Do you have decluttering and organization goals for January, the first quarter, or 2021? Every year, I rededicate myself to living more sustainably. I make plans to declutter, and I have the urge to reorganize every room in the house. And then, I take a breath and realize that if I don’t start with small goals, I will feel overwhelmed, and nothing will get done.
This year is no different. Yes, the pandemic has made everyone more aware of what works or doesn’t work in their homes. You may have even gone through a decluttering back in April of 2020 when it was apparent you weren’t going anywhere for a while. But with January brings a fresh perspective and, possibly, more energy for tackling the trouble areas of your home that you spent last year identifying.
Decluttering with Apartment Therapy
I’m a big fan of Apartment Therapy, so when they introduced the “January Cure,” I was all in. Basically, it gives you a task for every weekday in the hopes of getting you closer to your decluttering and organization goals. You don’t have to be a minimalist to try the program. And there are no rules that specify that you can’t alter their daily task with one that better suits your needs.
Decluttering Plastic Containers
For example, Day 1 was drawer focused. But the thing that was making me most crazy was the proliferation of plastic Tupperware that had come from the pre-pandemic days when restaurants were a part of our lives (sigh). We kept them all because we would re-use them for restaurant leftovers when we (used to) go out, leftovers from when we cook, and for more user/storage-friendly packaging.
That seemed like a reasonable choice until I found myself looking at a cabinet filled with 30 plastic storage containers with slightly different lids (or lost lids) and less and less room for things like glassware. So, my Day 1 was dedicated to decluttering the plastic containers in the cabinet.
Recycling or Re-using?
While some did end up in the recycling bin, I kept the ones that shared lids or were radically different sizes. Little ones with lids are great for dried herbs from our garden, so those remained. Broken containers or those with broken tops went into recycling. I kept seven or eight containers for gardening purposes and moved those into the gardening area of my office.
The entire endeavor took about 10 minutes. Now we can see what we have, and everything has a matching lid. I’m also no longer fearing a falling tower of plastic containers whenever I open the cabinet door. Would I love to jettison the plastic in favor of something more eco-friendly? Yes. But we really don’t want to spend more money or energy on storage containers when we can continue using what we have. Then, as we need to replace them, we can look at other solutions.
That was my Day 1. Have you started a calendar for decluttering and organization in 2021?
