Decluttering the Apartment
Posted on May 17, 2013 5 Comments
Last night, I made a deal with myself that I’d get rid of five things in my living room. You see, despite my best efforts, I still have a lot of stuff lying around that I haven’t used in years, and every once in a while I set a little goal like this to help declutter my living space. Inevitably, once I get on a roll, five things turns into many more, in many other areas of my apartment.
So, tonight I got rid of:
- 7 pairs of shoes! (1 for gymshoe recycling, 2 in the trash, 4 to the Salvation Army)
- 6 books (to the local library)
- 1 hat (Salvation Army)
- 4 purses (family and Salvation Army) and 1 laptop bag (family)
- 1 unused swim suit and one pair of lightly used sweats (family)
Additionally, I was holding onto a giant bag of junk mail, receipts, and documents with personal data that needed to be shredded. A friend told me rather than shredding, he puts his junk mail into his bathtub, fills it with water, lets the paper absorb it, then throws the pulp away. Intrigued and eager to avoid time shredding, I modified the process and put the paper into a bucket with some bleach. It’s been sitting overnight in my tub and now looks something like this:
It’s a big mess, and I’m not even sure I can put this into our recycle bin anymore. Terrible. If I had more time, I could probably make my own paper with it, but for now I need to focus on cleaning up my bathroom! Next time I’ll stick with the slow shredding.
Category: Life
Tags: decluttering , Home
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5 Responses to “Decluttering the Apartment”
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May 19th, 2013 @ 8:01 pm
Wow I have never heard of doing that to paper. Interesting. We have a super slow shredder at the house so I usually take my stuff to the big one at my office and shred papers in the morning while I put my breakfast in the fridge get water and chat with coworkers for a bit.
May 19th, 2013 @ 10:50 pm
I take the train in to the office, and I’m totally giggling thinking about me walking in to the office with a heavy bag full of junk mail. I guarantee I would arrive hot and sweaty and then run into the medical school Dean on our floor while carrying said bag. Better yet, he’d probably end up riding the elevator up with me with all the junk mail. Ha!
May 19th, 2013 @ 10:53 pm
You know, the soaking actually wasn’t that bad. It was super easy to dump and clean. The only downside is that you can’t recycle wet paper. But I guess technically it’s biodegradable and I didn’t throw it in a bag before tossing it in the dumpster. I have to think more about this. If only companies would stop sending me junk mail!!!
May 21st, 2013 @ 8:10 am
I need to declutter desperately – We moved in to a new house a year ago (gained 2,000 sq. ft.) yet somehow the house cannot fit all of our stuff … I really really want to just throw everything away and start all over
I burn my confidential papers in the outdoor charcoal grill. It’s quick and easy.
May 22nd, 2013 @ 12:10 pm
I personally have a lot of things that I don’t use and need to get rid of ! I think it’s important to pick a time where you gather all the stuff you don’t need, you’ll be amazed how numerous they are, and then sell them or simply give them away. You will feel good in both cases !