March 2, 2011

spring chores

Clean closets
Change out winter clothes

These are the first two chores on the list in my planner this week. I know, it seems a little early, but really, it warms up quickly here, we've found, and once it's pleasant out I have a hard time committing to spending several days inside dealing with too warm clothes and too full closets.
It's not my favorite chore of the year but it's probably one of the more rewarding. If I could keep our closets clean all the time it wouldn't be such a big job, but all four of us tend to use closets to stow away things that we don't want to deal with, so twice a year or so I go through everything and "purge" and then I try (unsuccessfully, but still, I try) to keep them tidy and straightened. Usually this works for about two months and then we start stuffing again. Bad habit, but there it is.
Practically this chore means that our house will be a pithole of despair for the next week while the closets (and under the beds too, while I'm at it) get emptied and all the contents get put into piles: GoodWill, Storage, Trash/Recycling, Craigslist and Back in the closet. Then the stored clothes are pulled out and sorted before everything gets put away. It sounds like a big undertaking and it is, but it's not horrible. I usually put a story on my ipod or watch movies on my computer while I work, which makes it almost pleasant. Almost. (This time I'm listening to "My Life on an Allotment" which I suspect will hurry me up because it already has me chomping to get this done and get out into the garden).

The best part of doing this clean out is that it makes room for new things and so one of the things further down on the list this week is to tally up what clothes and shoes need replacing for each person. We're not talking huge shopping sprees here, but even replacing a pair of shoes here and a few shirts there is fun, always nice to have some new togs. :)

Do you do these big clean outs or are you more regimented through the year? I do pretty much a constant rotation of purging but even with that I need these larger, pull out the whole closet events to keep things really organized. Do you hate the chore or kinda like it? How do you handle the switch out of seasonal clothes?