Monday mornings are hard.
Monday mornings after Spring Break are harder.
(Evidently, Monday evenings are hard too, since I totally meant to post this last night.)
I’ve been mostly-replaced as Queen Lunch Maker around here, but since last night was completely out of the routine I made them this morning.
Since I was making lunches, I looked at the lunch-making spot.
And actually saw it.
And thought, “Hmmm. I really should declutter that space soon. It has stuff in it that obviously needs to go.”
And then thought, “Ummmm. If I see stuff that needs to go, why not get it out now?”
I tend to assume everything is a big, huge, time-consuming decluttering project . . .
Even when it’s just a matter of throwing trash into the trashcan.
It was food stuff.
Old food stuff.
Stuff I knew we’d never eat, and that I’d never donate. (Since it was OLD.)
The drink mix was probably fine. But . . . I know we’ve had it for more than a year. Someone gave my husband two of them, and obviously we didn’t love the first one enough to use the second.
The bag of chips was probably fine, too. But . . . it was from a pre-Spring-Break forgotten lunch, so it had spent at least ten days hanging out in its dirt-cheap-so-not-zipper-sealed plastic bag.
And the peppermint stick? I know it was fine. But . . . we just passed St. Patrick’s Day and no one had come looking to eat this candy since Christmas.
So I threw these things in the trash. No, I didn’t completely empty the basket or purge it down to the bare essentials.
You could even argue that it wasn’t real decluttering.
But there are three fewer things in there, and that makes me happy.
Michaela says
I think I feel less guilty now for throwing away two “probably” good boxes of candy canes from Christmas (that never got used *ahem* spouse). I just kept remembering that when I opened the box of Christmas ornaments (last year) and found gooey melted-ish candy canes stuck to my ornaments – the candy canes needed to go (ASAP, in March of course).
Don’t you hate food clutter guilt????
Rose Arthur says
Thats funny and encouraging. My Dining Table is has become heaped with this and that(Papers, kids stuff,bottles of vitamins . Produce that needs to get eaten or cooked. Theres barely room to sit at it! I think that will be my start in decluttering today! Have a nice day Dana!
Marie Bishop says
We donate them to our local horse stable. Horses love them and don’t care how old they are!
Pat says
Hey, clutter is clutter…doesn’t matter to me that you just ‘tossed trash’…if you got rid of it, and you’re happy with it. Then I say…cool beans!
Jennifer says
My best way to purge is when I am mad. I just start throwing stuff out. And I have never regretted throwing something out when I was mad.
Michaela says
That is hilarious, I love to purge when I am mad too. I think that is when I feel the least guilty about what I toss LOL
Susan McVicker says
I can clean some meannnn dishes when I’M mad, believe you me!
MJ says
Yes ! Especially decluttering!
And being mad about the clutter other family members created.
Then on down the road I think dang it !
I should have kept it 😢
Jodi says
Haha! I had to giggle at this post because I can totally hear you talking about this! And I can relate to how you think. I look forward to reading more posts!
Nony says
LOVED meeting you this weekend, Jodi! You’re an inspiring woman!
Jen says
I make it a habit to throw out candy a month or so after the holiday. When the Halloween/combined stocking bucket gets to the point where no one really wants to eat whats in it, I dump it all in the garbage. We got a whole bag of candy from church, and it also went into the garbage. It’s part of my mission to lessen the amount of candy my kids are eating. The only person who came looking for the candy bucket after Christmas (once I’d tossed it) was my 3 year old. But it was at the point where even she was getting picky about it!
michelle anderson says
aye aye aye…candy canes can be melted.. into cookie cutter shapes… somehow…and turned into ornaments for the tree…i saw it in diy articles. 😂
which i will never do either sigh…ok the candy canes go…
but what about all the packets of sauce from fast food places.. any ideas for them…may just donate them to a work break room somewhere.
Diana Rose says
Dump them in the trash before you would have to do it at work after no one used them. Believe me, the fkrst time is the hardest to do.
Susan McVicker says
I always bring some home, toss them in a certain drawer, and use three or four of them to drizzle over top of my meat loaf. Yummy!
Nicole says
Love your post thanks! A few things less is better than no things less and it might not be perfect but it’s better!! Merry Christmas 😊
Susan McVicker says
I ‘got right to it’ rather than procrastinating and planning to do it today. I have an old trunk sitting beside my fireplace that I’ve been keeping some tablecloths and glass candle ‘vases’ in for parties. After Christmas I had just laid some of those things NEXT to the trunk, instead of going through the trouble of rearranging inside the trunk. Today I was sitting about 3 yards away from it at the computer, when I read one of your timely, ‘just do it’ posts. I stopped right in the middle and got to work. I was done in about 7 minutes.
During that time I threw one holey table curtainy thing away. I also put a hinged tin I really liked, but didn’t REALLY have a use for, in the donation bin. PHEW! I DID IT!!!!!! Yea me!
Geena says
This morning I looked in the room-whose-door-we-shut-when-someone-comes for my hair dryer. (It wasn’t there.) I saw the new icepacks I had been wondering about and took them to the kitchen. I also saw a catalog for beekeeping supplies. We haven’t had honey bees in DECADES! Since I was in a hurry to get to an appointment, I didn’t toss the catalog right then, but made a mental note to do that later today. The room is still a disaster, but there are a few less items in there to make decisions about now. I’ll take that as a win!