I recently posted about a book with great cleaning and decluttering tips, as well as help to organize your home in the most optimal way (using tips from Feng Shui
). I followed the book once to write the review, and loved it. Now I'm starting it over, more thoroughly this time, and step one is "clean out your closet".
My closet houses a lot of stuff...and really it should probably just have my clothes. My apartment is small, so a lot of other stuff besides my clothes and shoes have found their way into my own private closet, such as luggage, photo albums, and a box of little man's toys. I have two problems now- how to inspire myself to declutter what should be gone, and where to put the stuff I need to keep.
It's very hard to let go of clothes I bought in the hopes of wearing somewhere I still haven't been. I have a beautiful sequined corset top that I bought to wear for a glamorous New Year's party, but hubby ended up working and I never wore it. Now, years later, it still sits there, not really appropriate for any other occasion, but still beautiful and unworn. I'm supposed to toss it, to let go of the guilt of a bad purchase, or a bad memory (a non-New Year's eve), and to make room for newer and better things, but I can't- I'm still hoping to wear it one day to a glamorous New Year's Eve party.
The rules of decluttering are:
1. If you haven't used or worn it in a year, toss it.
2. If it's not beautiful or useful to you, give it away.
3. If you have more than one of something, keep the newest/best and get rid of the rest.
4. If it has a bad aura attached to it (a bad memory, guilt, etc) remove it from your home.
5. It's better to have too little than too much, and don't keep any "just in case" items, especially if you can borrow it the one time in 50 years you'll need it.
Once I finally whittle my closet down to the best and prettiest and most happy-making items, I need to, figure out what to do with the rest of the stuff. I have one small hall closet where coats, art supplies, hubby's uniforms, and our cleaning supplies are. Then there is the linen closet filled with towels, bed sheets, hair products, toiletries, electronice gadgets we no longer use much, extra make-up, more cleaning supplies, and the laundry bins.
That's it. We have no other closets. We have an attic that terrifies me, so I won't go up there (no lights or flooring), and I'm not sure our photos or luggage will stay in good shape up there anyway (it's hot up there!). I've been asking my parents to take a lot of stuff we have but no room to store (but I don't want to give them my photo albums...I like to have them close to me, they mean so much).
Cleaning and decluttering are fun, and as Flylady says, you can't just keep shuffling clutter around, you have to get rid of it. Now that I'm on my cleaning kick, I plan to get rid of lots and lots of stuff. I found Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook
: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home which I'm excited about, because it helps you to care for EVERYTHING in your home (so says the title) so I'll see how I do with that (though I find Martha Stewart rather intimidating- she is perfect!).
). I followed the book once to write the review, and loved it. Now I'm starting it over, more thoroughly this time, and step one is "clean out your closet".My closet houses a lot of stuff...and really it should probably just have my clothes. My apartment is small, so a lot of other stuff besides my clothes and shoes have found their way into my own private closet, such as luggage, photo albums, and a box of little man's toys. I have two problems now- how to inspire myself to declutter what should be gone, and where to put the stuff I need to keep.
It's very hard to let go of clothes I bought in the hopes of wearing somewhere I still haven't been. I have a beautiful sequined corset top that I bought to wear for a glamorous New Year's party, but hubby ended up working and I never wore it. Now, years later, it still sits there, not really appropriate for any other occasion, but still beautiful and unworn. I'm supposed to toss it, to let go of the guilt of a bad purchase, or a bad memory (a non-New Year's eve), and to make room for newer and better things, but I can't- I'm still hoping to wear it one day to a glamorous New Year's Eve party.
The rules of decluttering are:
1. If you haven't used or worn it in a year, toss it.
2. If it's not beautiful or useful to you, give it away.
3. If you have more than one of something, keep the newest/best and get rid of the rest.
4. If it has a bad aura attached to it (a bad memory, guilt, etc) remove it from your home.
5. It's better to have too little than too much, and don't keep any "just in case" items, especially if you can borrow it the one time in 50 years you'll need it.
Once I finally whittle my closet down to the best and prettiest and most happy-making items, I need to, figure out what to do with the rest of the stuff. I have one small hall closet where coats, art supplies, hubby's uniforms, and our cleaning supplies are. Then there is the linen closet filled with towels, bed sheets, hair products, toiletries, electronice gadgets we no longer use much, extra make-up, more cleaning supplies, and the laundry bins.
That's it. We have no other closets. We have an attic that terrifies me, so I won't go up there (no lights or flooring), and I'm not sure our photos or luggage will stay in good shape up there anyway (it's hot up there!). I've been asking my parents to take a lot of stuff we have but no room to store (but I don't want to give them my photo albums...I like to have them close to me, they mean so much).
Cleaning and decluttering are fun, and as Flylady says, you can't just keep shuffling clutter around, you have to get rid of it. Now that I'm on my cleaning kick, I plan to get rid of lots and lots of stuff. I found Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook
: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home which I'm excited about, because it helps you to care for EVERYTHING in your home (so says the title) so I'll see how I do with that (though I find Martha Stewart rather intimidating- she is perfect!).
My husband and I clean and declutter every few months. I am always amazed at how much stuff I can sell or giveaway. Our goal is to purge our lives of everything that we don't really need! Good luck with your cleaning adventure!
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to sell stuff too...my clutter is another person's treasure (hopefully)
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of the "rules" in the feng shui book except one! As a professional organizer I've found that the "two year rule" is better than the "one year rule". If you haven't worn an item in two years, it's safe to say you probably won't be wearing it. I, however, think you are correct in keeping your New Year's dress! You can still wear it!!
ReplyDeleteI craigslist a lot of my daughter's old toys and other household items. I realized recently that I'm a closet hoarder and guilty of stockpiling lots of random stuff. I'm trying out a "5 minutes a day" cleaning spree and it seems to be working.
ReplyDelete