Since childhood, each of us has a firm conviction that the New Year is not just another turn of the planet around the sun. And not a newly purchased calendar on the wall of the study. And not even that festive, cheerful and exciting bustle around the Christmas tree and the table bursting with food.
New Year is every time - life is like a clean slate. This is the expectation of a miracle and the belief that it will certainly happen. The Kremlin chimes will strike and everything will go on in a new way!
Right now is the time to examine your home with a critical eye and figure out - where will this new one fit ?! In the corner, a broken vacuum cleaner is lonely huddled, to which your hands will never get to fix it. On the fridge there are deposits of old receipts (budget planning, this is how it should have been called), in the closet there is a mountain of clothes that are a pity to throw away, and on the balcony … Well, the balcony in modern apartments was conceived as an analogue of a storage room at a railway station not?
It is imperative to get rid of old, unnecessary things. In addition to cluttering our already small dwellings, they accumulate dust within themselves. Various mites, moths and other parasites breed and multiply in the bowels of this trash, causing allergies and other unpleasant diseases. Guests arriving at your house may be unpleasantly amazed at the abundance of all kinds of garbage in your apartment, while you simply do not notice it with your "blurry" look.
You don't always need to throw old things in the trash.
Some may well be given a "second life", because clothes that have become too small, or books that are not readable, are not necessary for you personally. But right now, at this very moment, someone would very much like to be able to put on these cute "boiled" jeans and read that simple love story.
Where to begin?
Various articles in the media advise starting the analysis of the rubble by zones: balcony, pantry, kitchen, hallway, etc. In fact, psychologically it is not very justified: there is a great risk of hanging in one zone, raking old things, reading the discovered notes, lovingly smoothing crumpled theater tickets two years ago, or trying on dresses from the first year of the institute and indulging in memories.
It is much more convenient to walk through the rooms, collecting the same type of things that are stored without use, and then sort them into several piles: for disposal, in the social assistance service, for distribution to relatives and friends, and - well, it happens the same - for your own use.
What do you need to work?
In order for your big work to get rid of unnecessary things to be productive, and the fuse does not go away after the first hour of fiddling with old stuff, you need to properly prepare.
- Choose a free day in advance. Tune in to the tedious digging through cabinets, drawers and drawers. Give yourself your word not to put aside the half-rotted children's drawings that your toddler brought from kindergarten ten years ago and not figure out in your mind where you could use these ancient, but completely clean curtains on the windows. Believe me, by the end of the day, you will be exhausted physically and mentally, so stock up on things that will help raise your morale. For some it is music, for others it is something delicious, which is extremely rare to pamper yourself, while others cannot do without a special kind of therapy: visiting a spa, shopping or a coffee shop at the end of work.
Feel free to reward yourself for the work you've done. And next time the accumulated deposits will be dealt with with much greater ardor and zeal.
- Prepare containers for collecting and sorting things.These can be garbage bags, plastic bags, boxes. Do not forget to prepare a box for the discovered useful things - there will certainly be such! And let it be just a box - so that everything is immediately visible.
- A working vacuum cleaner, a broom, cloths for wiping off dust and dirt, a bucket of water - all these are "quick response" items. Cleared the place of debris - immediately put it clean.
And now let's talk specifically about what you can get rid of in a particular residential area.
Hallway
The hallway is the place where items that have lost their purpose and need are most often stored. Old newspapers, worn shoes, keys to old locks, receipts, empty and half-empty bottles of perfume and other products of cosmetic thought - what comes to hand just before leaving the house and what immediately folds into drawers upon entering the door and is put on the shelves. Where safely and forgotten.
Kitchen
A sacred place for every housewife. Precisely because each of the family members loves to be in this pleasant zone in all respects, so many things accumulate here that must be destroyed or distributed.
What can be taken out of the kitchen and everyone will be only happy:
- Chipped and old dishes. To offer guests is embarrassing, eating from it itself is unpleasant. It is better to remove such cups, spoons and plates from home, and then buy new, sparkling and interesting tableware.
- Plastic bags stuffed into the battery - "for reuse", a cup with remnants, rags for cleaning the table, which are scary to take in your hands, old scouring sponges waiting for better times; long-unused plastic food containers are just a breeding ground for dust and unpleasant odors. Throw it away immediately!
