Warmer weather, for some, fires up the urge to purge: spring
cleaning, garage sales and decluttering. For others, it means firing up the
grill and grabbing a beer!
But, who doesn’t have a closet full of clutter or a basement
full of forgotten treasures? Looking in my own basement there are old Christmas
decorations that haven’t sighted an evergreen tree in decades, a baby dresser,
a toxic corner full of old paint cans and boxes of old college text books. And that’s just one corner of the
useless, space-taking, forget-me-not (yes, we have) clutter.
Why do we hold on to these possessions? I have some
theories: we have an emotional attachment to them; we paid for them and to dispose
of them is throwing out money, referred to as sunk money; some day we may need
it; we still like the item that is taking up valuable real estate in our
basement or closet; if we throw away all the supplies purchased for a project,
we’d have to admit that we’re never going to build that wall, sorry, I meant
privacy fence. As long as we keep all
the supplies, there is still hope for that never-started, but abandoned project.
My decluttering project is returning to my organizing of photos
that are over 30 years old. A few weeks ago, I started off with a burst of
energy and enthusiasm of a toddler that waned after several days of several
hours hunched over a dozen envelopes of baby pictures trying to figure out when
the pictures were taken or how old the babies were. But this time, I’m giving
myself a daily time limit. When the time is up, whatever I’ve accomplished is
more than before I started. And that’s good enough for me.
Click the links below for tips on decluttering.
Tips for what not to do:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/pro-organizer-tips-what-not-to-do-when-decluttering-your-home-168836
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