How To: Clean House, Hoarder Edition

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a good weekend and start to the week. I am still recovering from my weekend (don’t worry… I usually write on Mondays). Since I’m a 20-Something, normally that would go along with a forehead/temple rub and maybe a few groans about how I can’t handle my booze anymore.

For me, it’s more that I’m still picking paint out from under my nails, flexing my sore arm muscles and trying to figure out where all of these bruises came from. I worked on my house all weekend getting as much done as I could, knowing that this week was going to force me to halt progress on my end. But look what I got accomplished! 

Makes the paint I still have on my legs under my work pants worth it. I really need to shower when I’m more awake… This week the progress isn’t dependent on me and more on my checkbook – new counters, backsplash and electrical work is all scheduled for this week! 

So that leaves me with the WORST part about buying a house. Packing. 

I think I might be allergic to cardboard boxes. I hate them so much. Even more than I hate cardboard boxes, I hate packing things I don’t need. For example, I actually have a box in my closet that I NEVER UNPACKED from my last move. That is pitiful. I can guarantee that if I haven’t missed it over the last year I can just pitch the entire contents of the box. I am embarrassing myself right now. I could have at least opened the box… But no. Lets just admire the picture to the left and pretend like I live  minimalist lifestyle with only two chairs and a side table for a family room instead of clutter and junk everywhere...

Why is getting rid of stuff always harder than it seems? They have entire TV shows dedicated to people’s inability to get rid of things. It’s terrible. Maybe its just the fact that it seems overwhelming and too time consuming to go through everything. 

Here’s my advice on paring down:

1. Watch an episode of Hoarders to get you in the mood. Its disgusting. It’ll have you reconsidering holding on to your Field Day ribbon from 3rd grade, I promise. 
2.  Make a pile of things you can take to Goodwill or a local thrift store. You can even look up stores like Plato’s Closet that buy back clothes to turn some profit. 
3. Once a year, or maybe even twice, go through your closet. This is the easiest place to accumulate things you don’t need, especially us females. This is the time consuming part, but take the time to try everything on. If it doesn’t fit or isn’t how you remembered it, it can probably go. 
4. If you’re anything like me, you should probably go through your movie/old music/video games collection. If you haven’t watched, heard or played it in the last year, you probably don’t need it anymore. Plus, selling them to places like Movie Trader or Half Price Books is a great way to make your lunch money for the week. 
5. Take this next piece of advice with a grain of salt or else you’ll be the next participant on Clean House: Don’t throw away something that you’re going to regret. If something has extreme sentimental value to you, then its probably worth keeping. My suggestion would be to buy one box (don’t get too carried away size-wise) and fill it with the sentimental items you do want to keep. If it doesn’t fit in the box, well, take something else out and keep the “one box” rule. 
6. General rule of thumb that I use is that if I have an item that I’m not currently using, I have to come up with three reasons why I’m keeping it, including at least one use for it. If I can’t come up with three solid reasons, it can be pitched or donated. 
7. Make good decisions! Don’t be a packrat! Decide which things in your life for the things that are worth keeping and make you a better person. Who knows what unexpected additions you’ll find when you actually make room.

Now that I’ve procrastinated packing for an additional 30 minutes writing this post, I guess I should go start. But I could do some laundry. Or maybe read a book. Brodie looks like he might need a walk. I should check my email…