Spring Cleaning (in February)

During my winter lull in volunteer activity, I always try to do some major cleaning out of the house. It never works out to be as major as I want it to be, but I try again every year. I’ve already had a charity pick up one front porch full of ‘stuff’ late last year and now I’ve accumulated another pile that is big enough. It was a real mess at first because I didn’t have boxes to put things in….then I had a box of ‘stuff’ that ended up being trash and decided to donate some luggage/backpacks – hurray! Containers to hold giveaway stuff.

Two questions that I ask myself about each item that help me decide:

• Have I used it in the last year?
• Do I want to take it with me when I move from this house?

If the answer to both those questions in ‘no’ then the logic becomes:

• Does my husband agree (if it is an item that has anything at all to do with him)?
  • If so – Is it something that could be used by someone else?
    • If so – Do I know someone that I wants it?
      • If so – Deliver the items as soon as possible to that someone.
      • If not – Put it in the giveaway pile
  • If not – it goes in the trash or recycle for the week (or spread out over a few weeks if it is a lot of stuff or some items must be taken to the landfill directly in our area)

Of course – when we do eventually move from this house, there will be a lot of effort to clean out stuff to avoid moving ‘stuff’ that we don’t need (or want).