Category: Other

This is the 3rd part of my Witch’s Cottage Fall Clean Up series. This is the part where you get down to it and clean that cottage! There is only one more week until Thanksgiving if you live in the U.S. and that is usually a big family visiting time. It’s time to dust off your cleaning supplies and really get to work! Remember, you are a witch on a rampage!

• Keep a donate box ready in your garage at all times. As you lose your interest in items, clothes don’t fit, your style changes, or you are finally able to toss out random items, throw them immediately in the box so that when it is full, it came be taken to a Goodwill or other charity shop. Funny story: One of my old coworkers had kids who were major hoarders. So every time he went in their room, he would take a toy they hadn’t played with in a while out and throw it in his donate box in the garage. They never really noticed anything missing and assumed it was still in their cluttered room. He donated about a box every other month that way!
• Start at the top and work your way down so that the dust makes it to the floor. Once you are finished with a room, Vacuum, sweep, or mop the last of it up.

• Play music to put you in the mood. Nothing slow or relaxing. Play upbeat music that makes you want to move.
• Go easy and start one room at a time. If a room isn’t finished, don’t just jump to the next one unless you are trying to do all like items together such as all toilets at the same time or stripping all beds of their sheets at the same time.
• Fluff pillows and note which ones are flat or old. Even if it still looks nice, it may be a good idea to replace them anyways. Research shows that after two years, approximately 1/3 of a pillow’s weight contains dead skin, dust mites (which eat the dead skin), and droppings (poop from the mites). Ask yourself when was the last time you bought new pillows?
• Nothing freshens a room like a nice smell. Burn candles, replace automatic spray scents with a new scent, or burn incense. It will really add to the final overall product when you are finished cleaning.
• Clear out junk. If you have a storage shed, do you really need what is in there? If it spends its entire life in a Tupperware bin in the garage, is it doing anything for you? If it sits in the attic or basement for years on end, has it contributed to your household? The answer is no. Get rid of it.
• Ruthlessly deal with piles. This means even if you have to sort the pile into a smaller pile for later, it is still progress. If you have a chair that is covered in things you need to go through, then go through them. If you have to put a few items back on that chair to address later, that is ok!
• Wipe out sinks; kitchen, bathroom, and garage/ mud room alike. Sinks get gross. Pour some vinegar and baking soda down the sink before following that up with some hot water. There are garbage disposal lemon pods you can use to freshen up your garbage disposal.
• Put out new towels. Refresh your entire bathroom and put out a fresh set of towels or mix it up and buy some new towels for a new look in your bathroom.
• Open windows and let in fresh air and light. Clean the curtains and wipe the blinds to get rid of dust while also remembering to wipe your windows on both the inside and the outside.

• Dust plants. Plants collect dust too! Water all of your plants and dust their leaves, especially if they are fake. A layer of dust on the leaves of houseplants will block sunlight and reduce the plant’s ability to photosynthesize. Throw away any plants that are dead and dying. That includes inside the house and outside. I like to add crystals and little statues inside my plants!
• Wipe photo frames. Fingerprints can accumulate as well as dust so make sure to wipe them down. Also, change out the photos with new photos to update your living area.
• Wipe down all electronic screens carefully with approved products so you do not damage them.

• Finish straggling dishes in the sink. Fill it with hot water, detergent, and bleach, and wipe down the entire kitchen while you are at it. Use the sink mixture to go over all flat surfaces to disinfect them.
• Spray dawn dish detergent and vinegar inside of your microwave; add a bowl of hot water and microwave for 90 seconds, then rinse. This will break up caked on gunk and disinfect the microwave at the same time.
• Clean hot water dispenser on coffee pots or electric kettles. Brew with water and vinegar and run a cycle. Run another cycle with plain water to remove the vinegar afterwards. This helps break up calcium deposits and disinfect the system.
• Get stains out of your microfiber couch with isopropyl alcohol and a white sponge so that no color dyes mess with the fabric.  Mr. Clean magic erasers are great for this!

