Editing - Preparing for a Spring Clean

There are two stages to a spring clean for us - The first one is editing my home and the second one involves scrubbing it. We have edited regularly for the last three or four years because we have moved on average once or twice a year. This is the first time we've gone into our second year in the same house since I left college so this year I've had to be very deliberate about making sure that I go through a process of really thoroughly editing every nook and cranny, drawer, or hidden cabinet.  

The reason that I edit, or de-clutter, my things before I do a large scrub is that it is simply easier to clean once my  house is de-cluttered. There are fewer things to move around, I've already done some surface cleaning like dusting and sweeping, and I don't have to reorganize as I'm trying to scrub. Organization requires a bit of thought - not too much - but it does help to keep your mind on the practical side of things. 

For example, my husband and I kept our board games up on the highest shelf of the built ins. We have amazing board games that deserve to be played but rarely were because they were out of sight and almost always out of mind. When I reorganized the built ins I placed them on a lower shelf and put the fabric stash up where they were since I don't usually use stash fabrics for projects. Since then we've been playing our games more after dinner which is a great way to have together time and be a little competitive. 

So far, we've been at it three days, going room by room starting at the back of the house (which is the oposite direction I do my 15 minute nightly tidy-ups in) because I know the bedroom and built ins are the places I stash the most clutter and get the least amount of tidying on a regular basis. 

Here are few things to help you get ready for spring clean or any sort of big scrub of your house as well. 

1. Have a visual goal: Every year when I edit my house I have an idea of how I want my house to look - calm, collected, elegant, vintage, a little modern, airy, and light. I keep a board on pinterest  and when it comes time to stage my home or de-clutter/redecorate I can look and see what running themes I have on my board. For example, I noticed that a lot of my pictures have big white rooms (check) with high ceilings (check) and a mix of modern Scandinavian (not so check) and antique (check) furniture. Because I have a clear picture of what I like I can edit out the things I don't like or don't work and arrange my home in such a way that these things are featured. I see what is missing, needs to be updated, and I write it down to make or purchase at a later date. 

2. Start at one end of the house, do one small space at a time:  Editing can be intimidating because you have to make decision after decision about things. I try to keep the overwhelming sense of "I have so much stuff" that hits me when I'm going through closets and storage bins down to a minimum by doing a little at a time. I started by writing down my rooms in order that I want to tackle them. My house is a pre-war 5 room with a front and back hall. It made sense to move in a direction. If your house is larger or you have some rooms that are used more often than others perhaps you'd like to do this in the order of how often they are used or how much is in them getting the rooms with the least amount of clutter done and out of the way first. After I decide the order of rooms I compartmentalize (I generally do this in my head) it into sections. My bedroom is the most overwhelming room to declutter so I broke it down into closet/nightstand/bookcase/under bed/dresser and just tackled each at a time. If you tear apart the whole room you may end up running out of steam with everything in your closet and dressers on your floor and no energy to put it back! 

3. If you don't use it or love it toss it: I believe every organizational guru from Martha to Marla has said this at one point or another but it holds true. Lose the guilt associated with tossing something you paid good money for or the guilt associated with getting rid of a gift and free up a little space in your life. This is one of those things that gets easier with experience. I used to hem and haw about tossing things but now I just go for it and don't worry about it. 

4. Pull out your best things and start using them: One of my favorite ways to cut down on the clutter is to start using my good things and get rid of the seconds. I want to honor my home and family with the good china, cloth napkins, the best dishes, the good linnens, and so on. I don't want to save them because then they are simply clutter pulled out once or twice a year. Even though I still have two sets of dishes (a "good" set and the "regular set") we eat just as many meals on the good set as we do on the regular set and neither set is clutter. Instead of having stacks of paper napkins I use the cloth napkins I have collected  over the years. I wear any and all of my wearable clothes  whenever or wherever instead of saving them for special occasions.

5: Don't bring clutter into the house: This is a hard one for me but I am getting better. I don't bring anything into the house unless I've really thought about where or how I will work it in to my house, wardrobe, or clothing collection and whether or not I think it is truly beautiful or not. I want even the most practical thing in my home to be worthy of a beautiful home. I buy the best quality I can afford, take good care of it, and expect it to last. 

Note: This post has also been posted on my other blog here. 

