Spring Cleaning and Cherry Blossoms...

This weekend, we are having a big - make that GINORMOUS - garage sale that my mom is so generously hosting and organizing. We have spent countless hours going through boxes and boxes of my dad's stuff. We have been collecting his things that he has had stored with friends all over the country side, bringing everything over to my mom's house, and sifting through every last box of his earthly possessions. Emotional? Yes. Exhausting? Yes. Clothes (most of which we just gave to the Union Gospel Mission), furniture, pictures, kitchen, bath, tools, Tupperware (some of which still had dry pasta in - oh dad)...and the list goes on. As hard and exhausting as this process has been, it needed to happen and it feels good that the project is underway and nearing completion. I can already anticipate the huge sigh of relief I will let out come Monday.
This process has inspired me to clean out my own closets. I pulled out enough stuff to equate a pile the size of 10 cubic feet! Clothing, home decor, JUNK. What's sad is that you could walk into any room of my house and not notice anything was missing, haha. Hoarder by nature...but I prefer "collector." Lets be honest - I need NOTHING. This experience has been eye opening though. I need to limit buying "project" pieces. Also, each time I buy something home related OR clothing, I need to remove a piece from my current collection. This is a great plan in theory, but I will need to stick to it in order to keep the accumulation at bay. There are a few things that have sentimental value that I am saving for my future house and/or kids someday, so some things are justified. Maybe I'm just making excuses, but I enjoy treasure hunting so much I couldn't possibly give it up entirely. I just need to get smart about it. I'm making my house out to sound like a giant storage unit - which it is far from, but the key is purging when necessary and making sure I'm not over-accumulating unnecessary stuff. After all, stuff is just stuff, and it will amount to nothing in the end.
What kinds of things do I collect, you ask? Here's a list of my favs...lovely linens esp. duvet covers and fabulous shams, pillows, vintage blue ball canning jars, ceramic birds - I name each one (I am picky though, so not just any bird will do), old frames, and project pieces of course. My current project pieces include refinishing a fabulous cedar chest, painting 2 night stands, refinishing an antique desk and matching chair, a huge bulletin board, recovering my dining room chairs, recovering a few throw pillows, and creating a fabric headboard - to name a few, and that's just for home! Felicity Boutique has an entirely different list :) I've been waiting for better weather to tackle most of these, so pictures will follow my project process one I actually start! There's just something about the spring time and the cherry blossoms that encourages me to clean, create, and explore my inner artist by ways of a great DIY project...