De-clutter Now!

So our house is being painted for most of this month. Painting is a nightmare. The dust, the smell of primer and color coupled with the noise all day is tiring and stressful indeed. To add to all this trouble, my family has successfully managed to not throw away absolutely anything for at least 40 odd years. And I ain’t kidding or exaggerating.

So, we got tonnes and tonnes of things stacked, stuffed, neatly tucked and sometimes randomly thrown here and there all around the house. Every room has these special cabinets and wardrobes that are never opened but have things for a rainy day. Then of course there are all those trinkets that my parents and my sister collected over the years to sit and look at longingly someday (luckily, I have managed to get rid of all of mine recently). Each thing I plan to throw has a sweet memory attached to it (ignoring the fact that the memory was lying in a dark corner of the house for close to 30 years without anyone even noticing it). Things that were valuable 10 years ago, somehow never depreciate and they still hold the same value (yeah I am talking about the spider-web covered vase sitting on the top of the transom for so long!).

Finally after shouting, crying, pleading and brainwashing, my mom got ready to get rid of 2 or 3 small items in our house. But, she put a condition that I can’t throw them away, I need to donate them to poor people. Now, I know that India is a poor country and 37% of the people live below the poverty line. So, I had to somehow find these poor people and donate them stuff. Donating money is one thing, but imagine donating a vacuum cleaner to a poor person. In the last 2 weeks, I have visited NGOs, poor neighbourhoods (yeah the slum-dog millionaire style ones) and even asked random poor looking strangers to take away stuff for free. But as you guessed, I have been unsuccessful.

The moral of the stressful story? If you have not de-cluttered yet, go start doing it NOW. Stop accumulating stuff at home (just to throw it away later!). I found some excellent tips online to reduce your clutter. I stand by my earlier statement that every 6 months, vacate your house and move. Its the easiest way to frugal living!