The Big Spring Clean - Part 01
I like to think I’m a pretty tidy person, always making sure the living room and kitchen are spruced up before bed so I can wake up to a mess free house and I try my best to avoid accumulating piles on the dining room table. But, like anyone, our family definitely has a few spots in the house that are in desperate need of a good Spring clean. When life is busy, it’s much easier to focus on keeping the main spaces in the home tidy and slowly start to neglect those that are tucked away.
Not too long ago I tackled the de-cluttering and organisation of my wardrobe and the end result was so satisfying it got me thinking, maybe it’s time to address some more of those areas that have slipped away from us. So, in order to hold myself accountable and get a little inspiration for the tasks ahead of me, I thought I’d take you along on this de-cluttering journey, starting with part 1, The Plan…
The Pantry…
Our pantry at home is slightly unusual in that it mostly consists of drawers, the only shelving being above the coffee machine, where we store some larger food items. Aesthetically, these drawers are great, but over time they’ve definitely become a jumbled mix of cans, spices and spreads, with not a lot of logic to their groupings.
To start, pulling everything out and giving the drawers a good scrub is definitely in order. Then I plan to group these various food items into the most logical categories; baking ingredients, herbs & spices, rice & pasta etc. Creating a system that can be maintained is also a priority, so no need for labeled containers and decanting to have things at a Pinterest-worthy level of organisation. But finding a few larger containers to slot within these drawers and keep things grouped together could be a good option.
One of the biggest problem areas in the pantry is the drawer where we keep herbs and spices. All those little jars and boxes (some of which are most definitely past their expiry date) are currently housed in old ice cream containers, a great sustainable option, but not exactly practical. I’d love to source some kind of specially designed tray that can slide into this drawer and help keep all of this more organised. Watch this space…
The Laundry…
It’s a wonderful thing to have a separate laundry space in the house, it’s compact but it’s such a blessing to be able to keep laundry separate from the kitchen or bathroom. However, over the years this space has become somewhat of a family dumping ground. Not only is it home to various laundry related products, but our recycling lives here, the earthquake supply kit and a whole lot of miscellaneous objects that somehow found their way here…
Once again, the process of getting on top of this space will have to start with pulling everything out and keeping only the things that truly belong in the laundry for a clean, fresh start. This room will be a relatively big job as there are two large drawers that are stuffed full of various household tools; hammers, nails, measuring tapes etc that will need to be fully organised. But, with a bit of elbow grease, freeing up space in these drawers will allow some of those not so pretty things to be hidden away and in turn, opening up more usable bench space.
This heavily used space in our house needs to be organised, but most importantly stay organised. So, I’d love to source some baskets or boxes to keep things like laundry detergent and stain remover in, but keep it super simple and focus mostly on the de-cluttering element in this space.
The Bathroom Vanity…
The bathroom is one of the hardest spots to keep organised in my opinion, especially the family/main bathroom, as you’re storing not only your own personal bathroom products but a variety of household things like bandaids, pain killers, toilet paper etc.
Our bathroom vanity has a generous amount of storage space, which is a blessing in many ways, but this access to space can quickly get on top of us and become another dumping ground of sorts. You’ll find everything from old makeup samples and freebies to empty medication bottles and expired products. The key here will be a major declutter and being ruthless around which products, makeup in particular, are simply taking up space.
There is a variety of bathroom organisation inspiration out there, but much like the other spaces in this project the overall goal is to create a system that is sustainable and doesn’t require purchasing a bunch of different boxes/containers to label and decant into. Finding a few sensibly sized storage options for these drawers and grouping them logically is the best option for (hopefully) long-lasting organisation!
This is simply the first step in this Spring cleaning process, that I’m sure will well exceed the season of Spring. But, my hope is that this public plan will hold me to these goals and maybe even inspire you, if there are some spaces in your own home that need a bit of love and attention. Stay tuned!