The Downsized Desk Dilemma

It's finally getting a bit warmer out...well, maybe not warmer, but at least the sun is shining! And with that comes the urge to clean all the crap out of my house :) Everywhere I look there are piles. Every available surface is covered with junk. And I'm going trash bag happy ;-)

Case in point - the family computer desk. The kids and the hubs use the computer for playing their games and the occasional school project. The rest of the desk is mostly used to collect junk...and lots of it.

I've cleaned and organized this thing more times than I can count and it always ends up looking like this:

(and this is fairly clean actually - I'd already cleaned off the abandoned dishes 

and moved a few pictures that had been on top of the desk).

In order to solve this problem, I decided to downsize - drastically. I'd thought of doing this before, but I really loved the desk. I loved all the cubbies and all the shelves that I could hang Post Its from, and it had a bookshelf on the left side, so getting rid of the desk meant finding spots for those books (or getting rid of a few more). So I'd always decided against getting rid of the desk in the past.

But...the time had come. So I put on my big-girl britches and bought a MUCH smaller desk. And I love it!!

Now, I still have piles of stuff that I can't throw away that I'll need to find spots for. And I'm going to add a shelf or two on the wall above the desk to hold the phone and speakers so there is a little more space at the desk.

But for now, the room feels bigger and cleaner, and best of all, there is NO available surface area for my family to dump their stuff. :-D

Now....on to the rest of the house! :-)

Are you spring cleaning yet? What are you tackling first? And don't forget to enter the giveaway! 3 days left to enter!

Dryer Sheets - Not Just for Laundry :)

I started using dryer sheets for more than just laundry when I found myself staring at a washer and dryer covered in dust and dribbled laundry soap one day. The only thing handy to wipe them off with was my box of dryer sheets. So I grabbed one. And have been wiping things up with them ever since :) Any brand works but I prefer Bounce with Febreze just for the fabulous smell :D

Why I love to clean with them:

• Dust clings to them
• They easily take off that sticky, dried-on spilled soap and the gunk that builds up under the washer lid
• If you ever dry a crayon in your dryer, rub it with a dryer sheet - comes right off!
• Use them to dust your baseboards - not only to they work great but your whole house will smell fabulous :)
• I also stick them in my pockets if I'm going into a nerve-wracking situation where my hands might get a little sweaty ;) They help :D
• And I've heard they keep mosquitoes away if you keep them in your pocket. Haven't tried that yet...
• Because dryer sheets leave a little bit of residue (make sure you wash your lint trap screen every so often...if it's been awhile you can pour water on it and it won't go through the mesh!) it helps keep new dust from sticking to whatever you've just dusted. Which is just the icing on the cake :D

I'll grab one and wipe things down by hand or stick them onto my Swifter and get the harder to reach spots. I don't use them on glass or electronics because of the residue it leaves, but pretty much anything else that I'd use a spray cleaner/dusting solution on is game :) The house looks and smells amazing when you are done!