AJ and I took the day off yesterday to declutter our little apartment in time for the New Year. The first time we did this was last year (our first year as a married couple) and have found it to be both therapeutic and fun! So we vowed to do this every year on the week after Christmas, just before the New Year sets in.
Now that doesn’t mean I’ve been an OC my whole life. I used to hoard things when I was still in school and single (because I was too lazy to throw useless things away) but as I got older, I became more conscious of my kalat and the junk I’ve collected through the years but never used. The look of my room back then was a total eye-sore hehe!
And now that I also maintain a home (our little apartment), I can totally relate in the saying that your home reflects your personal taste and mind. A cluttered home reflects a cluttered mind. A tidy home, on the other hand, is pleasing and comforting to the eyes, body and mind. It also reduces stress. There are no wasted energy when your home is organized.
A home, however small it is, should invite good chi to create harmony with its occupants, and the first (and easiest) way to achieve this is to rid of the waste that prevents it (and you) from functioning better. In short, detoxify it.
Back to our decluttering activity yesterday, we were able to fill up 3 big bags of clothes, bags, shoes and knick knacks in excellent used condition. There were bags and clothes that I’ve used for like, 2 times only and have stored since, so one realization here is that I really should do away with impulse buying (except for craft materials and maybe a few Hello Kitty items haha!).
Anyway, we segregate the used items into 2: (1) those that will be given away to relatives and (2) those that will be donated. We found no items to be thrown away, almost all of them are still useable.
The used clothes, bags and knick knacks were dropped off at a Caritas Manila drop box located at St. John Bosco Church in Makati.
We were surprised to find so many big plastic bags and boxes filled with donated clothes and other stuff.
What a fulfilling day it was. Not only were we able to organize our closets and organize our cabinets, we were also able to help out our less fortunate brothers and sisters through our donations to Caritas Manila.
Now we’re totally ready to usher in the the New Year. There’s a fresh breath in our home now coming from the newly cleared (and cleaned) storage cabinets, closets and tidied up rooms.