Spring cleanup!!

We all spend so much time on our swaps, maybe our cleaning and organizing has fallen a bit behind? This swap will help you get some cleaning done!! If you feel a little overwhelmed, this swap is for you. You will end up feeling like you accomplished something for yourself!

For this swap we photograph, we clean, we photograph, we plan! Easy, right? (Except, of course, the cleaning part.) you'll be surprised at how much accountability helps you get into the cleaning spirit. And how much knowing you will be rated for doing/not doing it spurs you into action!!

Photograph one to three areas of your home. This might incude one large project... your garage, for example, or a junk filled guest room, or a messy children's playroom, a big closet. Or it might be several smaller areas... a horrible junk drawer, a closet, a craft table, pantry shelf. You get the idea.

I am not concerned about the swap being even. One person might choose three rooms filled floor to ceiling with hoarded embarrassment, another might choose a junk drawer; it actually doesn't matter as long as something improves.

Clean/organize the area!! Put some elbow grease into it! Now, enjoy a cup of tea or hot cocoa. (because I said so) Take pictures again of the cleaned up area. E-mail these pictures to your partners, along with a plan for keeping the area better organized in 2011. (It doesn't matter what... a detailed 12 step plan, or 'I hope I won't dump junk in here anymore'... but try to be realistic with your goal while also thinking about what will make it easier to clean up next time, or to keep clean)

You may complete the requirements before partners are assigned if you like. Get to work!

Rate your partner a 5 (or 5and a heart) if they email you before/after photos of at least one area they chose to work on, before swap deadline. Do not base the rating on your opinions of their choices.

Next month, maybe we will do it all again! Maybe at the end of the year we can creat a little 'clean' journal with all of our spaces recorded, and a current update on them. If nothing else, we've cleaned a space up.