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home styling, weekend cooking and urban gardening in Minneapolis
Spring cleaning seems like something that requires entire weekends devoted to (gasp) cleaning. But, tackling small projects can make as much of a difference as big projects. If you have 5, 10 or 15 minutes to spare, try one of these:
Polish leather boots and shoes: 15 minutes (or 3 minutes per pair)
Supplies: polish (black and/or brown, depending on your shoes), buffing brick, polish brush, soft cloth, leather lotion
Clean windowsills and baseboards: 5 minutes per room
Supplies: sponge, soap, hot water
Clean those makeup brushes!: 10 minutes
Supplies: mild shampoo, warm water, clean towel
If you spend more than $1 on a makeup brush, and if it touches your face every day, then you owe it to yourself (and your pocket book) to wash them at least twice a year (I’ve heard that once a month is optimal). It’s easy: fill your sink or a big bowl with warm water and mild shampoo or soap, and soak your brushes. Clean and rinse them individually, and lay on a clean towel to dry (flipping after a few hours). I find that eyeshadow brushes take about 30 seconds apiece, while blush and powder brushes take a few minutes each because they collect so much build-up from daily use. Although I procrastinate on this project every year, I never regret it when I’m done.
Change out your wardrobe: 5-15 minutes
Part 1: scarves!
I keep seasonal scarves within easy reach on a rack between my closet and bedroom door. And I keep more in a basket next to the chaise lounge. And … ok … more in the trunk at the end of my bed 🙂 Can you tell this girl has a scarf addiction? But you can do the same, and it makes for an easy change every season:
before: fall/winter arrangement
after: spring/summer arrangement
My major accomplishment this weekend: doubling the size of the garden in the front yard. I’ve never loved the front garden the way I love the side and back gardens. I’ve thought about building a raised flower bed to fill the space better, but it wasn’t a project I was ready to tackle this year (and then I went and bought a whisky barrel…)
This weekend, while spreading mulch on the flower beds in the side yard, I noticed that the grass wasn’t growing back very well near the front yard flower bed. After 10 minutes of digging out grass clumps and another 10 minutes of dumping garden soil and mulch on the newly cleared area… I had a curvaceous, beautiful garden bed that matches the style of the rest of the garden 🙂
To be honest, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. It was so easy, and completely transformed the look of the front yard. At some point, I plan to fill in the space with some shade-loving perennials. For now, it looks at least 100% better than it did 72 hours ago 🙂
In lesser news, I also spread some funny-looking grass seed in the backyard to fill in a bald patch:
And we’ve been getting some cra-zy storms since I finished my yardwork yesterday. Hopefully they won’t strip my tulips to shreds 🙁
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