New Year's Resolution

Now that it is a month into the new year, let’s check in on your resolutions. Did you resolve to keep a cleaner house? Go through a cupboard every week? Clean out the basement closet that hasn’t seen light for five years? Regardless of what your resolution is we could all use a couple tips on where to start simplifying and decluttering our homes. 

There are plenty of places to start when it comes to simplifying, but it helps to start in an area you will see the quickest results. A couple of these areas are the kitchen, and common living spaces. 

When approaching the kitchen, here are a couple things you should think about:

• Spices
  • When going through your spices, look at their expiration dates. Spices don’t necessarily expire, but they can lose their potency. When you go to buy spices next time, consider buying the small containers. Unless you use a spice every day you are not going to use them up before they lose some flavor.
• Appliances
  • There are many kitchen appliances that are trends but don’t always get used on a regular basis such as air fryers, ice cream machines, bread makers…the list could go on, trust me. When going through your cabinets, ask yourself if you have used the appliance within the last year. If you haven’t it is time for it to find a new home. If you have used it, consider what the occasion was and how often. Could it be something that you share with a close friend or family member to help get more uses out of it? The next time you are looking at purchasing a new appliance think about how often you will realistically use that new appliance.

Toys are another hard thing to get rid especially if your kids are still young. As a mother of four, I had to be creative when it came to getting rid of to

• Trick #1
  • Gather the toys your children don’t play with as often into a bin or container, then put it somewhere out of sight such as your closet or the basement storage area for three months, if during that time they ask if you have seen a specific toy, then go grab it out of storage. If they don’t ask for any of the toys you put away by the end of the three months, then it is time to give them away to a new home.
• Trick #2
  • If your child is having a hard time parting with a toy, they have outgrown it can  be easier to give it to someone they know will enjoy it. My children always had an easier time getting rid of toys if they knew who they gave them to. Is there a child that lives down the street that is better aged for the toy? Suggest bringing it down to their house, so you child can see the joy on their face when they receive the gift. This shows your child that it has a good home. It also might teach them the joy of giving.

Another area to tackle is the dreaded paperwork. Going through paperwork can be overwhelming if there isn’t a plan going in, but once you get it under control it will be easier to manage. It can be difficult to know how long important documents need to be kept, but the following list will help.
 
How Long to Keep Important Documents

• Tax documents should be kept for seven years
• Legal documents such as birth certificates and marriage licenses keep forever
• Financial statements keep the original purchase paperwork and then the most recent statement

All in all, the most important thing to remember is just to get started. This is the hardest part, but the most important.