The Big Clean Out - Day 1

Okay, put your hand up, who's ever said: "Right, this is it! I'm going to clean out my house of all the crap, all the junk and have just the necessities at my fingertips!". Then, you start to do it, find out it's too hard and toss in the towel before you even get to lounge room and decided that you like your junk? Come on, be honest.... yeah, me too.
And wasn't it embarrassing when push came to shove and you lost something important like that all vital Tax Card you have to take to the Chemist for your prescriptions, or your house keys (which, let's face it, are attached to your car keys, so you're not going anywhere without them!).

So, here's what I'm going to do... I'm putting forth a challenge to all us grots out there who either have never done housework, can't be bothered doing housework or have let it slip from our line of thought. Let's have 2010 be the year where our houses are reasonably clean and tidy. This means: we can have them ready for anyone to visit with 20 minutes notice; so we can tidy up a little and make sure it's not too untidy or cluttered.

Well, I've begun on my house; and because I'm not the best housekeeper in the world, I haven't taken the whole house on all at once. I began in the room I use the most - no not my office, that'll be last. I began cleaning out drawers in the kitchen and doing out the mugs I don't use anymore. I bagged up about 10 or 12 old kitchen towels somebody else could use, 3 mugs I haven't used in over a year and I'm going to send all of this off to a charity for somebody else to use. Then, cleaned out my pantry of unused, packaged food and tossed it in the bin. Now, I have the bottom shelf of the pantry clean enough for what's in my 2nd Pantry up here in the office to put food I've collected in. That's another great thing. I'm getting rid of the large cardboard box that holds all that food sitting inside my office door. And then, I'll shop for only what I need and not what I think I need. It'll be cheaper for me in the long run. I've still got things to do today. There are papers that I sorted out yesterday to shred, other papers that need filing, the kitchen table to clear up, the laundry to sort and fold, the bed to make up (I'm thinking of turning the mattress, but I may not yet as it's hard to do on my own) and the bedroom and bathroom to vacuum and dust.

And then, that'll be it for day one of this Clean Out. I hope you are endeavouring the clean out or fix up something in your house/unit/dorm that will make your life that little bit easier; even if it's keeping a journal, making a shopping list before going out to buy the groceries (believe me, that works) and not shopping on an empty stomach (and that works too!), or just organising how your books on their shelves are going to be kept. It all helps in some way.