DE-CLUTTER YOUR LIFE

It’s suddenly February, and time to move on from all that festive fun and the usual post-festive lull. I don’t know about you? But I always start the year full of great ideas, a weight loss challenge, more exercise, less alcohol, less chocolate and lo and behold, by the end of the first week in January, I have reverted to my old ways. This year, I aim to do better (goodness that reminds me of my old school reports!) so, hang on to your hats.

Spring cleaning and de-cluttering fill me with absolute dread, I start off in all good faith but after an hour, my spirit and energy flag, so I have decided that, as I cannot ‘eat the whole elephant in one go ‘, I will do it drawer by drawer, cupboard by cupboard and wardrobe by wardrobe.

I have just removed all the shoes from the bottom of my wardrobe, made friends with a spider and found lots of fluff balls, dragged the vacuum cleaner upstairs and just got started. Why do I still have stilettos that I can a) no longer squash my feet into and b) even if I could get them on, I definitely could not walk in them? No clue! Prince Charming, where are you to help when I need you? Deep breaths and into the recycling bag they go. I’m on a roll now. Next, it’s the boots that have broken zips which our wonderful cobbler sadly can’t mend, and quickly, into the bag they go too. It’s quite satisfying seeing what I no longer need be moved on, but the space at the bottom of the wardrobe seems no clearer although certainly cleaner, without fluff balls and spiders! A quick spritz with the polish and that’s one bit done.

My next task is to empty the wardrobe of clothes, I read somewhere that it’s a good idea

to reverse the coat hangers, putting them back normally if you have worn the garment, and after a month or two anything not worn goes in the bag! Brilliant idea, but I can see I will have to be really strong to achieve this! Do I really need that sparkly top I wore a few years

ago but have kept ‘just in case’? Somewhere, I still have the dress I wore for my daughters wedding and there is no way on this earth I can fit into it, sentimental value only, out it goes methinks? Hats? I have a few that I actually wear and quite a few that I will never wear again. Perhaps a nursery or playgroup would find them useful?

We have drawers full of old cutlery inherited from our parents, some we use but some we don’t, so we recently found a stall at our weekly market who were happy to buy them. This bonus meant a few extra pounds saved towards the holiday fund! I am not sure if these stalls exist at French markets? I believe I have seen them occasionally.

China, glasses and cooking pots all have to earn their place in the kitchen from now on, I have a very tiny kitchen so every inch of space is valuable. Last year, I gave away two electric mixers, coffee grinders and now have just one food processor which does lots of small jobs and takes up less space. I quite like the idea of a 28-day de-cluttering challenge, this one I have borrowed from Pinterest. Hopefully it will give you some ideas and reignite your enthusiasm for spring-cleaning! What are your tips for de-cluttering? We all need the extra inspiration. Perhaps if you have a failsafe method you’d like to share, maybe you could email it to me, care of the magazine? contactus@simplylivingfrance.com

A house de-cluttering is a bit like painting the Eiffel Tower, never ending but oh so worthwhile!

Di x

“Putting things away creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved. But sooner or later, all the storage units are full, and the room once again overflows with things.” - Marie Kondo