This is an entire channel based on an important premise:
that the less we own the more we can focus our lives on things that matter most.
With that is the backdrop, here are 10 things that you can declutter right now. Number one: expired
food. I don't know if you're anything like me, if you're anything like my parents,
but there's a good chance you have expired cans of food, expired spices, expired condiments...
Find them, get rid of them. If they're things that you use, replace with fresher items.
Your cooking will be better anyways. Number two: clothes you don't wear.
I'm not talking about making hard decisions about clothes that you think you wear a lot,
or you might wear right around the corner, but most people have items in their closet. They have
items in their drawers, they have items on their shelves. They have extra coats and purses and
shoes and things they they just stopped wearing. Move them on. Free up the space. Number three:
puzzles and games that are missing pieces or that you stopped playing decades ago. Easy things that
you can remove and get rid of. You know that you need to go through that closet or those shelves
anyway. Just make the decision get rid of those things and move on with your life. Number four:
old electronics, cables, and cords. Technology changes quickly. Electronics that you used six,
seven, eight years ago are now obsolete. You've replaced them with a better phone,
or a better camera, or a better computer. There's no sense holding on to those old things. Same with
cables and cords. They've changed, the company has changed what you need to charge your phone.
Just get rid of the old ones. You can take them to goodwill, you can recycle those electronics
at places like Best Buy or Office Depot. You can just call ahead. Most of those places will
help you recycle those old electronics. Number five: duplicate cookware. How many bowls of
tupperware and unmatching lids do you need? How many coffee mugs do you need? How many spatulas
do you need? We tend to just hold on to all these things, and we don't recognize that we've stopped
using many of the items, and we just use the exact same favorite ones over and over and over
again. Get rid of the duplicates, free up space in your kitchen. Cooking will become a lot more fun.
Number six: old linens. Ged sheets, pillowcases, towels, sometimes even cleaning rags that we use.
We had old towels, they wore out, so we bought new ones, and for some reason we held on to
the old ones even though we have no intention of ever using them again. There are a whole bunch of
animal shelters in your area that could use those linens. You could free up the space in your closet
and they could find some of the essential supplies that they need to do the work that they do. Number
seven: luggage. Luggage takes up a lot of space in our basements and our attics and our closets.
Get rid of the luggage that you don't need. Maybe your family has changed sizes. Maybe you've
replaced the old ones. Maybe you just don't travel as much as you used to. Get rid of the luggage.
Number eight: boxes. If you move often, you might want to hold on to some boxes that fold easily,
but a lot of people get into the habit of holding on to boxes from the items that they buy.
Whether they think they're going to have to take it back right away, or they think that
if they ever do move they need to have the exact fitting box for any given item that it might be,
and these boxes tend to not shut down very easily. They tend to take up a lot of space. Keep the
moving boxes if you need to, but get rid of a lot of those product boxes that you're holding onto.
Number nine: unused personal care or personal hygiene products. Take a look at your bathroom
cabinet, your medicine chest. Expired medicine, expired makeup, or cosmetics that you no longer
use. That big supply of hotel shampoo samples that you brought home with you. Free up your bathroom,
free up that space, and declutter unused personal care products. And number 10:
books you don't intend to read again. Books can be difficult for people. We can become emotionally
attached to some. There are some books that we refer back to over and over again. But most people
have plenty of books on their shelves that they don't intend to read again. They read it once,
or they never read it, or someone gave it to them. Take those books, you can take them to goodwill
,you can donate them to a local library where they can sell them or lend them out, but either
way there's probably someone who wants to read those books. Once you remove them from your home,
they can move on to someone else. The less stuff we own, the more we're able to focus our lives on
things that matter most. And once we get started decluttering, the easier it is to find new places
and more things to get rid of. These are 10 items that you can declutter right now and get started