Who I am… plus the dilemma of open shelving.
August 9, 2017
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”j4ny5LW8″ upload-date=”2019-01-11T16:03:39.000Z” name=”10 Things to Toss Today! (Part 1)” description=”Decluttering can be stressful at the best of times, so we came up with 10 things that you can part ways with today and starting your decluttering journey!”]
Whenever we do a video about decluttering, inevitably the comment section fills up with comments which basically go something like: “Melissa, my place is a mess, I’ve never decluttered before and I’m freaking out and don’t know where to start”. It’s a reality, decluttering can be stressful—I’ve been there! So, we thought we would come up with a series called 10 Things to Toss Today! Essentially this serves as an easy way to begin the decluttering process; simply go through your house, find these 10 items, and if they apply to you, part ways with them right now. Use this as a jumping off point in your decluttering journey and see how far you can get with just these 10 basic items.
Free samples are not free. They actually come at a cost, and the cost is you have to find somewhere to keep all of them. My rule is this: if I get a free sample, I need to use it within 2 or 3 days, consult with my travel kit and if I’m in need of this particular item I’ll use it the next time I travel. Otherwise, get rid of it. So, if I get a hair product, I’ll put it directly in my shower and I’ll use it that day or the next day. If it’s a perfume sample, I’ll use it immediately. If I don’t like it, I get rid of it. I don’t hang onto it and hope I’ll like it one day.
If you’re anything like Chad and I you likely have a stack of old pillows stashed away somewhere, just for “emergency” purposes. Like if we’re suddenly in desperate need of a pillow because we’ve ruined all of ours, or we have guests who need to sleep over for the night—which has never happened in the 7 years we’ve lived in this house! But, we still have a stack of old pillows. Take your pillows and drop them off at the closest pet shelter. They’re pretty much the only place that’s going to take used pillows, but they actually really like them and that’ll do you, and your closet, a service.
Take a look around your house, specifically in storage spaces—closets, basements and the like. You’ll likely find shoe boxes, electronics boxes, or old jewelry boxes. You probably thought it was a good idea to hold on to the box at the time, and you were probably right (for returns, resale etc.). That being said, if you haven’t needed it in the past 6 months, it’s probably time to get rid of it. If you’re using the box to actually store something in, perfect, boxes are great for upcycling.
Belts generally fall in and out of fashion, at least for us women. Unless you’re wearing a belt on high rotation, you probably don’t need it in the house. So, here’s what I recommend: look at your belts, keep a black one, keep a brown one, keep a fashionable one and ditch the rest. Decluttering FTW!
Ladies, and men with ponytails, you’ll probably get me on this one—hair ties! I think I have maybe 40 hair ties kicking around the house? Chad would contend it’s closer to 400, but either way, they do have a tendency to float around the house and end up in various locations. The best thing to do here is to corral them in one spot, sort through them, and get rid of the ones that are broken or stretched out. Nothing is worse than having a stretched out, crappy hair tie, that’s going to snap on you. So do yourself a favor, and get rid of the bad ones.
Head up to your bathroom and declutter your hair product collection—shampoo, conditioner, styling products—the whole gamut! You probably have some stuff in there that you’re not using anymore. Or, if you’re like Chad, you may even have some empty bottles just sitting in the shower, literally just taking up space. Check all the expiration dates, and evaluate whether you’re even using them anymore, and if not, now’s the time to get rid of them!
If you’ve ever done laundry in your life, you’ve probably encountered the “mystery sock”. And the truth is unless you’re planning on using them for another purpose, (and there are a number of other uses for single socks!) it’s high time to throw them away.
I don’t know about you but sometimes I get to the bottom of my dish towel pile and I pull out a Swiss-cheese-looking towel. And I end up keeping them just in case there’s any major cleanup emergency that we have in the house. But truthfully, we have good cleaning cloths and tea towels for just that purpose. So, go through your collection of dish towels, tea towels, and cleaning cloths and get rid of the old crusty ones. If you need to replace the whole bunch consider investing in some microfiber cleaning cloths, which not only work unbelievably well, but also last for a good long time.
It’s always flattering to get an email from, you know, someone that really likes you… someone that wants to marry you… and give you all kinds of money! Although, they’re usually from Nigeria, and they’re usually a Prince! All joking aside, I’m constantly barraged with bogos, special offers and other emails that—I admit, I did subscribe to at some point—but I delete almost 99% of without reading them because I’m just not interested. An inbox full of junk mail each morning is also clutter—digital clutter—but clutter nonetheless. I recommend that you take one week and go through your inbox each morning and unsubscribe from all of the stuff you’re not interested in. It’s a bit of a chore, but a clutter-free inbox each morning is a nice way to start the day!
When you open your hall closet you probably come across shoes that are old, or worn, or damaged, or frankly just out of style. You haven’t worn them for ages, but they sit there anyway being passed over each day. Free up some much-needed space in your bedroom and hall closets, and toss the shoes that you don’t wear anymore, and free up space for the ones that you actually love.
