What better way to start the year than decluttering your life? Okay, decluttering your life may sound a little drastic but certainly you could start with your own home right? And since we seniors are encouraged to forever downgrade our homes and our lifestyles to suit our current capabilities, financial and otherwise, this might be the best time to start a 4-week decluttering plan!
4 weeks for me, is ample enough time for sentimental people like me to come to terms with the fact that I need to throw away things even if they were kept for sentimental reasons. However, I must admit, all those clutter tend to take away the beauty of a home so they should really go.
Without further ado, let’s get started:
WEEK 1:
Start with the eye catchers. Start with the things or areas that caught your eye first since if this area was able to hurt your eyes and as a result, finally made you realize that decluttering is in order, then it must be really really bad. Small or big, these are the areas that need your immediate attention. Get started on the things that are easier to deal with, for example, your small mountain of mails, or your work station, or perhaps the corkboard that has loads of paper pinned into them and kind of missing the point now. As soon as you bring order into these areas, you’ll feel good at once.
WEEK 2:
Next stop is your bathroom. Bathrooms for me are the easiest to clutter especially if you are also keeping a medicine cabinet there. I’m sure you have loads of stuff in there that haven’t seen light for 6 months and I’m sure you know that keeping them is not a very good idea anymore right? Especially if they were already opened prior to “discovery”. Drag a big black garbage bag in there and start tossing bottles, makeups and what-have-you’s. Good rule to consider when dealing with bathroom stuff: expiry date and six months to one year prior to opening on beauty products. However, medications should be kept separated from other things since they can be hazardous to health.
WEEK 3:
Your kitchen is the next good candidate after bathroom as this area is a known item “collector” too. Examine drawers and cabinet one by one and see if there are things that you need to throw away now, like that old bottle of spice sitting in there since World War Two. However, unlike what you did in the bathroom, there are things in your kitchen that are salvageable or worth keeping even if you haven’t used them for a long time such as cookwares. These things you can pack nicely and store in attic or storage room. You can also sell them or give them to your kids who are interested.
WEEK 4:
Your bedroom. Of course this must be the hardest to sort since this room has your personal stuff however, you need to throw it some love too just to get some more space and bring back some normalcy in your private quarters. Take your time and take it slow. Start with those visible then work your way into the not-so-visible ones such as your closet. Same rule apply, if you haven’t used it for about 6 months, it should go, or at least be moved to storage.