As summer unfortunately draws to a close, and the school year starts up again, we all look at our houses and go "wow...what piggies live in this house?" And so it starts again...spring cleaning? More like quarterly house cleansing. While everyone tends to clean their houses daily, deck uttering your life is probably a rarer occurrence (like it is with my house, we declutter about 4 times a year) for most people.
I suppose the key to life really is to clean out your clutter (hi, yeah, do you need that grungy old t-shirt that's 2 sizes too small and about 10 years old? Yeah...probably not.). Less stuff=less mess=happier and easier life! Right? But how do you really know what's junk and what's really worth keeping?
There's tons of online articles that tell you to do things like turning your coat hangers around in your closet and throw out whatever you don't want, or place two boxes and put whatever you've worn in it, and what's left in the second box should be thrown out...All of those articles are great, but a little impractical for families...unless you like boxes everywhere...if you're into that, that's awesome...I personally can't stand it.
It's super difficult to only do it once a year...I mean, who wants to dig through EVERYTHING in their house? Right, no one. Do it seasonally! At the end of summer, decide what's not going to fit your family next year, and have an end of year yard sale or donate it!
When it comes to jewelry, and stuff like that, you're better off keeping it. Why? Things as simple as old costume jewelry has been appraised to be a lot more expensive than what it looks to be worth...seriously! The price of gold doesn't fluctuate that much, and in a tight pinch where you're left with absolutely no other options (like....you'll lose your family if you don't get rid of it to support your family), it's handy to get cash for it on pawn (until better situation...) or to sell (by weight). However, there are some exceptions to that. The old promise ring an ex boyfriend gave you, but you broke up years and years go? Get rid of it...you no longer have serious feelings for each other, and your future/current spouse probably either doesn't realize you have it, or won't appreciate that you still have it (after all of this time.).
If you don't have potty training children, or really young babies you probably don't NEED those 30 fitted sheets cluttering up your closet...really, you should only need two sets of bedding for each bed you have. One on the bed, and one spare. Other than that, you're cluttering your closet.
Do you have a set of 16 dishes, and you're not a family of four? Do you ever host anything that would warrant the use of 16 plates, salad plates, bowls, and mugs? Probably not...you could probably get rid of half of your dishes...consider donating them to a family member just starting out on their own apartment! You could even make them a "first apartment" basket and include things like that extra veggie peeler you never use, that second potato masher, and even your old "steak knives that I bought right after university but barely ever used because I got a brand new set for Christmas from my grandparents who thought I didn't have a set," can make their grand appearance in the box!
When it comes to bathing, we do it every night. We might not wash our hair every time we take a bath (it's actually unhealthy to wash your hair every day...thanks Internet), but we go through a lot of towels....we don't do laundry every day, but every other day we end up doing laundry. Why we keep a hundred towels (May be an exaggeration), I'll never know...give them up! Realistically, 5 maybe 6 towels should do a family of 4.
There's still a lot more to declutter, but I'm sure you guys can take it from here...
I would love to hear some of your own decluttering solutions! Leave a comment below or comment on Facebook!
I suppose the key to life really is to clean out your clutter (hi, yeah, do you need that grungy old t-shirt that's 2 sizes too small and about 10 years old? Yeah...probably not.). Less stuff=less mess=happier and easier life! Right? But how do you really know what's junk and what's really worth keeping?
There's tons of online articles that tell you to do things like turning your coat hangers around in your closet and throw out whatever you don't want, or place two boxes and put whatever you've worn in it, and what's left in the second box should be thrown out...All of those articles are great, but a little impractical for families...unless you like boxes everywhere...if you're into that, that's awesome...I personally can't stand it.
It's super difficult to only do it once a year...I mean, who wants to dig through EVERYTHING in their house? Right, no one. Do it seasonally! At the end of summer, decide what's not going to fit your family next year, and have an end of year yard sale or donate it!
When it comes to jewelry, and stuff like that, you're better off keeping it. Why? Things as simple as old costume jewelry has been appraised to be a lot more expensive than what it looks to be worth...seriously! The price of gold doesn't fluctuate that much, and in a tight pinch where you're left with absolutely no other options (like....you'll lose your family if you don't get rid of it to support your family), it's handy to get cash for it on pawn (until better situation...) or to sell (by weight). However, there are some exceptions to that. The old promise ring an ex boyfriend gave you, but you broke up years and years go? Get rid of it...you no longer have serious feelings for each other, and your future/current spouse probably either doesn't realize you have it, or won't appreciate that you still have it (after all of this time.).
If you don't have potty training children, or really young babies you probably don't NEED those 30 fitted sheets cluttering up your closet...really, you should only need two sets of bedding for each bed you have. One on the bed, and one spare. Other than that, you're cluttering your closet.
Do you have a set of 16 dishes, and you're not a family of four? Do you ever host anything that would warrant the use of 16 plates, salad plates, bowls, and mugs? Probably not...you could probably get rid of half of your dishes...consider donating them to a family member just starting out on their own apartment! You could even make them a "first apartment" basket and include things like that extra veggie peeler you never use, that second potato masher, and even your old "steak knives that I bought right after university but barely ever used because I got a brand new set for Christmas from my grandparents who thought I didn't have a set," can make their grand appearance in the box!
When it comes to bathing, we do it every night. We might not wash our hair every time we take a bath (it's actually unhealthy to wash your hair every day...thanks Internet), but we go through a lot of towels....we don't do laundry every day, but every other day we end up doing laundry. Why we keep a hundred towels (May be an exaggeration), I'll never know...give them up! Realistically, 5 maybe 6 towels should do a family of 4.
There's still a lot more to declutter, but I'm sure you guys can take it from here...
I would love to hear some of your own decluttering solutions! Leave a comment below or comment on Facebook!
No comments:
Post a Comment