Without Dash

Welcome to Declutter Week at Without Dash. I’m quite sure that you are not done yet with your flat surfaces. But I will continue here to all those hidden spots like closets, cupboards and drawers. Just bookmark this page if you would like to get back to it later.

We are going to deal with all the cupboards, drawers and closets in the same way as we have decluttered the flat surfaces. Take one drawer or cupboard at the time. You can do just one a day or as many as you feel up to. Take everything out and put it on the floor or a large table if possible. Clean out the closet/drawer with a wet towel (or several wet towels) and then start your sorting.

Drawers.
You will have a variety of drawers in your house. The one with cutlery in it will be most easy to handle, because choices are easily made and it equally easy to spot the rubbish in such a drawer. Drawers with socks and underwear should not be a hard task either. However, the most difficult drawers are going to be the drawer with memorabilia like photos that you never put in an album, souvenirs, shells, etc, and the famous ‘junk drawer’ that everyone has in the house.

For the memorabilia drawer you might need a little help from a friend of family member who is a little more objective than you are. But make sure that you set a timer or clock for the task of cleaning up this drawer, because you might get carried away and spend more time looking at the pictures and exchanging memories that you planned.

The junk drawer is a different case. If possible lift the drawer from the rails and take it all out. Have a look in the drawer for valuable items that ‘got lost’ in there, maybe your hubbies wedding ring, or your driver’s license, or your kid’s vaccination card, etc. You also might have an item or two that is actually useful, like scissors, a screwdriver, and warranty cards. Place these items aside. Then simply tip over the whole contents of the drawer into the garbage bin. The collection of rubber bands, screws, plastic forks, paper clips, tangled string, magnets, tape, etc is the junk that gives the drawer its name: clutter. Get rid of it. Empty the drawer (and start over…).

Kitchen cupboards.
Kitchens are great in attracting clutter, because a lot of things are done in the kitchen. Besides cooking and eating, people might use the kitchen table or counter for other tasks. Especially in smaller homes where people do not have a garage, basement or work room available, people might use the kitchen to do their scrapbooking at the table, or fixing a flat tire at the counter. As a result the kitchen cupboards might end up will all kinds of clutter.

Common clutter in the kitchen is that of gadgets and hardly-ever-used appliances. Instead of feeling guilty of never using that espresso maker, bread machine or ice cream maker, just get rid of it. The positive thing is that there are always people who think that they want such an appliance and you can give it away easily.

Container clutter is the next hurdle in clearing up the kitchen. How many containers do you have without the corresponding lid? And how many lids without corresponding containers. Do you have a whole collection of cleaned out food containers as ice cream tubs, or other containers that you felt might be useful someday but are never used? Get rid of the whole lot.

Have a look in the cupboard under the sink. Big chance you haven’t had a proper look there in years! Most people keep their cleaning products under the sink. The front few bottles are often used and replaced or refilled. But what about at the back? The kinds of cleaning materials that you never use, the ones that did not work as you expected, the bits of shoe polish in a color of which you do not even have and shoes any more. What else can you find it there that you haven’t used since ages?

Food. If you are like most people, you will have a cupboard in the kitchen that looks like you are expecting ‘the bomb’. In there you keep cans and instant foods for emergency cases. Perhaps they were not bought with that idea in mind, but with best intentions to eat some day, or perhaps they were received in last year’s Christmas gift basket from the office and never eaten (why do you always have to get strange foods in a gift basket?). Check the expiry dates of the foods and also whether it is likely to be eaten in the next few weeks/months or not.

Your bedroom closet/wardrobe.
Now we are venturing in dangerous territory when it comes to decluttering; the wardrobe. Truth about clothes is that most people wear only 20 percent of their clothes about 80 percent of the time. Can you identify these items? Take all the clothes that you wear regularly out from the closet and put them in a separate place. These are the keepers.

Now have a look at what is left in the closet. There are the things that you do not wear regularly. Why not? Most of the clothes the reason of not wearing will probably be that they do not fit, or look faded and worn, or are out of fashion, or they just do not suit you and you should never have bought it in the first place.

Get rid of everything that you do not wear. Separate the items in a charity pile and a garbage pile. You could create a maybe pile like explained in the basic rules of decluttering. Keep only clothes that you wear and be realistic about what you ‘are going to wear’. Are you really going to lose all that weight quickly and wear those tiny tops again? Is it useful to keep your maternity clothes when you are not planning to have more children? Is that special occasion for which you are saving that dress coming any time this year?

You might feel sad getting rid of so many clothes. Some items might even have a special memory to you. Take a picture of these items as a memory, so you do not need to keep the whole item. The sadness will not stay that long. After all, we women know that clothes are ‘just’ clothes, right?

So, you think that the house will look much better after cleaning the insides and tops of your storage places? Let’s get started on the car tomorrow! Again, I do not think that you will have all drawers, closets and cupboards cleaned out in a day. So, bookmark these pages and you can get back to it when you are ready for the next step. You can also sign up and receive each update directly in your mailbox.

Tags: declutter