BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Journals Spring Cleaning

It's good when it gets difficult - means you're getting down to just the things you need. Or are at least headed in that direction.

Some of the toughest things to get rid of: things we paid good money for and they still have use/look nice (even though we don't actually love them anymore), things given to us by others, and things with some strange sentimental value/memory attached.

Those categories are really not even about the items in themselves - it's a deeper psychological issue at hand. So these things are harder to give up. I am working on letting them gracefully leave my life. For some things I can take pictures of them to keep or make an event out of using and saying goodbye to something.

I really have a problem with the first category - things i paid good money for. I just feel foolish and feel that i either need to sell them for good value, or keep them in storage - ie - my personal black hole. Yeesh.

What do people find the hardest to let go of?

do you ever watch Clean House or How Clean is Your House - they are ruthless. Even the things you love go.

Jilly - I think the idea of taking a picture of items is brilliant. You can treasure the photos, just like you'd treasure a photo of Monument Valley or something. The photo is always there for you to admire, and it takes up far less space!

If something still has good value then donating it to charity will give you back a good value! That's a good thing!

I'm looking around the living room, which is cluttered, to try to figure out what could go. We have the exercise bike, futon couch, and three small shelves. Several of those hold DVDs and video games - we've already whittled those all down quite a bit. We have the 3 consoles, the Rock Band setup with a few guitars, a humidifier, the Roomba.

I think what we need is a bigger living room

I suppose the 3 shelves we have right now *could* be smaller to fit more compactly around the things they hold. I will look into that.

Angela and Angie, that is great that you were able to donate so much stuff to charity! Lisa, you are right about the 'good value' part - doing good can only result in good. I will have to remind myself of this the next time i am in my storage shed...I will just keep triaging things to pull out for Goodwill until I am down to just what I intend to actually keep.

I swear, eBay and craiglist have actually made it HARDER to get rid of stuff. Now instead of just giving things away, I keep holding onto them thinking I will get around to selling them instead! yeesh!

Okay, Lisa's living room. Are you guys *using* the exercise bike? That would be the first thing to go, if you are not. You need the couch, the Roomba (can it live under the couch?), the humidifyer (is it on the floor or on a shelf)) and a place to hold your entertainment stuff.

What you CAN do is try to better store your toys. You've whittled down your games and DVDs, which is great! But do the rest of the toys all have to be sitting out in the open? If you could somehow containerize things, there would be less dusting to do, and it all might be more compact and neater looking. And it gets stuff off the floor, which always looks messy.

I know Ikea has some great solutions if you look around with an open eye. Sometimes you can find just the right thing in a weird area, like in the kitchen units or in the kids' furniture section.

For me, spring cleaning is about details I normally don't do--like baseboards and doorframes, grout, moving furniture to vacuum, washing windows, oven cleaning, detailing the fridge, cleaning out closets & cabinets, you know--that stuff.

I actually usually do that stuff twice a year.

I declutter quite a bit as I don't hold on to decorative items and furniture "in case" anymore.

I do see if my kids need it (truthfully, they're 25 & 21 and the last few years, I've "donated" loads of stuff to them as they've set up their own apartments and now houses--a couple of couches, chairs, beds, dining room suits, towels when I buy new ones, dishes, and so on) and now they're starting to say "NO!!!!" LOL Then, I ask friends, and then, do the goodwill drop off (there's a center within a couple miles.)

So, most of the stuff in my storage closet is archived paperwork, my painting supplies, and giftwrap & Christmas stuff.

My clutter problem? Books and magazines. I'm doing better now than I ever have, since there's a Hastings nearby that buys used books and I do pawn them off on my daughter & daughter-in-law, too. I'm till bad about wanting to hold on to nonfiction far too long, though.

Magazines, I'm doing better. It's always been a problem--I buy and subscribe to lots, and then keep them. I actually had a laundry basket full in my closet for months. Don't ask why--it's my "issue", I suppose. Everytime I've relocated, I've had to either move or get rid of piles and piles of magazines. I love to give them away, too. Finally, with the basket, I parked it by the door & made myself take an armload out each time I left--either to recycle or donate. Now, I try to prune more regularly.

Papers, books, magazines are my downfall too.

For magazines maybe there's a senior center near you which would *love* them!

Thanks for the suggestions Jilly - we'll see what we can do! It is pretty much over humidifier season with the April Showers coming, so that at least can go away.

If libraries have sales, sometimes they will take them. At 10 cents each, they can bring in a few dollars. Unfortnately, many don't sell and they end up in the landfill.

One thing you can do with magazines is bring them to Doctor/dentist offices and leave them there. That's really helpful.