Photo by Liz Donnelly
Spring Cleaning Week at Celia Bedilia
Spring is the time for a fresh start in your home, garden and life. If you have not kept up with New Year’s resolutions…do not worry you are not alone. Spring cleaning is a time to purge your home of the items you have collected but not found the right spot to display. I too am guilty of this collecting; finding things that I think would be great for certain spaces and then, when they do not quite work, leaving them in place to clutter myhome & life.
No more, today we begin spring cleaning week. This week I am committing to running a 5k…this for me will be a “Couch to 5k” type of commitment. (I hope not to get distracted and start shopping for couches rather than lacing up my running shoes and getting off my couch!) I will also be tackling my kitchen cabinets; book shelves, desk & pantry…ugh wish me luck! So 7 days of spring cleaning/organizing will be my focus.
Today Bookcases:
- You will need at least one charity book/stuff box , trash bag, paper towels and spray cleaners.
- Empty the entire bookcase.
- Put the contents into piles, for example I would go through the children’s books and keep our favorites and give away the others! There are children that will love to have these books (I like to donate books to hospitals they can use them in waiting areas etc). I also take all the knick knacks off my shelves and dust the ones I like and GIVE AWAY the ones I have kept out of guilt. You know which ones I mean; the wedding presents that you never liked but are displaying because you have to! Now is the time to get rid of them, fresh start…remember..
- Clean the empty bookcase with copious amounts of spray cleaner and paper towels. Look at the clean and empty bookshelf…it looks so nice!
- Put the items back in one shelf at a time. I like to fill about ½- ¾ of the shelf with books leaving some room to display a decorative accent. I stack coffee table books by size, you can have both type of books (coffee table and novels) on the same shelf if you add a deorative accent inbetween them. In the photo above I put some vintage bottle collection on one side of the self and books on the other.
- Pretend that the bookcase you are working on is going to be photographed for a magazine. Does it look cluttered? Does it make you feel peaceful or stressed? If the answer if stressed you are no0t done! Get back to it and pare down the items further. You can pack books up and store them if you are not ready to give them away but you do not need them on a regular basis.
- Ok, now if you look at the bookcase and think WOW…you are done. Good job!!! Tomorrow we start the kitchen cabinets stay tuned!!!
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