I think I’m rebelling against the unusual cold and starting my spring cleaning early. Actually, doing spring cleaning in the winter makes some sense – who wants to be trapped inside cleaning when it’s nice outside? Maybe that’s why my spring cleaning didn’t really happen last year.
Over the weekend, I started going through cabinets and closets and getting rid of things that I didn’t need/want. The most important of this was going through the linen closet and tossing all expired medications. Of course, when I pull something out, I always check the expiration date, just in case, but it was good to see what needed to be trashed. It was a surprising amount of things, which makes me feel a little wasteful. Clearly I need to be more careful about my shopping.
I realize I also have way too many cleaning supplies. And personal care items. I forget that I have toothpaste, so I pick some up, and then suddenly I have eight tubes. And then in a year, I’ll be completely out because I thought there was still some in the closet. I know some people keep an inventory list on the doors to their cabinets and closets, and while that sounds ridiculous, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea at this point.
I didn’t get through everything – I really wanted to tackle the kitchen cabinets, but only made it through one cabinet – the dreaded tea cabinet. I ended up tossing a bunch of stuff and I probably should have thrown out even more. Tea may not expire but it definitely does go stale, and somehow I managed to stock up a bit too much. It feels so wasteful to throw things away, and it is, but the solution isn’t to not toss things – the solution is to learn from it and buy less.
And I’ve said that before, I know. But now I need to stick to it. Buy less. Stop stocking up on things that don’t need to be stocked up on. It’s not a good deal if you never use it.
I did a bit of this over Christmas and the New Year.. the most scary cupboards were the food ones, how much food was out of date was shocking!
Tip 1: keep everything in the same spot so you don’t forget you have an item. Like toothpaste always goes in the same spot in the same place in the closet, etc. That way you always know if you need more.
Tip 2: you can always donate the unexpired stuff. If you have too much, find a local shelter and drop off stuff.