(I loved Simple Mom's Spring Cleaning Week so much I decided to do my own here at Mix It Up. This week I'll be presenting some thoughts and ideas on how to mix it up while you clean your home!)
I spent several hours yesterday just going through my belongings and seeing what I could get rid of. I have a strong minimalist bent, and after a while I begin to feel weighed down by owning things. I make a strong distinction here between "things I use and need" and simply "things." Things are possessions which don't really do anything for me -- tchotchkes which have outlived their entertainment value, movies I don't watch, clothes I don't wear, etc.
I feel the ownership of these things as a physical burden. Sometimes literally, as I have moved ten times in the last nine and a half years, and sometimes metaphorically, as belongings of no use make me feel crowded and frustrated. Many people love to own things, so for me, there is also a fun sense of rebellion and mixing it up to purging my own belongings!
When I task myself with getting rid of things, there are two very simple questions I ask myself:
1. Have I used it (or thought about it, or read it) in the last year?
2. Will I conceivably use it (or think about it, or read it) in the next six months?
That's it! If the answer to both is no, then get rid of it! Recycle it, sell it on Craigslist or eBay or at a garage sale, donate it to a thrift store, repurpose it (old socks into dust rags, for example), or if it's really just a useless heap of junk then regretfully throw it away.
If the answer to either is yes; that's fine too! You can figure out a better place to store it later. So today, mix it up by going against the grain of our consumptive society and purge some things!
Recent Comments