- Unused household appliances. If she has been lying in deep bins for more than a year, waiting for the repair that has not been completed, most likely it will not happen. Never. Because you already have another toaster, meat grinder or coffee grinder to replace the broken ones - for sure, or we are ready to eat our hats. If the equipment is in working order, but, by and large, you can do just fine without it, donate or sell it to someone who really needs it.
- Kitchen utensils - towels faded from hundreds of washings, utterly soiled aprons and potholders - all this does not contribute to raising appetite and the desire to cook. In the lockers, you will probably find a torn bag with a loose product, pushed into the far corner (it's good if you do without cereal bugs). Also shake up all the seasoning bags - we throw away those that have lost their validity without regret.
- Before you leave the kitchen, look in the refrigerator. This is where many people store medicines. Those that have expired are simply dangerous to store further - you will rely on them in case of illness, and they will not only not help, but also harm. Try to replace discarded essential medicines with new ones immediately.
Bathroom
You will be surprised how many places in this small room where you can hide various objects, and then safely forget about them. Torn household gloves, bottles with shampoo residues on the bottom, half-squeezed tubes of toothpaste, used disposable razors - this is not a complete list. Considering the atmosphere of high humidity in this room, even everyday things can quickly deteriorate here: washing powder in cardboard boxes cakes and turns into stone, and soap can “melt” in hands and leave puddles of mucus in the soap dish.
Take it for granted - the toilet and bathroom should be the mainstay of hygiene and cleanliness. Everything that does not fit into these frameworks must be destroyed or taken out of the premises.
Wardrobes, cupboards, wardrobes, dressers
This type of furniture welcomes us in every living area: living room, nursery, bedroom … What you need to look for in them for throwing away:
- Dried flavored sachets;
- Cosmetic accessories - mascara, shadows, lipstick - expired or those that have not been used for at least 6-7 months;
- Broken pens, dry felt-tip pens, pencil stubs and other stationery, at the sight of which it is dumbfounded;
- Clothes that will never be useful to anyone: old panties, socks without a pair, socks with holes (even paired ones, they are unlikely to ever be worn), washed T-shirts (don't even think about wearing them at home - your household deserves more respect for them) , things made of cheap synthetics, as well as in spools and stains;
- Bed linen that is heavily worn out, as well as faded and unloved;
- Jewelry, bought a long time ago, lost its luster and beauty, which even children are ashamed to give for toys.
What else to throw out of life?
It so happens that the apartment is clean and tidy, all things are in their places, there is nothing superfluous around, but the soul is gloomy, because some of the items on the shelves and in the closets are donated by someone at random, do not fit into the interior, or just carry bad memories.
Get rid of them. Transfer, hand over to a thrift store, sell on an online auction, etc. And in return, buy what you like, which brings warmth and comfort. Who said that a good mood cannot be bought in a store?
Check your phone and delete the contacts of people with whom you have not communicated for several years and are unlikely to call up.
Try to look at the situation in the apartment with the eyes of a guest entering the house for the first time. Maybe, subconsciously, you realized a long time ago that the old sofa in the living room does not decorate it, and the kitchen table needs to be replaced with a new one for several years. And only the habit of these things prevented you from perceiving them as objects in need of exclusion from the living space.
Leave can't be thrown away
A variant of the scenario according to which at the end of the tidy everything that comes to hand flies into the garbage bag is very likely. So where is the borderline along which we determine that the thing should not be thrown away, but should be kept?
- Good old clothes can be handed over to the social support service. They are also always happy to accept toys, books, disks with films and games, usable stationery;
- Rags are constantly in demand in the garage - and you have enough, and the neighbor in the block will be happy;
- Antiques and vintage items tend to rise in price every year, and selling them can make your great-grandchildren rich. The most important thing is not to consider vintage any old quilted jacket or hat with earflaps, which were found in the depths of the mezzanine;
- There is no need to throw away baby things in good condition - your friends or relatives with babies will always be glad to see them.
Perhaps there are a couple of items in your "deliverance" box right now that you will definitely never need. But you clearly understand that these things are a reminder of the best, happiest moments of your life.
Leave them with you. New Year is approaching, and the soul freezes in anticipation of a miracle. Perhaps tomorrow something new, pleasant and kind will enter your life instead of the unnecessary that was left in the old year. But you will know for sure - no matter what happens, you will always have cleanliness in the house, order in closets and shelves, and your three favorite old unnecessary things.
