The same day my daughter came up from Cape Town, my ex-hub came down from Gauteng (Jhb) to fetch his fam. no. 2 who had been staying with me for some time. He arrived at about 11pm after about 7 hours of driving and immediately started complaining about the house, the cats, etc. He really started to put me in a mood as well but luckily went to sleep which is about the best thing a moody person in a bad mood can do for themself and everyone around them. He stayed for about a week and then the whole family including their min. dobi. left for their home in Gauteng along with a binload of their belongings.
Anyway after they all left is when I truly started to relax. And after Robynne returned to Cape Town on the 5th, I still had a week left of my leave and I made a decision that to celebrate the return of my house to myself I was going to springclean and not go anywhere or do anything that I didn't feel like doing (some hope with the boys around!). I started with the room where fam no. 2 had lived. They had left several bags of old clothes and toys which needed sorting and discarding. I continued with my room, the kitchen and the garage, the tv cabinet aka junk collector. I was ruthless. I took full advantage of my chucking out mood and went through linens, ornaments, books, stationery, clothes, crockery. My mother keeps forwarding items to me rather than dealing with it herself and then I have to be ruthless about it like the 1500 piece puzzles for instance. I don't even have space to lay out a puzzle this size. Duh! I am also the lucky recipient of all of the childhood books of myself and my siblings (4 of us). Do I have sucker printed on my forehead? Don't answer!
My mom is a hoarder who has lived in the same house (that my parents built) for more than 40 years. And she often says (with some smugness) that thank goodness she won't have to sort out all her belongings one day when she passes. My dad is a chucker but sometimes chucks out the wrong things (which don't belong to him) because he gets tired of waiting for someone to do it. I alternate between the two stances, keeping things for a long time and then ruthlessly throwing out!
I must admit though that a great weight has lifted off my shoulders at the clearing of all that accumulated junk. I haven't finished yet but plan to continue cleaning out a cupboard or cluttered corner every day until it is all finished. You would be amazed at what a lot of unnecessary items you are keeping when you just look at your house with critical eyes.
Here's to unbroken New Years Resolutions!
Doesn't it feel SO good to clear out clutter? You've made me want to go to my cupboard and clear it out straight away!
ReplyDeleteThat's great Kitty! If you do you'll feel so great that you started the new year off without a lot of junk. But the difficult thing is not allowing the junk to build up again!
ReplyDeleteI hate the sorting bit, but I love the sense of accomplishment I feel afterwards.
ReplyDeleteMoving forced me to do lots of de-cluttering.
My mother was like that; consequently I don't have a SCRAP of stuff in my place that is not necessary.
ReplyDeleteExcept for my husband. Who is a hoarder. I wait for him to travel then throw it all out. He doesn't even notice.
Tamara - I have previously decluttered a lot of stuff when I moved from a large rental house to a much smaller one without a garage. I had so many boxes of toys that my dogs were trying to help me get rid of by ripping open the boxes (they were stacked in a carport) and eating as many toys as they could!
ReplyDeleteBraja - Very good tactic to wait until the offender is away especially as some people get extreme separation anxiety at the thought of getting rid of stuff which is obviously not important if they never miss it again!