DECLUTTERING: Getting Started

SOURCE: Google

Now that my busy season at work is done and I have time to breathe and recuperate, it is time for me to start tackling the things that I have been putting off for a long time. Biggest and most important task -- DECLUTTER MY BEDROOM AND OFFICE.


I use work as a convenient excuse not to jump into the piles of clutter I have accumulated over the years. My closet is bulging, my drawers are stuffed to the gills, and there are piles of stuff growing and multiplying on my floor. My bedroom is in sad shape and my office is starting to become a mess as well.


I have no idea how it got to this sad state of affairs. So, before I start to become a candidate for the television show "Hoarders", I decided to declutter. My biggest reason for decluttering is that I will be moving temporarily when my condo goes through renovations. I don't know exactly whether renovations will happen this year or next, but I decided that I should get ahead of the game because moving all of our stuff out of our condo will be a massive operation.


There is a current trend to declutter with numerous articles and videos about how people have decluttered their homes and now have a new lease on life. Before-and-After pictures are tagged with "#konmari" for the author Marie Kondo who has started a decluttering revolution with her book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up". In the book, Kondo advises readers how to break ties with items that no longer bring them joy. While I am all for ridding myself of items that no longer bring me joy, I am not looking forward to actually doing it. Just looking at the mess in my room is enough to scare me away.


However, like I said in my previous blog post, I need to start making changes and decluttering the rooms where I spend most time in (my bedroom and office) seem like the most logical places to start. While Kondo suggests that you tackle decluttering by categories rather than rooms and do each category from start to finish, rather than in chunks, I don't think that I am going to be able to do that. Instead, I will need to tackle my office by separate areas and over separate periods of time for my bedroom.


So far, I have decluttered my desk shelves in my office, which produced a full bin of papers for the recycling cans. It was amazing how many old documents I was keeping for reasons that I have since long forgotten. I still have my office desk drawers to tackle and bookshelves. As for my room, I installed a closet system that I purchased on Amazon to help with my bowing closet rod and went through the clothes in my closet in the process. I got rid of two large shopping bags of clothing and one large shopping bag of shoes. I know I can still go back into my closet and find more things to purge. I also went through 75% of my jewelry collection. It's a small start, but I feel like I accomplished something and something is better than nothing, right?


I have a long way to go. As part of recreating this blog, I am thinking about giving updates of my decluttering process. I know that it will take awhile, but I will try my best to remain on course. Wish me luck!