I don't know what it is about this time of the year. I have the urge to do a major purging and organizing! Like a spring cleaning binge only 5 months too early. It must have something to do with it being the end of the year, like I need to start 2008 FRESH. It could also be the fact that I have been spending an awful lot of time in the house lately, with all the snow we have gotten and the cold weather. I am not a winter person. Hubby says that i'm "HIBERNATING"!! I have been unemployed for a while so if i don't have to leave the house, i am fine with that!! We pretty much have everything we need ( I stockpiled supplies and food).
One of my favorite shows is "Clean House", which is on the STYLE network. It just amazes me how people can live amid such kaos and clutter. I grew up in a home that although it was clean, it was filled with clutter. My mom never threw anything away. It got stored in a closet or the attic or basement. Whenever I visited my mom's house (after i was married) i would feel the need to purge my own home when i returned. When she died last year, my husband and I had to clean out her house. What a mess. It took us 7 months to clean it out, paint it and get it ready to sell!!
My guess is that 1/2 of what she had went to the garbage, 1/4 went to Goodwill/St.Vincent, and the remaining 1/4 came to my house. I ended up with a basement FULL. Furniture and tons of boxes to go thru and decide what to keep, sell, give away. I vowed right then and there that my home was not going to be like that when i die!! I managed to keep just 4 pieces of her furniture. The rest was sold or passed on to friends or relatives in need. Plenty of vintage items were sold on EBAY. TONS of clothes, books, dishes, knickknacks, whatever were donated to charity.
Even though I pretty much keep the house clutterfree and ALWAYS have a box for donation handy, there still seems to be room for improvement.
One thing that helps me is that when the mail comes i open it immediately and throw out any junk mail and put the bills to be paid in the bill-pay/mail box. If there are magazines, (this is weird, i know ) I pull out all the stupid cards and tear out the full page (both sides) ads and throw them in the trash. That way I can read the magazines later without all the cards falling out. To me nothing is as annoying as trying to page through a magazine and there is a full page drug ad on every other page! The magazines then go into a drawer in my bedside table to be read and when i am done with them they are passed to a friend or relative. I try to keep magazines down to just 3 subscriptions. I only buy them when i get a fabulous deal. Right now i get Reader's digest, Family circle and Good housekeeping. Well, enough blogging for now, I have to get to work decluttering.
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