• Bookshelves are notorious for picking up items that are not books or being incredibly cluttered with too many books. Go through them and toss things you know you aren’t going to read or watch and dust and remove the extra clutter sitting around those shelves. If you own the item digitally, get rid of the physical one. That is extra space it is taking up.
• Go through all storage furniture like ottomans and side tables and make sure there is no debris and junk inside them. Get rid of anything that does not belong in that room, and then organize the contents.
• Check boxes that are packed from previous moves. If you’ve had boxes of books or clothes or nik naks packed away for years, chances are that you don’t need them (and won’t miss them). Can you rearrange anything to make more space? Can you sell or donate anything you don’t need?
• Ask yourself a few simple questions:
  • “How long since I last used this? Will I use this?”
  • “Do I like it? Does it fit my lifestyle?”
  • “Does it work properly? Is it broken?”
  • “Do I have duplicates? How many do I need?”
  • “If I keep this, what will I get rid of to make room for it?”
  • “If I moved tomorrow, would I really want to pack this and pay to take it across the country?”

Cleaning and decluttering get easier with time but it is best when you make decluttering a habit. I hated cleaning growing up. Every Saturday was cleaning day and I had to do my chores. My best friend would tell me about washing her curtains (monthly I think) and I thought it was ridiculous. Now, I am all about it. I have lived both worlds and I much prefer the neat and orderly world to the hoarder’s world. Especially with 3 familiars shedding everywhere.

A habit I picked up was if I left one room to go to another, take an item that needs to go. If I am going to the garage and my drill set is out from hanging a picture earlier, take it in there with me and put it away. If I am going to the kitchen, grab any cups or other items from the room I am currently in that need to be washed. If I am going to my bedroom, grab my coat or sweatshirt and hang it up or put it in the laundry. Likewise, if I am going to my office, grab my bills that need filing and just open the drawer and file them. It takes a few extra seconds. Don’t let things pile up! Doing one or two items each time you move around your house on the daily demolishes the rate that clutter piles up and makes regular cleaning much easier. It’s that simple!

Make decluttering and neatness a habit!

Finally, after dropping off all those boxes at Goodwill or your local charity shop, drink some wine to celebrate and relax in your nice fresh clean cottage! Maybe even do a smudge or two…. Victory!

From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,

This is the 2nd part of my Witch’s Cottage Fall Clean Up series! Today, we will be focusing on the smallest and hardest room in the house to clean. The closet! One of my best friends has accepted that laundry is her Achilles heal and has a clean laundry basket as well as a dirty laundry basket because she knows she will not hang anything up after it has been washed. Living that way stresses me out and closet organization and clean out is important to me. It is great way to feel a breath of fresh air when you are able to donate or sell 2 or 3 boxes of unused clothing.

Pull out everything from your closet all at once. And I mean everything. Including non clothing items that do not belong in your closet. Don’t go through everything on the hanger. Put it all on your bed and go through each item one by one so that you have to make a decision and physically hang it back up, not just glance and say I like it and I’m keeping it. Put 4 boxes (or piles) in front of the bed; a box to donate, a box to throw away, a box to repair, and a maybe box. Keep the maybe box the furthest away from you and use it sparingly.

Go through each item one by one, try it on if you haven’t worn it in a while, and if it is a keeper, hang it back up. My mom said something to me once that really stuck. If it doesn’t wow you, don’t buy it/ keep it. I get a lot of complements on the way I dress and a lot of that has to do with going back to what she said. Does it make me say wow? Do I feel attractive in it? If the answer is no, I toss it or don’t buy it. Just because it is on sale and good deal does not mean it needs to go home with you.

Don’t get me wrong, I have some athleisure wear just like everyone else but I also actually work out multiple times a week. Other than my workout clothing, I only have 4 T-shirts, 4-5 casual shirts, 5 sweatshirts/ hoodies, and the rest are nice looking shirts that are a bit dressier and look super cute. If casual is more your style, then make sure they are pieces you wear. A lot of people have entire racks of T-shirts and only wear the same 8 or 9.

It feels good to see the space in your closet and actually be able to look at the items hanging instead of shoving them tightly to one side just to see the image on whatever item you are trying to look at. Not only that, only keep clothing items in your closet. There is a lot to be said for clearing out your closet! Because if your closet looks like Howl’s bedroom, you will never find anything….

