I recently was hired for rather a large job. This client had a room that had gotten buried under clutter due to a series of unfortunate personal events (including being the victim of a hit and run accident >:( that driver deserves karmic retribution.)
Due to these events so much stuff ended up in this room "to be dealt with later". This is an attitude I am sure we can all relate to, even myself! While I do preach that I hate the "find a place for it later" mentality, I admit that sometimes I just toss things aside until I am mentally prepared to find a home for it. Just be sure you are able to go back and "deal with it" before it becomes too much. Well, in this case my client was not able to go back in and the room was lost to the clutter over time. If you have followed my Facebook or Instagram you may have seen the before photo. But that is where I come in.
The first step is to begin the sorting process. What purpose will this room have? What stays, what goes? What stays in this room, what goes to other areas of the house? What needs to be THROWN AWAY? And here we have the meat of today's blog. By no means am I saying you should throw away everything. Of course not. You don't even have to throw away everything that doesn't have an explicit purpose (tools) or sentimental value (treasures). But you do need to sometimes make hard calls to reclaim your space.
In this particular case, I was lucky enough that my client trusted me to make the calls - and I did. I checked in on a few things I was not sure about, but at the end of three days and 9 full trash bags, we had discarded or donated anything that wasn't staying in the house.
Side note: I am a huge proponent of donating. If something is not useful to you or your loved ones, and it still works/is in good shape, give it a new life with someone else who can use it. Old towels and blankets can be given to your local animal shelter, for the puppies and kitties who need soft and warm comfort. Old business clothes can be given to charities and organizations who help people on hard times to find jobs. Etc.
I also promote recycling whenever possible. Cardboard and mail (if it does not have sensitive information that requires shredding) should be recycled every time. Check your local area's policies on plastic and recycle what you can. Old and broken electronics should definitely be recycled! Almost every job I have had in just a few months, the client has had at least one broken phone/tablet/computer that they simply did not know what to do with, and it's just taking up space in their homes. There are programs and services that recycle these things for parts, and I collected all these broken items and took them to a local recycling center (once I had a good collection going). I am happy to offer this service to avoid these items going in a landfill.
The TLDR version, sometimes you do have to throw things away in order to better organize your space. It is not always the case, depending on the level of clutter, but recycling and donating and yes, throwing away, is part of the process.

It will be OK, Kirsten Dunst. Your peace of mind and clutter free space is worth it.
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