April 7, 2024
Since the year began, I have been on a decluttering spree. For some reason the feeling or urge to reduce, eliminate, trim down has been so strong I had to act. I do not know if it has something to do with it being a leap year, but I am cleaning house and it feels so good.
I am a very neat and orderly person and I do not like clutter, so everything has its place. If you walked into my house, you would probably be like you don’t have much stuff which I thought as well until I began to purge.
My Closet
The first place I started were the closets and the dressers and not just mine but the children and the husband’s as well. This made my husband very happy because he is all for less and he has been asking me to go through and see what we do not want so he could donate, sell, or put in the garbage. If we are not using it my husband does not see a need to hold on to it. It is so bad that the kids know not to leave any paper of drawings or the sort on the table because once daddy sees them, they in the garbage because to my husband if it is not in its rightful place then it must be garbage. while me on the other will say well your never know when we might need it. Does that sound familiar, Yea that has my mom written all over it. That is something that my mom always says growing up.
Anyhow, since we went through our debt free journey we stopped buying things. It was one of our ways of reducing expenses and paying off our debt faster. We also sold a lot of what we had at that time as well. We were looking through one of the kids’ albums and my husband realized that he was wearing the same sweatshirt that he was holding our now eight-year-old son in at 3 months. We had a good laugh. But the sweatshirt was still in great condition, and he bought it a few years before our son was born so it goes to show how well we take care of our stuff.
But we accumulate even if we do not buy it. We get stuff for Christmas and birthdays from friends and family, and I work from home most of the time. So, half of the things I have I really do not wear and I do not like anymore. After I went through everyone’s stuff, I brought 14 bags of clothes and toys to goodwill and donated toys to surrounding daycare centers.
Pantry
Going through our pantry was an ordeal. There were seasonings and can goods that were expired. Ketchup packages and plastic utensils from take out. My husband looked at me and asked why we have these. And that is something I took from childhood. We did not have much so my mom always kept ketchup packages for when we ran out of ketchup and the utensils she would give us when we carry lunch which we would bring back home and wash and reuse. It was not a one and done. Nothing went to waste in our house.
The Basement
Full disclosure we are not finished with the basement yet. We have a few bins that we have to open up and go through. We also have some beautiful wooden side tables and dressers that I keep saying I am going to call an organization to pick up but have I yet, nope. They need to go because they are just taking up space and we are not going to use them. It has been 10 years already and we still haven’t made use of them, so it is time. Same with the bins, we haven’t gone in those bins for anything since living in this house.
I promised my husband that we will finish by the end of march but that did not happen so April it is. No exceptions, no excuses.
It Goes for People Too.
Surprisingly, I found that with my decluttering spree, I am also purging people from my life as well. I know this sounds horrible, but I am so much better for it. These individuals were not adding any value and were full of so much toxicity that it had to be done. To be honest it was not an intentional action on my part. I simple told myself at the end of last year I was going to stop being so emotionally involved in other peoples lives which can be very hard when dealing with family but you cannot care more than the person care and once I stopped being an active participant and began saying “I am sorry to hear that, but I know you figure it out” they pull back. You see they were not getting the emotional response they need to fuel their craziness whatever it may be. So, they went to someone else, and I am feeling more at peace.
The feeling
As we go from room to room everything began to feel so light. It was a feeling of a renewal which was unexpected because once again it did not appear that we had a lot of stuff. But we got a feeling of lightness, relaxation and joy. I also feel reenergize and I feel like I am on a fresh start.
How to declutter
I know the thought of decluttering is overwhelming, but I would encourage you to start small.
1) Start with objects that do not have any value or meaning to you.
2) Set a year mark. For me it was If I haven’t use it in 2 years or more. It was time to go.
3) Put aside time each week to clear a space. It can be 10 minutes or just eliminate one thing.
4) Start by categorizing. After I finished my closets, I then went to the children’s books, then the toys, then seasoning and so on.
The important thing is not to stress yourself out. Do what is right for you and try to fit into what you are doing already. So, do tell. What have you decluttered recently leave a comment I would love to hear your experience.