One of our family's favorite pastimes is to go to open houses on Sundays. Usually, we don't have any intention of moving, but hey, you never know.
Plus, it gives you a chance to think differently about how you organize and use your own space.
Well, today, we saw a condo that we really, really liked. Brand new. Almost as much square footage as our current home. (We tend to look smaller, rather than bigger. Hey, the economy is tough!) Anyway, the thing is, it's almost all "open" space. Not a lot of rooms that could become the "junk room," not a lot of storage space for the eight million Christmas decorations, etc.
So we started talking, and came up with an idea - why don't we spend the spring, and some of summer, "pretending" we're going to move? We'll go through the house, and if we wouldn't move it or couldn't find a place for it in this hypothetical new house, we won't keep it.
Maybe that's obvous, but it was a new way of looking at things for us, I think. So we'll see how it goes!
If you're interested in spring cleaning, some of my favorite sites for getting and keeping things neat are FlyLady, I'm an Organizing Junkie, Unclutterer and, of course, the local organizing super-site, Virtually Organized!
And, just for fun, here's some fun people on the Exchange with a new take on spring cleaning.
Sometimes changing your mindset about organizing and purging is all it takes to give you that little extra bit of motivation. And pretending like you're moving is an excellent way to help you really prioritize your stuff and what you truly love and value.
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!
And thanks for mentioning my Virtually Organized site!