A benefit of being laid off is having a bit of time to do things that I never made time to do when juggling kids and career. High on my list: decluttering.
Decluttering took a back seat when I worked. I just found space for my new stuff. And so long as a room didn't look anywhere near as scary as anything on "Hoarders," I was OK with it.
It's not that I didn't ever declutter. I'd regularly get rid of stuff, but I still hung on to plenty. And every weekend I'd dust and polish all those things that I don't use when I could be doing something a bit more fun with my kids.
So now that I have my online job-seeking routine down, I'm making a sweep of each room and saying GOOD-BYE! And you know, it's making me happy.
My donations include fake plants, trees, decorative pillows, knick-knacks and books. Haven't tackled the DVDs, but at least they are all nicely organized and are still entertaining to the kids. I'm also recycling a lot of magazines kept for recipes or projects I'm never going to do, so why pretend?
I've found these questions helpful when I start a room purge:
1. Does this room really need this item? Does it have a purpose?
2. If it doesn't, why do I have it? Am I emotionally attached? Think it's cool?
3. If it's unnecessary, could it be useful to someone else?
4. Will I ever use this again or is this just taking up space?
5. Is this item too old, worn out, broken? Why do I keep it?
6. Does looking at this stress me out?
The two rooms that I've tackled so far make me feel relaxed. Too much stuff had me stressing, as well as eating up my precious time cleaning.
Tackling the office will be a bite, but I look forward to the challenge.
Cheers!
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