New year, less clutter

Kaity Holtman

I haven’t chosen a New Years resolution for years, but for some reason this year, I have one in mind that is just calling my name. I plan to spend much of January and February (slower months in my go-go-go life) doing some major decluttering and organizing every aspect of my life.

Now, as a disclaimer, I tend to clean and organize quite frequently. I tend to be an all-or-nothing person. If I let a room or a space get too messy, I let it go way too far before I clean it, so I organize often enough to try to avoid that stage.

Yet, somehow, life just happens. Flat spaces fill up with paperwork and stuff we drop off as soon as we walk through the door. That’s just how life works — we eat with family, there are dishes; we get ready for work, there is laundry; we use stuff, there is stuff lying around the house.

I get it, and I’m okay with that.

But sometimes I just feel like it’s the stuff that gets in the way of the living.

I often think about how much importance society places on material things. Society places status levels on people depending on what they drive, where they live and what they wear.

In reality, none of those things really matter. The gospel of Matthew says “Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’”

This scripture is my motivation for decluttering my life. I’m sure it still won’t be as much as I can give, but I’m hoping it will be a good start.

My husband and I have lived in our house in Conception Junction for more than two and a half years. That’s the longest either one of us has lived in one place since we each lived with our parents. Combined, he and I have lived in a total of 16 different places during and after college.

When a person moves that many times, it’s easy to purge unnecessary clutter to make sure moving is as easy as possible. The longer you stay in one place, the easier it is to collect stuff and push the unnecessary to the back of the mind.

So come January, I’m going to treat my house like I’m moving (don’t worry, I’m not). I’m going to create tubs for trash, donations and items to sell. I plan to go through every room and assess whether I really need every single item in that room.

I plan to deep clean every room in the house too. I always tell myself I’ll do that as part of spring-cleaning, and then spring comes, and I’d rather be outside.

One thing I usually do regularly that I haven’t done for a while is sort through tubs of stuff I have kept for sentimental reasons. I do this every year or two because, honestly, things I found sentimental a few years ago may not mean as much to me now. This will be the last task in cleaning my home.

But beyond cleaning and organizing at home, I want to organize just about every aspect of my life.

I want to clean out my email folders to get rid of content I don’t need anymore and unsubscribe from emails I get from stores where I don’t shop.

Then there is the home office, with paperwork, cards, office supplies, and an ongoing list of items that stress me out in a “I know it’s all there, but I don’t want to mess with it” kind of way.

You know what I’m talking about – “if I just ignore it, the piles won’t get bigger….”

My desk and email here at the office will likely get a little cleanup as well.

Oh, and that I think about that daunting task of organizing photos and other files in a safe place. There are printed and scrapbooked photos mixed with digital and iPhone photos. I’d like to scan, sort and title them all chronologically, but well, I’m not getting my hopes up on that one. A girl can dream.

Then, if I stay motivated and do it all just right, I’ll be ready to tackle the outdoors in the same way in the spring — the yard, the garage, the car, the list goes on.

It’s all very intimidating, but I think I’m finally motivated enough to tackle a little one day at a time. I’m excited. Let’s hope that excitement keeps me rolling through everything on my list.