De-cluttering is a normal occurrence at home. Every weekend, I sort out stuff that needs to be thrown away. Every month, I file away documents that needs to be filed. Every end of season, we sort out clothes that needs to be donated to charity.
For the past three weekends, I’ve been seriously de-cluttering because of two reasons:
(1) I realized that even if I de-clutter on a regular basis, there are some things that still needs to be rid of
(2) Husband and I are going on a vacation and we need to figure out what we’ll bring and make an inventory of what we have so we don’t end up shopping for stuff we don’t need.
The first weekend, we de-cluttered our closet and sorted out clothes, bags and shoes. The process was physically and emotionally exhausting because it took us the whole day to finish and we let go of clothes that were dear to us.
One of the dress I gave away was the one I wore on our engagement party. I could have kept it for the sake of being sentimental but I thought the best way was to give it away and maybe make someone else’ life memorable too.
The task resulted to four big bags full of clothes, shoes and bags off to charity.
The following weekend I divided my time and sorted out
(a) my jewellery and accessories
(b) my make-up and beauty products
A few things I learned after I sorted my jewellery and accessories: I have a lot but seldom wear them; I have a lot because most of them were gifts; I should get myself a better and bigger storage box or jewellery box; and I should wear them more often.
I was able to put them in a temporary storage bag but one of the things I will look for when I’m in Manila would be a more user-friendly storage box for them.
I also safe kept the ones I will be bringing with me when we travel. Every time we travel, I make sure I bring a set of the following: gold jewellery, Pearls, Swarovskis and some fashion accessories, plus my watches.
This task took about four hours to finish because other than sort out, I also cleaned them.
After sorting out my jewellery, I turned to my make-up, cosmetics and perfume lot. This task was a bit easy because I didn’t have that much make-up anymore. I only buy make-up once a year now, usually at the start of the year. One mascara, two foundation, two blush-ons, two sets of eye make-up and a couple of lipsticks and eyeliners–that’s about it really, those are my basic.
Again, after sorting them out, I segregated the ones I will be bringing with me when we travel. My little beauty area now looks like this….
Last weekend, I saved the best for last and sorted our files. The files would refer to cards and letters we received, bills and invoices paid, travel paraphernalia and souvenirs. I was supposed to do this task on Saturday but I actually did this on Friday night. I stayed up til 1:30am (technically, it was Saturday when I finished) because I needed to distract myself from all the sad news about Japan and the tsunami threat in different countries. The task of de-cluttering helped a lot in easing the sadness I felt that night, which only shows how much of a de-cluttering queen I am sometimes (take note: sometimes only, not all the time!). Yes, whenever I feel down & depressed, one of my instincts would be to clean whatever I feel like cleaning inside the house or sort out anything I can get my hands on.
Anyway, this task was very productive because I was able to finalize all the documents we need to bring with us to Manila and I was able to make an inventory of the travel tickets and bookings we’ve printed out.
Now that we’re done with de-cluttering and sorting out stuff, Husband and I are now focused on getting ready for our trip.
