Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Fall Cleaning

Once in a blue moon I get an urge to clear out items that I own. I like to go through everything and see if I realty need them anymore. It helps control the clutter in my life and gets rid of unnecessary items.

Don’t be fooled though. I’m a terrible pack rat. I hold onto papers, receipts and knickknacks for years. I hate throwing things out but every once in a while I get this urge (read: OCD) to clean out.

I always feel like a weight is lifted off my shoulders when I’m done. It’s very cathartic for me. So come this weekend there will be a major cleaning out.

Since I’m crazy and I love lists I decided to share with you my breakdown of getting rid of things.

Clothes

Suits: I’m finally going give away all my suits, except for one, to Dress for Success. I’ve been meaning to do this forever, but I just never get around to putting the box together.

Casual: things I haven’t worn in a year or don’t like anymore will go into bags to take to the clothing drop bins.

Shoes: ditto

T-Shirts: There are tons of t-shirts that I never wear but won’t throw out because of sentimental value. I’m going to gather up the ones that have a special meaning and I’m going to have a quilt made of them. My friend recently did this and it looks amazing!

Makeup

I love makeup. I literally have an entire dresser drawer filled with it as well as the makeup I use daily on top of the bureau. It’s bad. I hate throwing away makeup more than I do clothes but I really need to clean this out.

Old mascaras (more than 3 months), creams, and foundation will go in the trash.

Eye shadows, and others that haven’t gone bad will be divided up and distributed to friends and family.

My desk

Ugh this is the one task that I dread doing. My drawers in my desk are stuffed with random papers, receipts, books and all sorts of junk. There is no order whatsoever and it’s total chaos. I barely ever even go in them, only to throw more junk inside, because it’s so bad. I really have to go through each drawer and clear it out. I have receipts in there from last Christmas!! Obviously I don’t need them anymore.

My room doesn’t look like a mess, I really don’t like it to be, but for some reason I let my desk get crazy like that. I have to clean it out. Every time I open up a drawer I cringe.

Any tips on cleaning out? Have you ever felt the need to just purge yourself of unnecessary things?

2 comments:

Karen said...

I am holder. Not really a pack rat. Not quite a hoarder. But I hate to throwout things that I might need or might use. And that happens to be everything. I do purge once in a while and it does feel good to do.

Rachel said...

I am the biggest packrat ever. I save everything out of sentimental value, right down to movie ticket stubs. I've finally started to get rid of some of it just because its so ridiculous - I don't miss anything I've gotten rid of. Sometimes it helps to just not look through a pile of papers - just get rid of them. Especially if you haven't been through the pile recently, it's unlikely there is anything in there that's indespensible.