That is where this list comes in! Without further ado, the top 7 items to pull from your closet and hopefully clear out a ton of space for you in the future!

• Clone clothing- anything you have multiples of. You don’t need 4 little black dresses. You don’t need 7 pairs of almost identical black heels. You don’t need 18 holiday sweaters. And you certainly don’t need 200 T-shirts. Options are important, but having more than 3 of the same piece is just excessive.

• Pieces you have never worn or only wore once. If it has a tag and it’s been more than a year, toss it. Also, if you have lots and lots of an item but you are partial to certain ones, get rid of the rest. This would be like someone who collects tank tops and has every color of the rainbow but only wears the pink and black one. All the others just sit there and make the closet look bright and cheery but worst of all, it just takes up space.
• Comfort clothing- house clothes you have had forever that you wear when you are at home that you wouldn’t be caught dead in outside. Or would rather fight someone than let them post a picture of you wearing it on your Facebook. Stains and holes galore. Keep one or two if you must but there is no reason to dress like a hobo at home. Comfortable: yes. Hobo: no
• Bad outfits- outfits you wore all the time, but now hate, or outfits you would never wear again if your life depended on it. Don’t let sentiment stop you. If someone bought you a cute scarf and you haven’t worn it in 5 years, they will never know if you got rid of it or not since it never leaves the closet anyways. Toss what doesn’t serve you.

• Anything that doesn’t fit you ~now~. I know a lot of people want to hold on to items so that when they lose weight, they can wear them again, but that just takes up unnecessary space and you will go shopping in the future anyways. You know you will. Toss it unless you are super close to achieving your goal. This also goes for your style. If you rocked a more goth or punk look in the past (guilty….) and now you are rocking a more feminine aesthetic and don’t plan on dabbling, just get rid of it. 10 pairs of black pants can be styled with cute blouses but 10 pairs of spiky wrist cuffs and a studded vest with chains are probably never going to come out again. I know some clothing is expensive and it bothers you to get rid of them, but cluttering your closet isn’t going to make that piece worth the money either.

• Stained or damaged pieces. Again, sentiment tends to have us hold on to these pieces or we are loathe to toss something that cost a lot of money. But ask yourself, what is this piece doing for you? Are you getting your money’s worth by letting it sit in your closet? No. Toss it out so items you do wear have more visibility and space to breathe. And any clothing that needs buttons sewed on or hems redone, just bite the bullet and do it. Sewing a button takes all of 1 minute. Drop the rest of your items off at a tailor shop to get them rehemmed properly so that you are able to wear them again.
• Anything remaining that you will probably never got around to wearing but you keep it anyways. This includes your holiday wear, gifted clothing, items you meant to donate in the past but never did, items you borrowed from a friend that you are no longer friends with and don’t want to wear, etc.

So there you have it! 7 Items you need pull out of your closet to give you space back! And remember to be ruthless when you go through your closet. With the holidays coming up, you will likely purchase a few pieces, be gifted a few pieces, and go to after holiday sales. There is no reason your Witch’s Cottage needs to look like a hoarder’s mess! Get in there make some space!

Personally, I encourage donating the clothing when finished because that way you do not have a chance to look at it and have second thoughts after it goes in the box vs. a yard sale where you can change your mind after seeing it displayed while people browse through. Not only that, I only keep clothing items in my closet. I’ve seen closets with random boxes, a vacuum, extra pillows, and other excessive items that don’t ever get used. The closet is a highly traveled space, especially if you change more than once a day like I have to, I do not recommend having non clothing items stored there; that goes especially for a vacuum which is literally a dust trap.

Once you are finished cleaning out your closets, I always recommend going in and cleansing the space. I was not idle while writing this post and I now have a nice little pile of items to go into my donate bin. Once you are finished with your clothing, wipe down the walls with a lavender or cedar water to discourage pests, dust shelves with some orange oil to keep your clothing items fresh and clean, and vacuum the space to give it a new face. Get in there and be a witch on a rampage and good luck!

