Up until just a couple of months ago, I was the sole person responsible for keeping my apartment clean. This wasn’t the first place that I’ve had to take care of on my own. I’ve always had what I considered to be a manageable space for 1-2 people. However, I noticed a change in my home recently that sent me in a tail spin! I needed some professionals and sought recommendations from friends for cleaners in the city. The idea of hiring cleaners was foreign for me since growing up, we never had them. In my household, Kevin and I were responsible for our weekly chores and as a family, we took care of the cleaning on our own. In a city like San Francisco though, almost every household had cleaners visiting monthly.

After the first cleaning, my home was now cleaner than when I first moved in a year and a half ago! How was that possible?! After the first cleaning, my home was now cleaner than when I first moved in a year and a half ago! How was that possible?! Having cleaners come once a month was great and all, but it might be equally important to hire skilled and trained hoarding cleaners who can help me in the removal of junk items from my home. Even after hiring cleaners every month, I might need to discover a way to maintain cleanliness on my own without daily help. One habit I’ve started to pick up is something I read online. Every time you leave a room, you take one item with you. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to throw it away, but you might also be putting something back where it belongs. It takes some time to get used to, but I like to believe it’s helping!

On top of having New Year’s resolutions, it’s important for me to begin each year with a fresh start. As much as I’m enjoying my vacation, I’m looking forward to getting back and decluttering my whole apartment. One of my friends actually suggested that I consider using a company that offers Household rubbish removals to make my job a little bit easier. It’s one thing throwing the items away, then you have to work out where to dispose of them. By contacting a rubbish removal company, they can sort that out for you. Perhaps I’ll look into that, it’s quite a good idea. I do need a good clear out of things that I don’t use anymore. I’m starting my declutter now. First on the list?

• Donating my clothes to Goodwill for my quarterly drop off. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t come back from Christmas without new clothes. In order to make space for them, I’ve got to do some kind of a purge. I haven’t adopted the KonMari way of “if it doesn’t bring you joy, throw it out,” but we’ll get there. Instead, if I haven’t worn a piece in the last year and believe I won’t for another, it goes into the bag. In the last two places that I have lived, my closet space has never been able to hold all of my pieces. Because of that, I’ve always had an extra clothing rack in my room serving as decor and functionality. To make sure that it stays organized, only my latest pieces will go on that. For further separation, the newest pieces are assigned to my wooden hangers. If I run out of the eight wooden hangers, it all goes into the closet. Of course, if you have lots of old clothes that are just not suitable for donation, you could always rent a junk disposal bin. A friend of mine who lives in Surrey hired a junk disposal bin from Trash King and was so impressed with how easy it was to get rid of all her old belongings. We are all guilty of holding on to our possessions for too long, but there is nothing quite like the feeling of a clean and clutter-free home!
• Go paperless. It’s happening. All of my friends are getting married and having kids and everything comes in a mail announcement despite us living in a technology-centric world. I don’t mind these, but what I do hate is getting all of the coupons in the mail that I won’t see for weeks, but take up my space in recycling. I put in the request to stop receiving these back in the summer, but am still waiting for this to be approved. This takes two seconds, but log into your bill accounts and make sure you go paperless. It’s easier than ever for businesses and individuals to go paperless with document scanning software, like the software provided by FilecenterDMS. There is really no reason or excuse for having physical files anymore. It’s better for you and the environment.
• Recycling Receipts. Nearly all retail places I shop at have my email address on file, but because I’m used to getting a paper receipt, I forget to ask for it electronically. Receipts are everywhere in my life. They can be found in my living room, in cabinets, my car, and my purse. Do we still even need them these days? I figured I won’t need them for grocery stores or drugstores so maybe I should ask them to hold it.
• Dumping Old Beauty Products. When it comes to makeup, I am very conservative with what I buy and how much I use. For a while, I was proud that I could make my BB cream last 6+ months! This stuff ain’t cheap! What ended up happening is that I would convince myself that I was at the end of a tube, start a new one, and still keep the old one storing it in a purse or my work bag for emergencies. This is the opposite of what you should do. When you’re done, you’re done. I live in a state of denial, always.

I grew up finding sentiment in the most unlikely of items. I’m convinced that it’s why it has made it so hard for me to part with things today. But 2019 will be different. I’m setting a goal and I want to say goodbye to all of the things that I know are doing nothing for me including my 8 year old nail polishes that I haven’t touched. I wish you all the best.