Hello January

Something comes over me at the beginning of every January.

Somehow ‘stuff’ seems to have built up over the past year, and by the time January gets here I'm itching to have a sort out. With spring just around the corner (in my mind at least), thoughts turn to getting rid of this clutter. Every year I see myself going through the place from top to bottom, throwing away things that are either not used anymore or I just don't like. Then spring cleaning every room until the whole house is shining like a new pin.

The reality has often fallen short, of course. Naturally, I blame everybody else. Or at least I always have done. But this year, I have nobody left to blame. The last of the kids have flown the nest.

It's all part of the waking up after winter feeling, mind and body starting to get more active as the days get lighter. I know there's plenty of winter left to come. I guess I'm just getting myself into gear.

Now, I haven’t spent the last 40-odd years learning to be a domestic goddess for nothing, and on the face of it my house looks quite clean and tidy these days (whatever Saggy might say), but what irks me is the useless stuff that has accumulated in the cupboards and drawers. I feel like I am storing a mountain of stuff I don't need.

My generation were brought up by the generation who spent their early adult years in post war austerity. They were taught never to waste anything or throw it away if it's still usable. It might come in handy one day. This attitude was passed on to us as we grew up, and we either reacted against it as soon as we had our own homes and went all minimalist, or we carried on the way we were taught. I was one who carried it on.

These days I'm all for recycling, but things should be passed on to someone else if they're usable, not stashed away where they will be unlikely to see the light of day again.

I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and sorting all this stuff out, no problem.

BUT…. there is another category of stuff which hasn't been so easy to sort out.  I have  kept a load of stuff for sentimental reasons….like the coat I bought new for my eldest when he was two, forty years ago. All the children wore it and now it's in a cupboard because I can't bear to part with it. Besides, there's still some wear left in it….

However, progress has been made in recent times!

There was the school work I couldn't get rid of. I used to keep everything the children brought home, but it threatened to take over the house, so I weeded it down to a selection from each and managed to get it down to one box full which I have stashed away. I don't look at it often (under eaves storage space is getting difficult for me to access) but I know it's there.

To manage all the cards, messages and small mementos that have been precious to me I have made a memory book. This is a much better way to store sentimental stuff that otherwise lies around in boxes or in drawers here and there. And it's fun to put together – you get to play with glue and scissors and other things that you might not have had an excuse to use since the kids were little.

                                             

Marie Kondo, the famous Japanese tidying guru, says we should only keep what ‘sparks joy’, i.e. makes you happy. Well, I've got an awful lot of stuff that gives me a happy glow, so now I've edited it, weeded it and worked out how to organise  it, I will be keeping the precious stuff and letting go of the rest.

Moo