In keeping with the theme of this blog, and the theme of my life, this year I am only going to have 1 simple resolution: Give Back. Yes, we are in the middle of a recession and times are tough, but there are so many people out there who are less fortunate than me, and so many organizations dedicated to causes that I believe in who could use my support. So this year I will aim to donate 3% of my income to charity.
Of course money is not the only way that we can Give Back. One of the MOST FUN ways that I know of is by DECLUTTERING!!! Here are a few suggestions:
- Donate your used books to the library! Go through your bookshelves and pack up any books that you no longer need. This includes old college text books (yes, Amanda - you inspired this one!), books you've already read that you don't plan on reading again, books you didn't like, duplicate copies of books, and books that your kids are too old for. Then pick out 10 more books to add to your pile as a New Year's gift to me. :D
- Donate canned and dry goods to your local Food Bank! Open up those cupboards and pull out all of those cans of soup that you bought on sale but realized that you don't like, any extra bags of rice or beans, jars of peanut butter, or unopened boxes of cereal. What's left in your cupboards should be neat and tidy, with plenty of room to organize your food by height and width, in even rows, labels turned forward, categorized by type and texture...just kidding, this is what my food cupboard looks like:
- Donate clothing and shoes to your local Goodwill or charity store! There are only 7 days in a week so how many pairs of pants, shoes, and t-shirts does one person really need? Plus with less clothing comes less piles of dirty laundry to wash, fold, and squeeze into overflowing dresser drawers.
- Donate your chotskies to charity! Urbandictionary.com defines chotskies as "Generally useless crap of little or no value." I couldn't have said it better myself! Toss them in a bag and donate those useless, dusty, space wasters to charity so that someone else can have the privileged of caring for them for the rest of their lives - at least until they read this blog!
Hopefully after decluttering these 4 areas of your house, you will be invigorated by your clean, organized spaces and want to do more. If you do, then congratulations are in order because you, my friend, have discovered the wonderful world of decluttering! Happy New Year!