Three things every vintage home maker needs to be mindful of...

This post was originally posted on my primary blog, Elizabeth Lives.

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Someone sent me an email asking me how I keep and run my house. I'm not sure if it was inspired by them stumbling upon the Apartment Therapy post, or if they just looked through the archives of this and came to some conclusion that I'm domestically inclined but I'm finally able to sit down and write you a post about how I keep house.

I've said it once and I'll say it again - I'm an old fashioned housekeeper. My domestic heroines are the characters in Grace Livingston Hill novels who manage to transform a hovel into a place of domestic tranquility, peace, and quiet in days.

I can't give her all the credit, though. I've taken a lot of cues from vintage household management books that I've found that date from the early 19th c. to the 1950's. I've sort of read them in a half serious manner - some of the things, like keeping eggs in some sort of hazardous chemical to preserve them for three years, are so ridiculous and frankly unsafe that I have to laugh. Other things, though, have stood the test of time and the test of my house, life, and busy schedule.

The single most important thing that most household management books and I agree on is that you need a routine. Some people need a detailed routine written down on paper. Some people need a morning and an evening routine, a weekly routine or whatever. Whatever type you need, be it written or unwritten, on a post it or in a binder or on your fridge, routines make the home go smoothly. A good old fashioned housekeeper has a routine to make her work go smoothly.

I have a morning and afternoon routine written down and taped to my desk at work for the first five things I do when I get there and the first five things after the kiddos leave but I no longer have a written routine for my home because after doing the (in general) same routine for eight years it's just memorized. I know when I wake up I get dressed, make the bed, and so on. I know that on Fridays I clean out my car and we look over the finances. I know that on Sundays we grocery shop and meal plan. I know that from 5:45 - 6:00 everything stops and I spend fifteen minutes picking up the house. I know that at 6:30 I start cooking. I know that I spring clean in March or April and I put my fall decorations up in October. These things, practiced year in, year out are in my brain and help my home run like clockwork.

The second thing an old fashioned housekeeper has is a sense of the seasons. Knowing the seasons helps us to work with the natural rhythms of wherever we are living from meal planning to cleaning schedules.

One of the things we have the luxury of forgetting these days is the fact that at one time fresh salad greens didn't happen in December. We ate preserves all winter long and ate fresh fruit all summer long. For my grandfather, a child in rural Wisconsin the 1920's, an orange in the winter was worthy of a Christmas present. When we meal plan an old fashioned housekeeper keeps an eye on what's in season at the store and makes meals that fit what is needed in her household's own seasons. Is it flu season? Fresh vegetables, things high in vitamin C, and soups to clear the sinuses might be on the menu plan. Is it a busy season? Quicker meals, things that clean up easily, and food that works for on the go might be on the plate. Is it a time when you need comfort food or special foods for holidays that are coming up? An old fashion home keeper knows the seasons and currents of her household and lives with them.

Another important thing that is mentioned over and over again is that an old fashioned housekeeper lives and works within her means.

Household finances are infinitely complicated and always have been. Some people have joint accounts. Some people are single and get to manage their own finances. Some people share households but have their own bank accounts. The best advice I can give you is to make a budget that gives every dollar you have control over a place to go before you even get it. Then, the day you get paid move the money where it needs to go instead of just letting it sit around waiting to be spent on something else.

In conjunction with this it's important to budget for what you're actually going to use not just what you wish you spent. JR and I use a spreadsheet that we fill out sometime before pay day together that auto calculates how much we have left to spend. Then, when we get paid we move money wherever it needs to go - bills, savings, fun things, groceries. Finally, it's important to save just a little for a rainy day. Maybe your emergency fund is in a tin in your kitchen among your spices. Maybe, like us, you keep it safe in a savings account. The important thing is that you have one...to be used for emergencies only.

The last thing on the topic of finances is that the adage "Mend, Make Do, or Do Without" still stands all this time later. Get everything you can out of the things you own. Keep your kitchen appliances in good repair and clean and they'll serve you for a long time. A sewing machine overhaul once a month can get those useful things to last into the double decades. Sew that button on your clothes when it falls off and get those pants to last another season. Use scrap yarn and tule to make your own dish sponges. Finally, if you can't afford it right now...be patient and save for it.

(all of the pictures are from the Commons on Flickr...)