Well April showers bring May flowers which brings us to that feeling of cleansing and renewal...

So with that in mind this is our Spring cleaning (or flinging) thread.

The object here is to post things you have tossed, flung or exorcized from your life.....

Ie. clean sweeping your house, doing your taxes, get your finances in order, getting odd jobs done that you have been putting off.

Also anything to do with exercise, diet, etc. like revamping your lifestyle, changing your attitude or habits, purging you fridge and pantry of junk food, etc. etc.

Let's free ourselves from the things that defeat our purposes and clutter up our lives!

I got 2 years worth of taxes done and filed this past weekend! What a load off my mind....and we are getting refunds!

Good for you! We haven't done our taxes yet, or cleaned out the garage, or done spring cleaning, or.... anything like that really. I hate cleaning with a violent passion, and I'm supposed to be doing a big landscape project, but I just don't feel like dealing with it... I'd rather be at the gym, or playing outdoors, to tell you the truth.

Usually I'm eldest-child-type responsible, but right now all I want to do is play and have fun....

Yay, Mauv. You may have figured it out already, but I'm a clean sweeping nut! I don't know why, I used to be such a packrat. Now I throw things way with a vengance and then go overboard and miss stuff I tossed. However... I am already plotting my spring sweeping.
I read some article about it, about picking a room to focus on and doing just that. So we are going to slowly go room by room and get de-cluttered and get rid of so many wedding gifts we don't use (it's been two years, i don't need to feel guilty anymore, do i?)
There are a couple major projects - the china hutch, the garage, and the kitchen are the biggies. Though the bedroom is getting pretty bad too.
I'm going to do one per weekend so as not to get too overwhelmed. I'll let you all know. I may need to have a garage sale or have my folks use their truck to haul some stuff off. I don't want it anymore!
Good luck to you mauv, you have any big plans or just going little by little?

I am going room by room and decluttering. So far I have done the bedroom from top to bottom....this includes purging of closets and drawers of clothes that don't fit, are worn out or that we never wear, tossing a wardrobe that was falling apart and fitting my DH's clothes into my closet.

It was great - very liberating and then we rearranged the furniture, washed everything including curtains, dusted blinds and furniture and mopped and vacuumed. The bedroom is now a fresh scented, roomier more functional sanctuary!

I am currently working on the boxes of paper work - filing, tossing and shredding- I cannot believe the stupid stuff I keep!!!

I am thinking of doing the kitchen over Easter weekend. I need to purge junk, repaint then reorganize... I am at the point where I get bonked on the head by boxes of jello when I open the upper cupboards and I swear that the tupperware breeds and will soon takeover the kitchen It will also give me a chance to see what lovely items are lurking in the back of the cupboards - probably spices from 3 years ago when we moved in

wow everyone has been pretty busy. I redid our bedroom this week. cleaned out closets. filed papers. and today went thru the pantry tossing junk. went grocery shopping and got all fruits and veggies.

Ok, let me just say that I am a terrible housekeeper and really, really hate cleaning. Luckily I have my husband trained and he ends up doing a lot of the housework. But I have a few days off and I am supposedly "cleaning" today. My problem is that I tend to be a much better organizer than cleaner... so the problem gets worse before it gets better (picture the entire contents of the kitchen pantry scattered around the kitchen floor). So that pretty much characterizes the state of my kitchen at this very moment. I just placed a series of frantic calls to my husband begging him to come home and clean up the mess I just made. But hey, the cupboards that are finished look great!

So my projects today were supposed to be cleaning the bathroom from floor to ceiling and picking up the accumulation of clothes and other crap that seem to inevitably stack up in my bedroom, which of course means I also have several loads of laundry to do. I'm also making some very spicy homemade chili which inadvertantly resulted in the kitchen cupboard purging frenzy. My husband usually keeps the kitchen clean, but he is a terrible organizer and just shoves things randomly wherever. This of course makes me absolutely crazy. But hey, I'm not about to complain about a man he cleans the kitchen.

So you chickies have inspired me, and the sort of warm spring weather that seems to be taunting us here in the not-so-frozen tundra has given me visions of springtime Martha Stewart cleanliness and orderliness. So I am heading back towards the cleaning supply cabinet in search of scrub brushes and disinfectant. Ughh.

Sojo - you mentioned a bad word... Martha Stewart! And I'm not talking about the scandals. I'm talking about your expectations. It will be overwhelming and upsetting if you're aiming for Martha-ness. So don't do it!
I too am one of those organizers rather than cleaners. I think the thing that helped me the most was doing the 15 minutes at a time thing. I set a timer and I don't bite off more than I can chew. Then I don't get halfway through something an panic anymore. It seems to work.

I will never be Martha Stewart. But if I can try I can be Martha on a really bad day.

i consider myself to be alterna earth momma martha myself.

What an appropriate thread!

There is something about being responsible about what I eat that makes me want to take a look at taking care of other clutter in my life. I am NOT an organized person, so it is really difficult. I have been to seminar after seminar on HOW to be organized but I have trouble practicing what they preach.

I know the biggest issue is letting go of things. I did clean out one closet last weekend and took a bag full of clothes to the thrift store. I figure if I can do a little at a time it will eventually pay off. Where did I get all this stuff? I have things I never wear and they stuff the closet so that my good clothes get wrinkled!

So, it is all about just getting life in order. And, this weekend I will do more.

But I am NOT throwing out the brand new size 16 jeans that I am on the way to getting into!

SoCalBirdLady: I know what you mean, I think. Getting rid of clothes is hard, especially when they're like old friends. Clothing is so human, somehow.

BTW, how many parrots do you have? What kind are they? I've heard they are very intelligent, and can be little as well as little

SeekInnerThinChick--

You are so right about parrots being intelligent, and ! That is a very apt description.

It all started when my partner brought the first one home. This was in response to my adamant statement "I don't want any filthy birdcages and nasty birds in this house!". This first bird, an Amazon parrot, was 35 years old and had been in her family for all those years. At age 91, his owner was too old to take care of the bird any longer.

I will never forget what happened. She put the bird, Chuck, on my shoulder and he decided he liked me. He REALLY liked me. And, he also decided from that point forward that he HATED everyone else. So, I am the only person who can handle him. And, obviously, I learned how wonderful birds can be as pets. I had no idea.

The next one was a cockatoo, Sidney, hatched from an egg. The third was a miniature macaw (severe macaw), Max, also very young.

While it is tempting to think of Chuck, Sidney and Max as three old men waiting for a fourth to play a round of golf, three birds is enough now! Sometimes they sound like ten.

I have come to learn, however, that birds are really special, independent little creatures and if you can earn their trust it is fabulous. Although I love all animals (we have a cat and dog too), there is just some special connection I have with the feathered ones.

I'll bet they are a lot prettier than the guys in "Grumpy Old Men!"

I dated this guy in highschool and his mom had this huge beautiful parrot that was just in love with himself. He thought he was an eagle and would preen himself in front of a mirror. It was hilarious. And the best part, he just loved my friend's mom so much that when she would feed him he would try to regurgitate and feed it back to her, because he loved her so much.
Endearing in a lose your lunch kinda way.