring is here!

Spring has sprung and I am starting to tackle the cleaning and decluttering; the laundry has been going all day! To kick off the spring cleaning I always start with our bulky items. It’s time to get the winter blankets off the beds and tuck the heavy coats away!

For me, starting with the bulky items just makes everything else fall into place. I also take this time to put away sweaters and rotate the seasonal clothing for the kids. This is a great time to re-evaluate your wardrobes and get rid of anything that no longer fits your style and add items you need for the upcoming season.

What about you, what area do you like to start with when spring cleaning?

Let’s give a big welcome to this weeks Inside Tips From The Pro’s guest contributor, Krista Colvin! Thank you Krista, for giving us a peek into a professional organizer’s home…

It happens almost every time I introduce myself as a professional organizer. “OH (they say), your house must be SO perfect, SO organized!”. I clear my throat and reassure them I’m not so perfect… in fact I was much more perfect before I had a husband, kids, and my own business.

I’m not quite the cobbler’s-kids-don’t-have-any-shoes kind of gal, but none the less, things can get a little messy around here. Proof is in the pudding, or the before + after pics below.

Here’s a look into THE messiest + MOST used area of my home. This is the laundry room/mud room which serves as the entrance into our home via the garage. This is where we enter + leave every day, all day. This is where mass laundry gets done. This is where mama dumps her handbag, keys, and coffee. This is THE first place the stuff goes when entering our abode. Consider it the Ellis Island of the Colvin household.

THIS my chica-ritas wasn’t an organizing project- but merely a pick up clean up put your crap away kind of project! I’ll show you the inside of the cupboards another time-promise.

So how does an organizer justify such a mess. Same way you do chica… I’m busy living life, putting off the put away, coming + going, living the dream. I profess that it drives me bonkers to see ‘the stuff’, to know that it needs to be done.

So today was the moment that I tackled this project (again). Yes, it will happen all over again- so what. I’m learning to say ‘so what’. It’s ok. I’d rather live with all the “mess contributors” than to live without them. Bring on those shoes, random objects from the town festival, and piles of clean + dirty clothes- I can take it *she says with a smirk + cup of joe in her hands*.

before- all messy   after the pick up clean up

This post is originally from Krista’s blog, Organize In Style and reposted with permission.

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Krista Colvin
lifestylist | organizing maven | media personality

Visit my blog www.organizeinstyleblog.com

Checkout The Smart Woman’s Guide to Doing it All! www.theSHEbang.com

Listen to my Blog Talk Radio Show www.theOmyth.com

Follow me on Twitter @kristacolvin @theShebang @theOmyth

Check out www.SHEclarkcounty.com