Summertime Is Cleaning Time!

The weather is so hot, the clouds promenading in the sky are either cirrus of cumulus, and the rain doesn’t have plan of showering God’s creation anytime soon—what a favorable season to gear up myself with cleaning materials and ransack the storage room and organize my room.

Summertime is not only going out at the beach, enduring the scorching heat of the sun just to have a tan (I don’t have to since I’ve got just enough melanin already), it’s a time  to make decision—a difficult one —at some point whether to let go of my old stuff or to keep them.

To Give or Not to Give

In the past few weeks, I’ve been doing huge decisions, starting with my room. What is challenging in cleaning up is choosing which stuff is to give or to hold on to, though at the back of my mind, I knew that they are better off for someone else to have.  But the nostalgia and the thought of being handy in the future attached to the supposedly-clutter stuff strongly clings to me, resulting to hesitation. Are we on the same boat?

I’m not the lone soul struggling with this issue; people tend to keep things and if not control can lead to extreme hoarding. (The episode on Oprah is so startling and serves as an eye opener for anyone too lazy to declutter but industrious to collect)

Discard Confusion

To beat the mild case of hoarding, I ask myself quick, simple questions: am I still using it and do I have to use it soon for a project? If the answers are no, I instantly put a stuff aside on the must-give-away area. Without noticing, I’ve made a heap of treasure for others including books, clothes, school supplies, hair accessories, bags and more. Later on, I have to grapple with the possibility of changing decision. So before I did, I hand them over after battling with myself.

In the end letting go gives relief and space for new, useful stuff, while generosity gives a sense of fulfillment: I was able to give without spending a cent.

I’m not yet done because much work is needed to convince my mom to get rid of things, so old that as I grew up it has become my summertime affair to take them out of the house, without my mom’s knowledge; but if there’s a tendency for her to go berserk once she comes looking for old stuff, I just stash them in the storage room to prevent the showcase of eyesores (the least thing I could do)—a strategy against interior design principles, I suppose.

How long since you’ve cleaned up your space—a month, weeks, or years? Perhaps it has been too long for you to remember. I have no idea about the current season in your country, but should you wait for summer to arrive when you have the time—NOW! Tarry no more. By getting rid of clutter, you can spend summertime at the beach and have a tan while your house is breathing comfortably.