Emptying the cupboards

The reason I have found is, there is tendency among Indians (I hope I am not generalizing) to not throw any thing. I understand why such tendency is there. But to make your house clutter free, you HAVE TO throw or donate.

Some people rotate the gifts, which I don't. But some do. See if it is acceptable among your circle of friends. Donate unused and unwanted toys and clothes. Before going out, please have clear idea of why you are going out and what you are going to buy. That will help you to stop buying on impulse. Some of these rules worked for me.

 

Oh, I don't even want to go there. My cupboards are crying out to be emptied. I don't even know where to start!

 

Yeah true,I think many of us love to accumulate,thinking that the articles might be useful one day,but the best thing is to be ruthless and dispose of things when ever uou feel they are useless.

 

I know this is a pretty difficult exercise. Believe me I have done not once, twice but thrice. In 8 years we moved 4 houses and I used this as an opportunity to remove all unwanted stuff. The reason is first time we moved, I was baffled to see the stuff at home and it took 2 trucks for us to move to the new place. So this is what I did for my second move

1. I had lot of vessels (glass, porcelain, Steel, brass) which was given for my wedding my parents and friends as gifts. I live with my inlaws so my MIL had ample vessels already, so mine was just sitting in the loft. So we donated it to old age home and Orphange, so that it will be useful for someone for a noble cause. It was hard to convince MIL, I left that job to DH, I should pat on his back he did the job well. Nowadays I do not buy any vessel unless and until I need it, this way I am not adding more stuff to my kitchen.

2. Clothes, I had all salwars, pants since my college days. Same with my DH. All the dresses were in sooo good condition, I would have worn it once or twice as it took long for me to repeat dress. I gave it to my cousins who were joining college, few to my maids daughters, watchman's daughters and giving campaign in office. Seeing what I did my FIL also joined us. Nowadays I do this periodically so that I don't end up piling dresses.

3. Unwanted furniture, buckets (MIL always gets 5 kg soap powder, so we add at least 4 buckets every year) these get slowly discarded as I generously give to maids/cook whoever I can. I have managed to convince MIL not to buy buckets anymore

4. Electronics like DVD player, home theatre became obselote, due to laptops and ipad, so I gave it to few needy college students.

5. There were lot of books, I just kept whatever we need and the rest were donated to library. Nowadays I do not buy books but prefer ebooks.

6. There were quite a few things I could not throw away, but DH convinced my inlaws that we will atleast keep them in a box in the loft. DH audits the loft once in a while and discards these

This is a exercise that you cant achieve yourself but its a family task But believe me you can do it, I took whole 5 years to reach where we are today and the secret is don't add unwanted stuff once you throw away your old stuff.

 

I once read somewhere a smoker saying - It is so easy to give up smoking, i've done it so many times!

Perhaps getting rid of stuff is the same?

 

I too have this problem of too much stuff at home and no place to keep them.
After every Navarathri season i have lots more...which are nice, but since i do no have any immediate use of them, they go into the cupboards.
I try to also purge regularly, but there is always more to do.
But I have seen squeaky clean organized houses, where they still do have all stuff stored, yet their cupboards dont overflow..I wonder how!