With snowdrops (hopefully) about to make an appearance you might be thinking about having a good old-fashioned spring clean at home although it appears that this ritual our mothers used to go through every spring has now be re-named as ‘de-cluttering.’
We now carry emotional clutter as well as physical clutter and there are numerous books on the subject all with the ultimate aim of helping us to live more sparingly and without the stress that mountains of possessions create.
Those of you familiar with Japanese ‘organising consultant’ Marie Kondo’s book will be well aware that her way of dealing with clutter is to work through individual categories of possessions starting with clothing as the largest one down to that pile of papers we all seem to accumulate in the corner of our kitchen. Each item regardless how small needs to be held and we then need to ask whether it still ‘sparks joy.’ While I can understand the theory behind this, the perceived enormity of the task to date has prevented me from wholly embracing the ‘KonMari method.’ I prefer to break the tasks up into far more manageable chunks, whether that be one room at a time, one cupboard or simply one drawer. Once you’ve decided on where you’re going to start and starting with a drawer is absolutely fine, you can then sort all that ‘stuff’ into 4 different groups.
1 – Cherish
These are all the things you’re going to keep; you things you can’t live without or simply can’t bear to part with. If you struggle with getting rid of things, just because you decide to ‘cherish’ certain items doesn’t mean that they have to be on display or that they take up your valuable storage space. You may have certain books, items of clothing, photographs etc that have sentimental value and if that’s the case a few sturdy storage boxes and some attic space is the best place for them.
One you’ve sorted through everything you’re going to keep, what’s left, without sounding too harsh, can be got rid of but think about dividing up your ‘junk’ into 3 separate groups.
2 – Cash
The ‘cash’ group is for items you no longer want but you may be able to sell. Sites such as EBay, Gumtree or even Facebook are a great way of cashing in items of furniture or clothing and what better way to be rewarded for all your hard work than by making a little bit of money.
So having safely stored your most cherished items and listed those you wish to sell there are only two further categories to deal with.
3 – Charity
You’re bound to have items of furniture, clothing as well as books that may not have a second hand value but would be gratefully received at you local charity shop. I would always advise checking beforehand what they are able to take as there are certain regulations they need to follow regarding items of furniture and there may well be others.
4 – Crap
And this is exactly what it ‘says on the tin’ – it’s all that ‘stuff’ that you’ve no doubt forgotten you even had, it doesn’t work and it’s certainly of no use to anyone else. So fill the car boot, take it to your local tip and take a moment to notice how much better you feel for having got through such a mammoth task.
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