I’ve noticed a lot of blogs doing monthly challenges and I’ve decided to give myself one, similar to the monthly cleaning challenge at IHeart Organizing. Why? First, because it’s spring cleaning time and my house definitely needs a good scrub-down, especially after being shut up tight all winter. And having the icky slushy salty stains of winter weather being tracked in. Second, because I am a total clutter bug. I live amongst piles. My mother thinks I’m going to end up on Hoarders or die under a pile of books or something along those tragic lines. So I really need to clear out some of this junk. Since there are 30 days in April, I’ve come up with a list of 30, but I doubt I’ll do a thing a day (and not just because it’s April 2nd already!). Here’s my list:

1. Dining room – Clean off the table and clear out the hutch/drawers/cupboards
2. Living room – Clean out all the drawers, shelves, baskets and other cubbies
3. Front Hall closet – Do I wear all these coats? What’s in that box on the top shelf? This is prime storage space — I should be using it better
4. Bookshelves – Organize and donate
5. Desk Drawers – Figure out which papers I actually still need on file and which I can shred. Do I need those pay stubs from 2003?
6. Office closet – What actually belongs in here? This is where all the random stuff ended up when I moved
7. Office desk top organizers – How do I set this space up so that I actually use it?
8. Linen closet – Organize, get rid of expired stuff, etc.
9. Bedroom closet – Switch over to spring summer clothes and get rid of stuff I no longer wear
10. Bedroom dresser – Same as the closet, but with more foldy-type clothes
11. Shoe closet, aka the back closet — Reorganize this so I can reach my spring shoes more easily. Take a good look at winter shoes and have the ones that didn’t survive the season repaired or replaced
12. Pantry – Pull everything out and give it a thorough scrub down. Toss expired food.
13. Dish shelves – Give everything a wipe down
14. Cooking utensils and cook wear — Clean out all drawers and cupboards. Donate stuff I never use.
15. Fridge – Scrub it out and check all the dates on condiments
16. Junk Drawer – What is even in here?
17. Shampoo all the carpets – Living room, dining room, hall, back hall, bed and office
18. Craft supplies – Organize them so that I can pull out and finish one project at a time
19. Kitchen stove/oven – Clean the oven
20. Laundry room – Vacuum. Hope the spiders don’t get me.
21. Email – Go through and delete as many old emails as I can. Especially ads
22. Old computer – Finish migrating old files to the cloud or to my new computer (before old computer finally croaks)
23. Photos – Organize my photos in folders so I can find them
24. Car – Detail it, inside and out!
25. Dog – Give her a bath and get her a pedicure
26. Storage unit – Inspect for water damage and other possible issues. Get rid of anything that’s not needed.
27. Garden – Rack through and pull all last year’s dead plants in preparation for spring
28. Alley – Get out there and pull out the dead poisonous weeds before they come back to life!
29. Back yard – Find all the presents that Bronwen left back there that have been covered by snow till now
30. Front porch – Sweep it clean and clear any dead plants out of flower boxes

Do you have a spring cleaning list? How do you tackle it? Anything big that you think I missed?