From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,

This post next series of posts is a little off the witchy vibe track but it is a series I have wanted to do to help out my fellow witches. I wanted to do this post because I know that sometimes life happens and we get behind on things we wouldn’t normally get behind on, like cleaning. But sometimes, once you are behind, that’s all it takes for your home to spiral out of control. I love to clean but most people I know hate it. With the coming holidays, a lot of those around me are talking about cleaning up their homes for guests or just to keep flu season out. Both are great reasons along with my favorite: I love a clean house and the satisfaction it gives me afterwards. I know some witches are also not excited about the prospect of cleaning because it feels like such a huge undertaking. In today’s day and age, we own much more than the witches of the past and all those potion bottles, spell books, and crystals can collect a lot of dust, so let’s get started! This is the first part of my Witch’s Cottage Fall Clean Up series!

Declutter your life to improve your mental health also known as how to get your witch’s cottage in tip top shape for the coming winter holidays!

Our homes are very much a reflection of our mental state. Messy and cluttered houses can reflect in our personality and sometimes be the reason we cannot move forward. We are holding on to everything just the way we hold on to the past. Cleaning is good for the soul.

Not only does it help clear out the clutter in your home, it also clears out your mind’s clutter which can help reduce stress and induce relaxation. Cleaning will help to rid your home of negativity and bad energy while welcoming in positive vibes. A good way to make a new beginning is to rid yourself of that which no longer serves you. Your home isn’t truly clean until all the unexpected places are spotless and sanitized. And with the winter holidays and flu season coming, this is super important!

Clutter can get out of control in a hurry. Mail piles up, laundry falls behind furniture, and odds and ends get stashed in a junk drawer to remain for all eternity. Familiars shed and their fur gets everywhere. Nightstands breed glasses of water, hand lotion, and spell books. And as for bookshelves…… they become catchalls for way more than novels; dust, potion bottles, receipts, random items you picked up in the woods and want off the floor for the moment can stack up until even shelves stress you out.

Breaking down a massive job into smaller more manageable steps can make a task like decluttering your entire life seem much more manageable.

WITCH ON A RAMPAGE! I love going all out in a weekend and cleaning everything all at once but if you aren’t used to doing that or hate cleaning, it isn’t going to be fun or productive. But you do need to get started!

Things to throw away immediately

• Old Magazines: Chances are, you are never going to read them again. Are they doing anything for you besides sitting there in a precarious pile that is constantly about to topple over? See if you can find the information elsewhere (like on the internet), but if it is really something you need to keep, make a place for it like a specific box kept in a specific area so the piles don’t return.
• Receipts, Bills, and Documents: Throw all of these away for items you aren’t planning on returning and ones you won’t need during tax time. Most bills have online tracking of the statement so ask yourself if you really need all of the paper ones. Switch to e-statements to cut down on mail sent to your home. For the important ones you know you need to keep, get a filing cabinet or designate a specific drawer and organize everything by type such as home, bills, car, education, finances, etc.

• Clothes: 1 year rule/ reverse hanger rule- get rid of apparel that you haven’t worn in 1 year. One trick I have seen it to flip all of your hangers backwards and after you have worn it, replace the hanger facing the correct direction again. Any clothes that have not been flipped by the end of the year, get rid of, unless it is a statement piece you only wear on special occasions. Just remember not to have too many of those or they become useless space takers.
• Tupperware: Anything without a lid and anything that looks worse for wear. Toss it. Personally I prefer glass Tupperware because it does not stain or damage as easily, but for those with children or are clumsy, purchase a nice new set to replace the old damaged and mismatched set.
• Kitchen cookware: Go through old, multiples, or melted and damaged cookware and toss it. Also, get rid of anything you have only used a handful of times. Clearly it is just taking up space.
• Kitchen dinnerware: Toss out damaged, chipped, or stained dishes. Go through mugs and get rid of any you don’t use. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need every mug you have ever been gifted. Count how many times you have used it in the last month. All others, toss.
• Hotel samples: Toss any of those mini shampoos, conditioners, and bars of soap or donate them to a homeless shelter. You will never use them again and most people don’t travel enough to use them at all. And when we do travel, we accumulate more. I always have about 2 or 3 for when company comes but I never have more than that. I also make sure I like the scent and don’t grab whatever I see. When I go to hotels now, I don’t take any others either. I don’t need it. Just because it is free does not mean you need to take it!
• Books: Go through and gather books you haven’t touched in months and ones that you aren’t planning on reading or rereading. Shelves are often cluttered with stacks of books you haven’t touched since you bought them or nostalgic books that you once enjoyed. Download it for an e-reader if you enjoyed it that much and save only the best for your shelf. Pull out 3 books to put by your nightstand or in your backpack/ workbag and actually try to read them to get through them.

