7 Items You Can Toss Now to Declutter Your Home
Feb 26, 2015 16:53:16 GMT -5
Post by Shoshanna on Feb 26, 2015 16:53:16 GMT -5
7 Items You Can Toss Now to Declutter Your Home (You’ll Never Miss Them, Promise)
by Kate Geraghty
It might still be really, really cold outside, but there’s less than a month until the official start of spring, which means that soon we’ll be dedicating ourselves to some hardcore spring cleaning. While you may want to leave some of the more intense projects to warmer weather, you don’t need to wait for the first blooms of the season to start decluttering your home. Instead, start off with a clean slate by getting rid of these pointless space-wasters—today.
Old T-Shirts You Never Wear
We know, you got that T-shirt your freshman year of college at your first football game… but you have 80 more T-shirts exactly like it, and you haven’t worn any of them since you graduated. If you absolutely have to save a couple shirts, choose 5 to keep for working out or sleeping in, then toss the rest. Can’t narrow it down to five? Make your favorites into a t-shirt quilt. The key is just to get them out of your dresser or closet, where they take up space and can go unseen for months at a time.
Old Cell Phones
If you search hard enough through the drawers in my parents’ kitchen, you will find a phone so old, it doesn’t receive text messages. Whenever anyone in my family got a new phone, we always tucked our old one into a drawer in case we ever needed it again, resulting in a build up of old, outdated phones that will never see the light of day. Limit your family to one or two of these “emergency” phones, recycling or selling older models as your family gets new devices.
The Box of Cords
Every house has the dreaded Box of Cords, usually guarded over by a husband who insists that he may one day need this cord that does something that is very important (or so he says). If you can’t remember the last time you actually found anything useful in that box, you’re not alone. Toss the whole thing at once and be done with it. From now on, label new cords with a piece of masking tape and a permanent marker so you don’t have to play the grown-up version of your toddler’s shape-matching game every time you lose a charger.
Free Coffee Mugs (and Cups, and Water Bottles)
It’s hard to turn down free stuff—after all, it’s doesn’t cost you anything to take it home! Once you get it home, though, you’ll probably stick that free mug next to the other 10 free mugs stowed away and never use it, opting instead for the coffee cup you actually like drinking out of every morning. Unless it’s a particularly attractive container you can use to decorate your home, toss anything with a logo on it and remind yourself that you have plenty of dishware at home next time someone offers you a freebie.
Misfit Clothing Items
Unless you have a track record of mending ripped jeans, darning holey socks, or using stained t-shirts around the house as rags, it’s time to toss ‘em. Got a drawer full of unmatched socks? Try this trick: Toss all of your unmatched socks into a basket as you’re putting away your laundry. Once every couple of months, go through the basket and match as many pairs as you can. If a sock is still match-less, toss it and move on–there are plenty more socks in the sea.
Greeting Cards
Obviously, keep any cards from family members that hold significant sentimental value (handmade Valentines from your grandmother, Mother’s Day drawings from your kids, love notes from your spouse), but get rid of the funny cards you got from your friends for your birthday and the Christmas card from your neighbors down the street. It’s perfectly acceptable to display and cherish these during the appropriate season, but once a holiday is past, all these cards do is create clutter.
Tupperware Without a Lid (or Lids Without a Container)
There are few things more frustrating than trying to store leftovers and not being able to find a matching container and lid. Save yourself the frustration by taking an hour to match as many as you can and toss any extra pieces. It will make cleaning up after dinner a much happier experience, we promise.
What will you be tossing to start spring with a clean slate?
link
by Kate Geraghty
It might still be really, really cold outside, but there’s less than a month until the official start of spring, which means that soon we’ll be dedicating ourselves to some hardcore spring cleaning. While you may want to leave some of the more intense projects to warmer weather, you don’t need to wait for the first blooms of the season to start decluttering your home. Instead, start off with a clean slate by getting rid of these pointless space-wasters—today.
Old T-Shirts You Never Wear
We know, you got that T-shirt your freshman year of college at your first football game… but you have 80 more T-shirts exactly like it, and you haven’t worn any of them since you graduated. If you absolutely have to save a couple shirts, choose 5 to keep for working out or sleeping in, then toss the rest. Can’t narrow it down to five? Make your favorites into a t-shirt quilt. The key is just to get them out of your dresser or closet, where they take up space and can go unseen for months at a time.
Old Cell Phones
If you search hard enough through the drawers in my parents’ kitchen, you will find a phone so old, it doesn’t receive text messages. Whenever anyone in my family got a new phone, we always tucked our old one into a drawer in case we ever needed it again, resulting in a build up of old, outdated phones that will never see the light of day. Limit your family to one or two of these “emergency” phones, recycling or selling older models as your family gets new devices.
The Box of Cords
Every house has the dreaded Box of Cords, usually guarded over by a husband who insists that he may one day need this cord that does something that is very important (or so he says). If you can’t remember the last time you actually found anything useful in that box, you’re not alone. Toss the whole thing at once and be done with it. From now on, label new cords with a piece of masking tape and a permanent marker so you don’t have to play the grown-up version of your toddler’s shape-matching game every time you lose a charger.
Free Coffee Mugs (and Cups, and Water Bottles)
It’s hard to turn down free stuff—after all, it’s doesn’t cost you anything to take it home! Once you get it home, though, you’ll probably stick that free mug next to the other 10 free mugs stowed away and never use it, opting instead for the coffee cup you actually like drinking out of every morning. Unless it’s a particularly attractive container you can use to decorate your home, toss anything with a logo on it and remind yourself that you have plenty of dishware at home next time someone offers you a freebie.
Misfit Clothing Items
Unless you have a track record of mending ripped jeans, darning holey socks, or using stained t-shirts around the house as rags, it’s time to toss ‘em. Got a drawer full of unmatched socks? Try this trick: Toss all of your unmatched socks into a basket as you’re putting away your laundry. Once every couple of months, go through the basket and match as many pairs as you can. If a sock is still match-less, toss it and move on–there are plenty more socks in the sea.
Greeting Cards
Obviously, keep any cards from family members that hold significant sentimental value (handmade Valentines from your grandmother, Mother’s Day drawings from your kids, love notes from your spouse), but get rid of the funny cards you got from your friends for your birthday and the Christmas card from your neighbors down the street. It’s perfectly acceptable to display and cherish these during the appropriate season, but once a holiday is past, all these cards do is create clutter.
Tupperware Without a Lid (or Lids Without a Container)
There are few things more frustrating than trying to store leftovers and not being able to find a matching container and lid. Save yourself the frustration by taking an hour to match as many as you can and toss any extra pieces. It will make cleaning up after dinner a much happier experience, we promise.
What will you be tossing to start spring with a clean slate?
link