Celebrating a Lighter Load: The Pursuit of Decluttering

 

I love decluttering, and January always seems the perfect time to do it. New starts are synonymous with organization – at least in my mind. I found a great site called Organise My House, and the writer has a list of 365 things to declutter from your home throughout the year. I picked a few from the start of the list to suggest to you today!

·         Old Keys. When I moved into my first grown-up home (which had been my grandparents’ home), I inherited a quart size plastic baggie full of old keys. I had no idea what any of them went to, but I was terrified to throw them away, because I feared the day would come when I found something locked, and the key to enter might have been in that baggie. After about five years in that house, I finally let go of the key baggie, and I am happy to report I was never permanently locked out of anything. Old keys are an easy catch-all. We move and forget to leave a spare key to the old house, but we keep it, in case anyone ever breaks in and figures out the key in the junk drawer goes to the place we lived four moves ago. If you have a pile of mystery keys, let them go. Just let them go.

·         Out of Date Food. We learned the value of this one when we worked at WillowBridge. We had a pantry in the community room area where we kept donated food and excess canned food from when tenants moved out and didn’t take their food with them. But we had to keep an eye on everything, because expiration dates crept up on us quickly! Cleaning out your cabinets or pantry makes a great winter project, since you can do it inside in the warmth! (And don’t forget to check the refrigerator and freezer. They can hold some relics.)

·         Old Bedding. Why is it that things like old bedding can so easily get shoved to the back of a closet and completely escape our vision? If you have old sheets and blankets that no longer fit the size bed you have, or they have holes in them, or you just don’t use them anymore because they don’t fit your color scheme, there’s no need to keep them around! When moved from Kokomo, I discovered that our (very tiny) linen closet was literally half-full of bedding. We most certainly did NOT need that much bedding.

·         Tattered Clothing. I’m embarrassed to say that I have some clothes that need to be removed from the closet because they’re just sad. Holes here and there (and not in the trendy way), a random stain from cooking mishaps, etc. A new year is a great time to go through closets and drawers and get rid of things that don’t fit or are no longer in good condition.

·         Tarnished Jewelry. A few years ago, I went through all my jewelry and pulled out necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings that had turned alternate colors. I also got rid of pieces I never wore – because they weren’t really my style or I didn’t wear the colors anymore. It was a good feeling to remove things that I no longer used. Why keep them? (Regarding tarnished pieces…maybe all your jewelry is made of quality metal that doesn’t tarnish, but if you’re like me, you probably have some tarnishing going on somewhere.)

·         Tattered Towels. I told you that I’m getting ready to update the towels and washcloths in our kitchen, but bath towels and washcloths need a good once-over sometimes, too. That was one of my favorite gifts at our wedding showers – new bath linens!

I am sure not everyone gets as excited about decluttering as I do, but I have a feeling that if you go through and get rid of things that have lost their quality or use. The lighter load feels so, so good.