• Medicine and Vitamins: Clear out drugs that have expired, medicine that has sat on your shelf too long, or anything you no longer use. Check expiration dates for over the counter! If you haven’t been sick in 5 years, that NyQuil is probably not safe or effective to drink anymore! Replace what you need to. Don’t hoard!
• Makeup and Perfume- Get rid of anything too old or that you don’t use. This is hard when your makeup comes from Sephora or Ulta but be honest with yourself. Do you need another pallet? If the answer is no, then stop buying them. Do you need a 10^th blush? No. Toss what is crumbled or damaged. Normally it is recommended to toss anything that is over a year old for sanitation reasons.
• Jewelry: Dispose of broken costume jewelry and sell anything you don’t wear. If there are pieces missing, toss it. If it isn’t your style anymore, toss it. If you know you will never wear it but it is sentimental, see if another family member would want it or try to wear it anyways. If you can’t, toss it.
• Food: Go through your pantry and clear out items that need to be thrown out- the old, unused, and rotting. Pull everything out and wipe it down. Things spill and critters can leave their mark.
• Memorabilia: Be ruthless and throw away memorabilia like cards and gifts you don’t use. If you must keep your cards, go to a craft store and buy a pretty shoe box to put them in and make sure that it has its own place to be. As for gifts, if you aren’t using it and it has dust on it, get rid of it. It adds nothing to your life despite the sentiment behind it.
• Notebooks: Throw away notebooks you don’t need or use anymore. If it is something you will go back to later, that is different! At least organize those. But if you are like me and started collected 3 or 4 drawers of pretty notebooks just because they are pretty, stop, pick a few you like, and donate the rest.

• Old or Unused Electronics: Sell your electronics on Gazelle.com or Nextworth.com. Not only that, think about some kind of cord organizer. They sell them on Amazon and you can even wrap and label the cords too so in the future, you aren’t looking in a drawer full of twisting turning black wires that all look the same. And as for current cords, try to tidy them up so they aren’t littering the ground like hundreds of snakes. Try a cord sleeve to cover and protect them which will help to minimize the disorder they tend to cause as well as keep children and pets safe and extend the cord life.  
• Storage furniture: Go through that console table in the living room, the armoire in the guest bedroom and the trunk sitting in the corner of the basement. See if you really need its contents—and if you even need the actual furniture itself! Don’t keep something because it belonged to a family member. Is it useful? Does it add value to the room? Is it damaged, worn, or straight up broken? Donate or toss it.

This is the first part of my cleaning post. Next time I will give some advice on how to clean the hardest part of the house; your closet! I hope this has helped you in your future cleanings for the upcoming holidays!

From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,

I would like to welcome everyone to my first blog and subsequently, my first blog post! I am an eclectic witch that has been practicing for almost 6 years now. I have always loved everything witchy as well as enjoying a few other topics such as DIY projects, cooking, gardening, reading, health, and finances. This is something I have been wanting to do for a very long time and now that it is the glorious month of October, I have decided to finally put the proverbial pen to paper and begin.

I plan to write at least twice a week on a myriad of topics all focusing and centering on witchcraft and what it means to be an actively practicing pagan in the 21st century. I plan to start simple with magic, holidays, manifestation, symbolism, and other typical witchy things. But eventually and I will be delving into more intense and oftentimes much less discussed topics such as mental health, boundaries, and spiritual healing in your practice.

Side Note: The site is named in honor of my three very spoiled cats: Charlemagne, Constantine, and Nikolai Romanov. They are as spectacular/ crazy as their names suggest and if I am ever exhausted, one of them probably kept me up all night long!

From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,