Decluttering Challenge #1

 

            A few weeks ago, Ryan went to a seminar on decluttering, and he brought home this fascinating packet of paperwork about it. And yes, I do recognize the irony in a packet of paperwork about decluttering. Ha! I thought I would write a few posts with some ideas that might help us all! (You can do spring cleaning in the fall, too, right?)

1.       Throw away wrapping paper scraps. Do you even use wrapping paper anymore? I would guess most people use gift bags now. But regardless of which one you use, do you have a bunch of jumbled gift wrap guts strewn about the house? Bags that are worn out? Tissue paper? Smashed bows? Here’s what I did this summer to help with this: When Mom and Dad moved, Mom bequeathed to me all her wrapping paper, gift bags, bows, tissue, etc. I went through everything in her stash and mine and took out the things that looked worn/bedraggled/not my style. I took a long, large plastic tub and neatly organized all the rolls of wrapping paper, gift bags, and folded sheets of tissue paper. Then in a separate, smaller tub, I kept the bows that weren’t smashed. Those two tubs are my max-capacity storage for gift wrapping supplies. My collection can never surpass what comfortably fits in those two things. They’re organized, they’re not damaged, they’re usable, and I know exactly where they are.

2.       Throw away Christmas lights that don’t work. We don’t (currently, anyway) put lights on the outside of our house at Christmas. Maybe one day we will, but for now, our only Christmas lights are the regular indoor tree strands. I do not keep strands that are half-dead. Here’s how I handle my Christmas lights every year: At the end of each Christmas season, I pitch the strands that have died, and I also try to purchase new boxes when they go on sale at the end of the season, so I’m prepared for the following year. We have, as you might remember, a lot of trees, so I don’t have time to mess with partially dead strands.

3.       Get rid of out-of-date magazines. Oh, I used to be so bad about this. There was a season of my life where I could have won an award for excessive magazine collections! Over time, I’ve eliminated them entirely, and I also don’t receive any magazines (currently) so I don’t have fresh issues coming into the house on a regular basis. If I did, though, here’s what I would do: I would read the magazines and pull out anything I wanted to keep for future reference – like a recipe, for example. Then I would find a good forwarding spot for the old magazines. If it’s still full and not partially destroyed, I would gift it forward for someone else to read. (Sometimes offices with waiting rooms accept old issues for reading material, too.) If it’s not full enough to pass on, I’d see if a classroom or homeschool parent needed any for projects!

4.       Toss old receipts that you don’t need. Ryan is the keeper of the receipts in our household, so these go to him, and he’s really good about sorting through them in a timely manner to keep or shred as needed. When I was single, I had a practice of taping receipts to copy paper if I needed to keep them for tax or other purposes and shredding the rest. Receipts, I believe, multiply in drawers, so don’t let them get the best of you!

5.       Say goodbye to worn out hair ties. Another item that multiplies in drawers! I actually need to do a better job of tossing the ones that have stretched out. I don’t know why I keep them. They’re so tiny and so cheap (literally and figuratively) that there is absolutely no reason to hang onto ones that no longer do their job well. Another thing: I need to put hair ties on the shopping list. I have a bunch that are standard ties. I have none of the tiny ones that sometimes wish I had for little braids. Do I ever think of it while I’m at the store? Absolutely not.

6.       Don’t keep unmatched earrings. My jewelry has gone through a bit of a capsule phase, much like my wardrobe. Over the course of our moves, I’ve eliminated all earrings that don’t match my current clothing colors. I also want to make sure I don’t end up with an extensive collection of earrings I am not wearing. I have a specific holder that I keep them in, and when the holder gets full, something has go to if something new comes in. It might be a good idea to expand this one to include – broken earrings, earrings you hate, earrings that hurt your ears, and earrings that no longer fit your style.

7.       Throw away worn out or unmatched socks. Did you know there’s actually not a prize for wearing socks until they fall off your feet? True story! My rule is as follows: If it loses its partner and is not the kind of sock that I have a dozen more to match, it goes in the trash. If I have more like it, I’ll hang onto a single sock because eventually a new partner will show up for it. If it gets threadbare on the bottom or gets a hole in it, it goes in the trash. My feet actually hurt after wearing socks with holes in the bottom, so there’s no point in keeping them.

8.       Why keep old CDs? I might be a fail on this one. I have a bunch, and I don’t listen to them, but I can’t bring myself to throw them away. Hey, I made it to number eight before I had a fail. That’s not bad. Maybe I need to spend some time thinking about WHY I’m keeping them.

9.       Damaged/worn out sunglasses need to go. This isn’t really a problem for me, because I tend to only have one pair of sunglasses at a time. When they break, I have to get new ones because I don’t have others. But if you keep some here and there, it might be time to go through them and make sure you’ve gotten rid of the ones you don’t wear or like. Here’s an idea: I’ve tried to be really purposeful about the sunglasses I buy. I try on a million in the store before buying and have learned what styles pinch my nose or hurt my head. I have learned the shades of brightness/darkness I love and hate and that makes it easier to only buy one pair at a time. I also almost always buy at Walmart or a dollar store so that if/when they break, I’m not out a ton of money.

10.   Don’t keep out of date makeup products. Eyeshadow palettes are always the culprit for me. Some of the spots wear out immediately and some hardly look used. But I try not to keep them excessively – and this is one reason I like buying makeup that is on the cheaper side. I don’t feel as bad if I have to replace it often. My favorite makeup idea was back when I used Mary Kay, and you could craft your own makeup tray with magnetized tins of colors. You could replace each one when it emptied and not throw away things that still have life.

So…how did you do on this list? Any of them a struggle for you? Any of them on your list to tackle soon?