Dreamer

Hello dreamers and happy new week!

As we step into 2024 with a fresh perspective and mood, it’s time to take a step towards our new life!

Many cultures state that for new to come, you need to make room for it, and what better way to start than with cleaning your home!?

Even if we are not hoarders, many things end up taking up space in our homes, and to be honest, they stay in our way when we most hurry!

I for example, just keep all the boxes, for warranty, but mostly for Christmas gifts, as it’s easier to wrap a box than a plain sweater. However, except for December, and occasional Bdays, I swear to myself that I throw them out. It’s a disease I admit I have, this is why I pledge to seasonal purges, and I encourage you to do so also!

Most of the things that complicate our lives stay in the closet and there is the first thing you need you declutter!

Men or women, we all hate cleaning our wardrobes, and I don’t mean tidying it up. I mean sorting and deciding.

Over the years our bodies change, our styles change and our situations change, so our wardrobes change. I know we have many things in our closet that are there because they have an emotional impact. A sweater from someone we love, a blouse from someone we lost, and many things like that. There are also things we got as gifts but don’t fit, things we don’t like, and things we like but that don’t fit us.

I encourage you to take the next steps to clean your closet:

• Create a mood board: this is how you can have inspiration for creating outfits with the pieces you love and want to keep. It will also help to visualize what you are missing.
• Bring out a few boxes and markers: One for clothes that don’t fit and you don’t like, one for clothes that fit but you don’t like, one for clothes that don’t fit but you like, one for damaged clothes (stains, tears, fuzz, etc), one for clothes that don’t fit but have something emotional about it, one for things that simply you haven’t had the chance to wear in a while.
• With these boxes, start your journey. Take everything in your hands and either fold them in piles or put them in one of the boxes. Do the same for clothes and accessories.
• After you have your boxes and piles, wipe up and clean the wardrobe, and let the fun begin. Store the clothes in the pile firstly season, then, I like to separate my good clothes from my home clothes. Then I put them on categories, pants, blouses, skirts, and so on. I hang dresses and dress pants and any other skirt or shirt that needs to be put on a hanger.
• Now you have the boxes on the ground. Take some other boxes, one for projects, one for donations, one for cloth, and one to keep for your kids.
• For what you don’t like and don’t fit you it’s an easy task to donate. However, for the rest of them, it might be a little harder. The box is called a project it should be made of pieces you like or have sentimental baggage to it. You can make pillowcases, accessories, and other DIYs to keep that piece in your life with a purpose for a little longer. However, let’s just say one of your favorite shirts misses a button, still, the project section must come, as it can and should be mended.
• For the cloth box, you should go green and choose some pieces you can use for cleaning. I’m not joking, it’s the best way to use at maximum that fast fashion that’s worn out in one season. It helps your budget and the environment, as you reduce paper wipes.
• The box for your kids, or news is a box you need to take very much care of, as you want the pieces to resist over the years. You should only put there timeless pieces, but also very emotional pieces. Prom dresses, wedding dresses, baby costumes, and so on. Everyone has that outfit that screams to be kept.
• In the donation box should be things that are ok, or mended and things you don’t care about (or you didn’t remember having. you don’t remember having for a reason, you know)
• It’s a hard process but it must be done to spend less time searching for outfits.
• The kid’s box must be sealed and put up for storage, the project one, has to have a big written so you remember why it’s there so you start working, and the cloth one must be put to use.

After the closet, there comes toiletries and makeup. Another part of our existence that is always messy. We keep all those tiny gifts we received with magazines or other products, things we used to use, and so on. It’s time to declutter there too. And for that, for those like me, it’s time to accept defeat: we must throw them away without recycling. This was my problem and it still is. I feel like polluting so more if I throw away tiny foundation containers and makeup. Same as previous I came here with some steps to help you:

• Firstly check the expiration date and throw away everything that has expired.
• From what you have left, start cleaning. And I mean, deep sorting and cleaning. Unless you are a Halloween makeup artist or a makeup artist, start throwing away pencils, and makeup that you haven’t used.
• You can use the system with donations, projects, and kids too, but with the mention that donations must be untouched or unused as it’s not healthy at all. For kids, you can reuse your eye pencils for art projects, or if you are artsy you can use them.
• But seriously, here is the space where to clean up.

And if we talked about toiletries let’s talk about bathrooms and cleaning supplies too. In the bathroom, as it’s an intimate place in the house, we keep our things that don’t need to be seen by the rest of the world, and we usually forget about them. Applying the same rules as previous, throw away anything that is expired, overused, damaged, or doesn’t function, anything with mold or rust, anything older than a year. And after you feel like you can find a pin if it’s thrown on the ground, then move forward to the kitchen.

Kitchens are the heart of the house, and when they have a clog, it’s normal not to work properly, this is why is so important to keep it clean.

• Firstly throw away any spoiled food or ingredients, anything expired. 
• Start with a deep clean of the fridge and the oven.
• Then check up the drawers: Throw away things that don’t function.
• Put away things that aren’t supposed to be in your drawers, like idk legos, hair ties, and any other nonrelated things.
• When it comes to appliances, check for warranties when they have problems, clean them, and make sure all accessories are in the same place.
• For any other kitchen utensils, the same principles: we throw what’s broken or we don’t use and we put them away sorted.

Now, for the rest of the house, you know the basics. Somehow here are some more tips:

• Use the Boxex (throw, donate, projects for everything you might think of)
• Throw away anything that doesn’t work or doesn’t give you happiness;
• Search for recycling campaigns;
• Organize by purpose and using frequency.

Well, this is all for today, I hope you have a blast decluttering your life and that you have an amazing Week!

Until next time, have #adreamerlife!

Cristiana Apreutese