Spring Cleaning: What To Toss Or Keep

Spring is traditionally the time to go freshen things up around the home.

This begins by going through things and getting rid of some items to make room for new stuff. And perhaps the most important part is also giving what you have a new and improved look.

Furniture Spruce Up:

Thom Filicia, celebrity interior designer and author of "Thom Filicia Style," shared some ideas for sprucing up furniture.

"Spring cleaning and interior design is really all about editing. Editing is sort of the key component." he said. "It's all about editing your furniture and accessories, cleaning house, lightening the load, the same thing you do with your clothing."

Filicia suggests that if you have a piece of furniture and you really don't want to throw out, you can give it to charity.

"There are great charities you can get involved with," he said. "There's the National Furniture Bank Association, they're national, anyone can contact them. There's Habitat For Humanity."

When donating your furniture it should be in good condition and clean.

"If it has springs coming out or needs to be cleaned or you sneeze coming near it, get rid of it," he added.

Filicia suggests re-selling furniture on eBay or apartmenttherapy.com, the classifieds, or backpage.com.

He also suggests taking great photographs of the furniture, giving an accurate description of it, and being very clear about its condition.

There is also the option of sprucing up for spring.

"An easy, inexpensive way to spruce up your bedroom or living room: pillows," he said. "You can have a great winter pillow in velvet and a pillow cover, zip it over and you have a new, fresh look for summer."

Books And Magazines:

Kate Parker, home editor of "Real Simple" magazine, shared some inventive ideas on spring cleaning with books and magazines.

"If you're thinking about books and magazines, you have to think, am I going to keep it or not? If you love it, getting use out of it, if you have room, keep it. If not, time to donate or discard," Parker said.

"With books, most people don't know hardcover books you can recycle them if they're kind of worn out beyond use and you can't donate them," she said. "You can rip out the inside pages, donate them with your paper items."

Parker says that if you have books in good shape, you can also intersperse them with decorative objects, which creates "a little visual interest."

What do we do with our magazines?

Parker suggests magazine files from the Container Store.

"You can organize them according to topic or title. You can have them organized and standing neatly on your bookshelf," Parker said. "Finally, if you're really into it, you can create a magazine binder and you can organize things by recipes, fashion tips, home ideas."

Closet Organization:

Melanie Mannarino, deputy executive editor of "Redbook" magazine, tackled closet spring cleaning and organization.

According to Mannarino, you want to decide what to keep or get rid of.

"If you love it, keep it," she said. "Styles come and go, keep it, hang onto it. On the other hand if you look at the same sweater over and over, you keep it in the back of your closet, cut your losses. Give it to charity. Give it to your girlfriend, your mother. Just get rid of it."

How do we know what's OK to give to a non-profit?

Mannarino says that if you wouldn't wear the clothing in public, don't expect anyone else to.

"If it has holes, it's ratty beyond repair, throw it out or use it as a rag. If, however, you're getting rid of it because of fit, color or style, it's just not for you, somebody else might love it," Mannarino noted.

She also pointed out that especially now is a great time to donate to charity because it's usually tax-deductible.

There are ways to make spring cleaning fun as well, such as a clothing swap.

For busy moms, organizing the closet means finding things quickly and easily, which is essential with timing.

Mannarino also suggests organizing by weather or by color.

With shoes, however, it's a little different.

Shoes can be kept in the original cardboard box (to protect them), then labeled and stacked in the closet.