Time for a spring clean perhaps?
Two years ago, we moved in with Ben's best friend to a lovely large house in the country with seven completely spare rooms. These spare rooms are now completely packed full of 'stuff'.
It's a bit ridiculous; Ben and I have two bedrooms opposite eachother with one double wardrobe, two single wardrobes, 2 large chest of drawers, 3 small chest of drawers JUST FOR CLOTHES! Admittedly most are mine... and yes I am still holding on to those jeans a size smaller (maybe a couple two sizes smaller) you know.. for when I lose the weight. Both of these have double beds and sometimes we swap rooms if we fancy a change! Whichever room we are not staying in at the time becomes a spare room for guests.
Then we have three 'junk rooms'. Two of these are also a spare bedrooms with single beds but just surrounded by a lot more 'stuff'. The other our old office and craft room. We managed to turn the other rooms into a gym (which has a large cabinet full of 'stuff'), Games Room (Shelving full of you guessed it ;) 'stuff') and an Ironing/Boiler Room (which has become my dump all washing here room to fold as I hate ironing and will only do on VERY special occasions).
I would post pictures, but it is actually quite embarressing how much 'stuff' we actually have. We need a big spring clean out!
10 Tips to get rid of 'STUFF'!
1. Have I ever / When was the last time I used this item?
Before working with food, all of my jobs have been in clothes shops. This usually requires a new wardrobe each season therefore I have soo many clothes! Most haven't been worn in years and even some with the tags still on them. I even have bras that borderline suffocate me now! Bye Bye!
2. Does it work?
If it's broken and can't be fixed.. Bye Bye! Ben is terrible with this. We have three broken toasters lurking around. Why? Of course just incase Ben decides to fix it (nevermind that we have another working one now) or his answer: "just incase we need a spare plug". Bye Bye!
3. Is it potentially useful BUT it will never get used?
Be strict with yourself! There is a very thin line between great crafting materials and crap! Goodbye 'very pretty paper but too small to actually do anything with'...
4. If I lost this or it became broken,Would I replace it?
We do not need a PlayStation 1 AND 2 x PS2's stored away while there is a perfectly good PS3 downstairs. One of these PS2's actually covered all in Spiderman stickers from when Ben when he was a kid! This goes for all the old games too. Sorry Spyro! :'(
5. Has this item been replaced?
We've all got the 20 old mobile phones stored away in THAT drawer. You know, THAT drawer that doesn't seem to close properly with random screws and takeaway menus. What's that? those menus are from 6 years ago too! Perhaps actually try one of those trade in phone websites, but shop around first. Even if you only get £2.00 that's money you didn't have and a brand new empty draw!
6. Is this item being 'saved' / stored in a place I never go to?
I know this is bad but I have quite a lot of beauty products that never get used / I'll use once and not like it and it ends up in the little baskets in the bathroom never to be touched again. Even some lotions which are nearly empty but not quite but you can't throw away something not finished! Yes you can.. Bye Bye!
7. Does this momento bring back memories?
I'm not saying throw away everything, you may find you can put them in a scrapbook instead. There is a big fuss over all this scrapbooking craze with loads of pretty papers, buttons and what-have-you's. To be honest, I don't have the time to do all that yet. It looks good but not for me. I have a big black photo book thing that I've stored 'momentos' in. For instance, I've had a medal from Tae Kwon-Do from when I was 12ish? I really can't just throw it away but isn't looking too great in the spare room. Hello Scrapbook! You must still be strict - If it doesn't trigger a memory it's not worthy of being part of your scrapbook.
8. Does it serve it's purpose well?
One christmas, one of our friends got us a CD rack. This is still in its box, in the junk room. Ebay? See we could put this rack together and use it but speaking of CDs, literally all of them are now on the computer or an external hardrive so they can go too!
9. Sell Unwanted Items
I have become an ebay addict recently. I've listed about 30 items so far and sold about 20 of them. Most of them only sold for around 99p - £3.00 + P&P but a couple of bits went for nearly £10.00!! These are items I haven't touched in YEARS! I know 99p isn't much but that's £50.00 made out of 'stuff'. It does take quite a while to list everything but you can just press relist if they don't sell the first time.
10. Recycle into Gifts and Donate the rest
Books? My aunt or Ben's sister would love to read that. That old Spiderman PS2? I'm sure we'll find some little boy in the family who'll make good use of it! On ebay, after two times up whatever is left goes to the charity shop. You'll feel really good giving gifts 'just because'. Be careful and don't give items you've recieved as gifts back to the same person! Awkwaardd!
Good Luck with your Spring Clean!
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