DECLUTTER FOR THE NEW YEAR AS 2020 ROARED THROUGH OUR LIVES, MOST OF US FOUND OURSELVES WITH MORE TIME ON OUR HANDS THAN WE EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE. UNFORTUNATELY, WE WEREN’T ABLE TO MOVE ABOUT THE CABIN AS FREELY AS WE WOULD HAVE LIKED AND FRUSTRATION SET IN QUICKLY. With our restricted movement came fantasies of what we could do with our time:
at staring endlessly at all of our stuff and wishing it would disappear. Many of us are still staring.
• write the great novel you’ve always dreamed about; • learn a new language;
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• start an online business; • learn to make sushi; or • (insert any other self-proclaimed shortcoming from 2020 here). Instead, emotional overwhelm left many of us sitting at home doing nothing and beating ourselves up for not doing more. We became adept
Let’s change that. You don’t have to climb the whole Change Mountain in a day, but you do need to start. Looking at the whole project can overwhelm the best of us. I believe in chunking the bigger tasks out into smaller ones. Commit to one task at a time. Don’t look at the whole project. Focus on one shelf, one drawer, one section of the closet and so on. Completion of a task, not the whole project, is key to motivating further work.
BY JODI BROWN
Before you organize anything, you must de-clutter and remove all the things that no longer serve you. Our kitchen and bedrooms are being used more than ever before. Let’s focus on ways to make these two rooms function a bit easier.
KITCHEN We are spending more time than ever in the kitchen. Let’s stop fighting with stuff and get rid of what we don’t need. Make sure to have two bags (or boxes) ready for sorting. Clear off a table or counter space to receive items as you work through them. Let’s go! From your pantry/dry goods shelf remove items one at a time. Check the expiration date. Toss what’s out of date and decide, before you put it down, if you are keeping it or donating it. Be brutal. You know you’ve got items that you aren’t going to consume, so give JANUARY '21
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