Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

For a clutter-free home

Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

Minimalist style Let go of objects and nagging emotions that you don’t use. Move ahead

Homemakers what about a clutter-free home at the beginning of the year? Maybe this could be your New Year resolution or better still a new mantra for housekeeping in 2009! De-cluttering has to be handled delicately as one man’s clutter is anoth er man’s treasure. Hence involve the entire family in the clearing process.

The first step to de-clutter your home is to get yourself into the mood for it. You can switch to your favourite music on your ipod, savour a chocolate to perk up your spirits and you are ready for the plunge!

Start with a small area and hop on to the next only after the first one is completed. If it is a cupboard which you want to clear out, empty the contents completely and put back only what you really use. If you are the type who has preserved your daughter’s one eared toy doggie or your son’s Enid Blyton series for your grandchildren, you are in for disappointment. Today’s kids detest sepia toned stuff and prefer branded ones.

Small-sized dresses, which have been preserved for the D-day when you down the scales can be given away. You can indulge in new ones when the ultimate happens. All the clothes to be given away can be kept in cartons and handed over to the orphanages. Once you decide to let go of old stuff you must get them out of your house as fast as possible. Mother Superior Sr. Roslin of Bethsaida convent says, “Many good Samaritans visit us to give away their used clothes, which come in handy for our inmates.”

As we get older we accumulate a lifetime of memories and tend to associate each item with some incident which has happened in our lives. Photographs traverse us into the past but they add to the clutter when kept loose. Be selective; keep only the best ones in albums let the others go. Broken gadgets are another hassle.

Give yourself a deadline of three to six months; if it is not repaired by the scheduled date, discard them. Companies launch exchange offers with mega discounts. Avail yourself of this facility. As you buy something new, let go of something from your old stuff. Be ruthless with news paper.

Do not pile them up thinking they contain some life changing information, which maybe useful to you. You may not have the time to read them. Mustafa, a scrap dealer says, “There are homemakers who sell news papers, magazines and plastic ware on a regular basis. Since more people are opting to live in apartments they do not want to accumulate clutter in small spaces.”

Discard letters, visiting cards, invitation cards, slips of paper with addresses soon after use. Be wary of wedding invitations though, lest you should confuse the groom, bride and the venue! If you have a jumble of presents , give them away but not to the person who gave them to you, please.

Emily Paul, a homemaker shares a tip. “Do not buy all those things which you fancy, you may not want them later.

You may be stuck with leaf shaped dessert bowls, slanting mugs which put the Leaning Tower to shame and the like. You slip into the hoarding habit, which you find difficult to shake off.”

Once you have de-cluttered your house, you should store things within easy reach. Since we use only 20 per cent of our things and spend 80 per cent of our time searching for them, similar things can be grouped together for easy accessibility. As we go into the New Year we can make our homes and minds clutter free. That’s for a new beginning of positive ethos. Happy New Year!

ROSHNI MOHAN

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail