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In Between Weather & Spring Cleaning

{Pssst, I’m back from my cruise, but I wrote this post before I left to give me some breathing room before I need to write up a post about our vacation!}

I love it when the weather warms up, but this in-between kind of weather is kind of confusing. My calendar says SPRING, but my cold legs say PUT YOUR DAMN FLEECE-LINED TIGHTS BACK ON!

I usually do a full closet switch-over once the weather fully warms up, but for now I just do a mini-switch to let my closet breathe a little.

Want to join me? It’s easy…

Step 1: Get rid of the wool and corduroy
Everyone has that pile of clothing that they only wear during the coldest of the cold months… the SUPER heavy wool sweaters, the corduroy pants, the long sleeved dresses that make you sweat 11 out of the 12 months of the year. Grab them out of your closet and throw them on your bed.

Now, take that pile o’ clothes and decide what to do with them:

Choice 1: If it has been worn to death, get rid of it and add the item to a list to keep an eye out for a replacement before next year.

Choice 2: If it needs to be fixed or altered, do it NOW so that it’s ready for when you need it again. This is also a great time to get that sweater shaver out and do a little touch up. (If you’ve never used a sweater shaver before, read this post and get ready for your world to change!)

Choice 3: If you never wore it, think about whether it’s time to let it go to a better home – a consignment shop, Facebook sale site, or thrift store. (Want some tips on how to sell your clothes on Facebook, check out this post!)

Choice 4: If you wore it and still love it, launder it (if needed) and pack it away.

I actually have an empty decorative trunk at the end of my bed that works great for storing all those in-between clothes until I pull out the big storage boxes with my summer stuff.

Step 2: Switch out the shoes
Big, heavy boots just feel like too much when it’s April, so get them out of your closet. You will open up some space so you can see other shoes that you’ve been neglecting.

For me, it’s bootie season. I can’t wear them in the dead of winter and I’m not going for them when it’s hot in the summer… so the time is now for booties, booties, booties rocking everywhere!

Step 3: Stand back and admire your pretty closet
Boom, you’re done! It took me about 15 minutes total and everything currently in my closet is seasonally appropriate so I can just grab and go in the morning. Even better, if you know what is in your closet you are more likely to actually WEAR those in-between weather pieces before it gets too hot for them. So yeah, it’s a win-win for you AND your closet.

Do you do an in-between weather closet clean out?

Organizing my Kitchen with Joseph Joseph

I’m on a purging kick and it has found its way to kitchen. Even though we’ve only been in this house for about 4 years now, it’s like decades of stuff suddenly multiplied inside our kitchen cabinets.

Take this cabinet for example:

The top level has like 40 wine glasses. And they aren’t even nice wine glasses – most of them came free with a tasting at a wine festival or vineyard. Do you know how many adults live in my house? TWO. So WHY do I have so many wine glasses? I’m pretty sure that I don’t even have 40 friends…

I tore through the cabinet and here’s how it looks now.

I feel like my cabinet can take a deep breath now (even though that is kind of a creepy thought). After cleaning out the unneeded stuff, I just kind of sat there and smiled at it for a minute. Then, I went into a purging frenzy. I took only about 15 minutes, but I literally went through all my cabinets and grabbed out anything that wasn’t actually used or needed.

I could have spent a lot longer and actually removed everything and cleaned down the insides of the cabinets… but who has that kind of time when a random MUST PURGE THE KITCHEN mood hits?

I’m pretty sure my kitchen purge was sparked when my Joseph Joseph order showed up at my door:

A photo posted by pocketfulofjoules (@pocketfulofjoules) on Jan 6, 2016 at 2:41pm PST

The nice people at Joseph Joseph sent me a couple of their most awesome products to try out for myself. Not only are they just all together pretty and well-designed, they really help keep the clutter under control!

Here’s a little ‘before’ shot of my storage container cabinet before I attacked it. It’s actually not too bad in this picture, but it has certainly been a lot worse.

I went through and got rid of anything gross looking, anything missing a top and any free promo items I received and never used. I then replaced some of the discarded items with my new Nest 12 Piece Storage set. Each storage container has a colored dot on the bottom that coincides with its lid to make them easy to pair. They also fit inside each other with each lid snapping into place!

I can’t believe how streamlined they are to store away in such a small space. And I kind of love the pretty rainbow of color from the lids!

Joseph Joseph also sent me their Nest 9 Plus which carries over their space saving design with food preparation items. This set contains: a large mixing bowl, colander/strainer, stainless-steel mesh sieve, small mixing bowl with measurements, and 5 measuring cups.

And the best part… look at this:

Yup, they all fit together for easy-peasy storage!

Just take a look at my formerly messy drawer now:

Yeah, I’m pretty much in organizer heaven. I really like the design of my new Joseph Joseph products and I’m hoping that they can help me keep my kitchen nice and organized in 2016!

Do you have a drawer in your kitchen that looks like my ‘before’ picture? What is your best tip for purging unneeded items?

Disclosure: I received the Nest 12 Piece Storage Set and Nest 9 Plus from Joseph Joseph for the purposes of my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Setting the Table

One of my absolute favorite things about fall each year is when my family comes over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. I can’t remember when I took on the responsibility of being in charge of Thanksgiving, but it’s been quite a few years now.

I found this gem from 2008:

Even though I can’t remember when I started, I do remember very clearly that I told my mom that I’d take over Thanksgiving with one caveat: she is still in charge of the turkey. And the stuffing, because they are kind of a combo deal.

So that’s what we do. My parents bring the turkey and stuffing and I do everything else.

Each year I have visions of a beautifully set table with matching plates, pretty napkins and glasses that aren’t etched with the name of a winery.

But each year I fail.

After Travis and I got married, I used our wedding china to set the table for dinner. But the whole hand-washing thing was kind of a pain in the butt. Last year I got super lazy and used paper plates.

I know, THE HORROR!

What I really need is a dozen cool plates that can go in the dishwasher, but I’ve had the worst time finding what I want. For example, I absolutely love these plates from World Market:

But the design I love is for the smaller salad plates. The full-sized plates are pretty boring:

So, I’m still on the hunt. But until I find a plate that I fall in love with and want to lick gravy off of, I figured I’d work with what I have. Which means that we are back to our wedding china… with one little addition of these fabulous paper place mats:

I picked them up at World Market when I was drooling over the salad plates and they come in a huge pack of 25 disposable paper mats. Pretty, right? Now, if I can just find some fun plates…

I’m curious, what do you use to set the table for Thanksgiving – paper plates, good china, or something in between?

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by World Market, I just love their stuff and want to move into their Rockville location and live there for a long weekend. This post contains ShopStyle affiliate links. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission. Thank you to anyone who chooses to click through and support my blogging addiction.