Am I talking smaller cars? Fewer suitcases? No, I'm touching on spring cleaning. UGH I hear you say! WE all should do it, but how many of us do do it? Well there's hope! If you can start to reduce the sheer number of things you have, you have less to clean. Seems simple enough, but it's not so easy.

For years I've been an advocate of decluttering. Many who have taken my class have had a significant change happen once their lightened their load...but how to keep it light? You know the tendency - we bring home more than we take out and once again our life fills up with stuff.

Try this little exercise - it won't take more than a hour and you'll get an immediate reward. Leave your phone in the car (or someplace where you can't hear the dings and tweets and whatever.) Get some cleaning materials together along with a good size wastebasket. Tell all to leave you alone for one hour.

Close the bathroom door. Open the medicine cabinet. Remove everything. Clean the shelves (maybe add a drop or 2 or essential to leave a pleasant smell.) Now start through  the items one by one. Do you use it? How often? When was the last time? Daily? it stays. More than 3 months ago? Let it go. Or move it (see below)
Remove each item - my bet is that you will find at least half, if not more, of items that have passed their usefulness and can be discarded.
Hint: Keep only what you use everyday. Other things have a different destination!
   Hint: Like items like one another! Keep tooth supplies together, hair supplies together etc.

Hint: Use lucite spacers to build short items above one another (visit containerstore.com and look up 'medicine cabinet')

But what of the eye cup?  I knew I had recently dug it out after a long winter's sleep. But when I needed it, I was sure glad I didn't have to go to multiple drug stores to find a new one. Well, that went  to a better place. But it didn't belong in the medicine cabinet.
Hint : For those items that get used occasionally,

What I'm suggesting is that if you just love it, keep it. Unload as much as you can.

Once you have thinned it out and organized it, take a moment. Look at how nice it looks. Feels good too! You've made a start. 
  Hint: Revisit and reorganize 1 shelf a week. You'll find out how you use the space. And, you'll move stuff. One shelf a week. It will start to take care of itself!

I'm going to be passing along tips and tricks all month. Hopefully you'll be able to use  many of them.  If you hit a speed bump, send me a note. Chances are others have had the same experience.

May the Year of the Fire Monkey bring you