Where do you start?

If you look at how you grew up and how your parents grew up, you will notice that you and your kids have far more ‘things’ than in previous generations, yet technology is supposed to simplify all of this.

We live on credit, so buying goodies and gadgets is easy. I know my father had a rule that if you couldn’t pay for it in total, you didn’t buy it. If only I had stuck to that simple philosophy.  Just look at our cell phones for example. Think about how many you have in your cupboard, or drawer, because you are a contract user and upgrade every 2 years. What do you do with the old ones? They still work, so you can’t throw them away.

Clothes don’t last and neither do fashions, so you are always buying new stuff and the kids want the latest name brand, or in my home, boy band items!

Your weekly area newspaper arrives and it has 16 pages, with 30 pages of advertising pull outs. We get professional magazines, which my husband insists on keeping.  We then also have the weekly school notices and the kids school art work (put up your hands if you REALLY do throw the art work away).

I still have VHS videos, DVD’s from when my kids were babies. They are still in good condition even though we haven’t watched them in at least 5 years! In a recent search for a lost item I came across a set of cassette tapes from when my husband was still at varsity!  That makes them almost antique! (30 years old).

Keeping stuff when it is no longer useful is the start of clutter! In the 30’s and 40’s there was a war on and things were in short supply, so a lot of hoarding took place and then they recycled those things that could be used.  Unless you are living in a country with a war going on, you really have no excuse for keeping junk. That’s what OLX, BidorBuy and Cash Converters are for, to get rid of your junk. There is a saying that  “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure”.

Have a garage sale, give it to charity, or give it to someone who will use it, but don’t keep it!

I know it is hard to get rid of those cute baby things and toys but, honestly, how do we expect our homes to be clean and tidy, when we have so much stuff in them!

This is where you start on cleaning your house, not the dusting and the washing of walls and ceilings. You can clean as much as you like, but if there is too much in the rooms, it never looks tidy. So, before you start looking at cleaning schedules, start looking at decluttering techniques!

Here are links to previous posts on cleaning up.

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/printables/house-cleaning-check-list/

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/07/21/the-konmari-method-of-cleaning-your-space/

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/08/18/my-cupboard-adventure/

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/10/20/can-it-be-done/

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/07/28/cleaning-up-your-schedule-or-scheduling-your-clean-up/