Because I’ve been thinking about spring…don’t really know why, it’s only January after all…it occurred to me that there are plenty of things that need attention in my home.

Not just items I need to spring clean (because with a hubby, 2 dogs and a cat there are always things that need to be cleaned), but some drawers and closets need serious attention.

The following punch list will be my focus between now and April (when my weekends will be devoted to time in the garden—at least 4-5 hours each weekend, calendar willing.

Recipes: Is it just me or do you find new recipes almost weekly that you are certain you have to prepare sometime?  Last year I made inroads in paring down my recipe files.  I eliminated 3 x 5 cards and converted those recipes to full-page, 3-ring binders.

I try to keep only the cookbooks I use on a regular basis.

A couple of years ago I attempted to streamline my recipes by creating a Tastebook, a service of the site Epicurious where you can upload your recipes and pictures and they put them in a binder of your choosing.

This is a very cool way to store recipes, but does involve some work and a few $$$.

I’m not completely sure this whole binder idea is ideal, but I do like the convenience of taking out the page and making notes after I’ve used the recipe.  I still need to weed out more—how many bread pudding recipes does one person need? (Don’t answer that).

Sweater drawers: I’m a huge fan of sweaters of all kinds and I try to keep the wool/cashmere sweaters in a drawer that has cedar pieces and lavender sachets in it to ward off the moths.  After a particularly cold winter I confess, some of my sweaters have been put away in the wrong place, some ending up in the wire elfa drawers of the closet where they are particularly vulnerable to the little insects that delight in using my sweaters as their brunch buffet.  I need to go through the lot and de-pill some, fold some, using the proper Martha Stewart way, and send some to the dry cleaners.

Seriously, Martha has quite a lot to say about how we should fold our sweaters.

image via Martha Stewart

Paper/stamps/assorted Paper Source materials: A few years back I jumped on the bandwagon that is Paper Source and decided I’d be making a lot of my own note cards for thank you notes, invitations and the like.  I’ve done some of that, to be sure, but meanwhile the materials have stacked up in boxes that need some serious organizing if I plan to do more of this time-consuming, but oh-so-satisfying, hand crafting of notes!

This could take some serious concentration.

image via Martha Stewart

Magazines: Just typing the word gives me both pleasure and pressure.  Pleasure in that one of my favorite ways to wile away free time is to sit with a cup of tea and thumb through magazines…and not just any magazine, shelter magazines!  Duh!  However, they stack up and I need to focus on what articles I want to keep for future blog posts and reference and which magazines I can pass on to a friend for her to peruse before recycling.

Otherwise, maybe I should send the old magazines to Nike.  They can make me a pair of shoes.

Leave it to Nike to think of something so fun!

via The Daily Bunch

I’d love some input as to what you do with magazine articles you really want to keep…I have 3-ring binders full of inspiration but sometime wonder if those take up too much space.