Cleaning Away the Winter Blues

I love winter and I love snow.  I love big snowstorms that force us to hunker down and stay at home.  There is nothing better than baking or making a big pot of stew or soup during a blizzard.  I love to read and HUGE snowstorms are the perfect excuse to curl up with a book for an afternoon.

BUT...we've had a lot of that this year.  Four big storms so far.  Four storms in four weeks...which means days and days spent at home, snuggled up and cozy...and like any good thing, it starts to become not such a good thing after you do it a lot.

My husband is an arborist.  He knows all about trees and plants and shrubs.  He mainly works outdoors.  He is very fortunate to work for an excellent company that really stresses safety.  On January 1, his company adopted a more stringent safety policy, if it is raining or snowing in the morning, there is to be NO WORK.  His boss has been kind enough to pay everyone for some of the days or to schedule work for a Saturday so that people didn't have to use up their vacation time.  We love having him home, but again...too much of a good thing...

On Friday, after getting another 6 inches of snow and being housebound, I was starting to go stir crazy.  We were all getting on each other's nerves.  I remembered a poem we had read in Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories for Children about how when you get the blues if you do something physical it makes you feel better...

Then I remembered this blog that I found when reading this blog.

So, I decided to clean out my closet, which felt REALLY good.  I ended up with three bags of stuff for the Lupus Foundation that comes around monthly collecting used clothing and such.

I discovered three purses that I bought off-season, forgot about and never used!

I tend to use my closet as a catch-all...and I realized that lately it has been catching all of our craft supplies that I am too lazy to bring down to the craft closet.  So...after cleaning out my closet, I had to clean out and re-organize the craft closet.

Then I decided not to stop there and I cleaned out my make-up drawer.

Sadly, my blush is older than my kids!  Don't know what I will do when it runs out...it's from a make-up company no longer in existence.

Then I decided to tackle P's room (A has gotten pretty good about keeping her room neat...I hope her sister follows in her shoes as she gets older...).

Then I decided to really go to town and clean out the freezer!

Now, I feel SO much better!!!

I read another post on Clover Lane and I am considering changing one thing in each room of our home to really chase away those winter blues...maybe something as simple as rearranging furniture, or perhaps buying new window treatments or a focal piece ...or maybe making something with the girls to put in a room...or  maybe even doing some painting!  Now, I am getting excited all over again about being stuck inside!