It's Time to Flip Your Closet

It's been consistently cool for enough days I decided it was time to flip the closets. Twice a year, once at the beginning of spring and then again at the beginning of fall, I take out last season's clothes and replace them with the new season's clothes.  This always makes me feel fresh and ready for the excitement the change of weather brings.  Here's how I do it:

Go through all your clothes currently in the closet and armoires and make two piles:
1. Stuff to Go
2. Stuff to Store

Stuff to Go:  If you didn't wear it in the last 6 months, you won't wear it next spring or summer.  Get rid of it! Purge! It'll make you feel good, I promise.  Sell it, donate it or trash it.

Stuff to Store: Fold clothes you want to keep and put them aside.

Bring your fall/winter clothes out of storage and have fun reconnecting with all those cute sweaters.  But if you pull something out of storage and think to yourself, "what was I thinking?!" put it in the Stuff to Go pile. This is your second change to clean out the clutter of your wardrobe.

Once the fall/winter clothes are put away in the closet, refill those storage bins with the summer/spring clothes you'll want for next year.

Then, do what ever it is you want to do with the Stuff to Go pile.  My older sister sells a lot of her's on Ebay and uses the money to buy new in-season clothes.  I'm a bit less motivated and usually give mine to my little sister or donate it to Good Will.

Now you have an organized wardrobe, filled with the beautiful clothes you haven't see in six months.  I've usually forgotten about half of them and so it's like I've just been on a great shopping spree, but didn't spend any money.  And now I'm excited to get dressed in the morning!

Now...I think I need to find a some high black riding boots to go with those wool skirts I totally forgot I had.

Hostess Essentials: Quick Clean for Wood Floors

I have a big, black, shedding Labrador (part dog, part teenage boy).  I have a crawling, playing infant. I have guests almost daily.  And I wouldn't have it any other way...except, I also have hardwood floors that attract and hold every hair, crumb and dust particle that enters the atmosphere.   So I also have a quick clean strategy I do daily (sometimes twice daily) to keep the floors, and my sweet baby girl, clean. 

This takes me less than 10 minutes in the main areas of my house,yet saves my sanity every morning:  vacuum, spray, mop. Done!

The essentials:

Hoover Platinum Linx Stick Vac  A good cordless vacuum.  Splurge.  This vacuum will become your new best friend.

Trewax Hardwood Floor Spray Cleaner 32oz Non-Toxic NEW!  An all-natural hardwood floor cleaner.  There are a million out there. This is my latest favorite. 

Bonakemi Hardwood Floor Mop  A hardwood floor mop.

Hoover Platinum Linx Stick Vacuum

It's great on hardwood floors, rugs, carpet...even dog beds. I haven't tried it on the dog, though I've been tempted.