Life on Florida’s West Coast

Spring Cleaning in January

Over the last week I have been trying to make time to go through the things I have here at the house and sort them into items we will keep and those things we can donate to the Hospice. I have already taken over bags of my daughter’s old shoes, unwanted toys, costume jewelry, a bread maker and the cat’s carrier.

I still need to go through my daughter’s clothing and the things out in the garage. I bought all new Samsonite luggage last summer, so I want to go through all my travel bags and donate the ones that older or too heavy for current airline guidelines. Surely someone can use the bags for local travel. They are all still in such great shape.

The things in the storage unit will get the same treatment, but I will wait until we buy the house and move for the final time to do that.

I’ve really cut back on what I buy in the last couple of years. If I really think about it, I have everything I could ever need to run a house without purchasing much of anything else. Of course, I will need to buy new appliances and consumables every so often, but there is no reason to bring in any new decorative items or kitchen ware into my home. All that serves to do is make the house so crowded that I end up doing what am doing now – donating the old things.

My frugal outlook on life keeps me from buying something new simply to replace another item that is still in usable shape. For example, the only reason I bought new luggage last summer is that the airlines all put new luggage restrictions in place and I found that my older, heavier suitcases weighed so much that I would have had to severely limit what I packed inside of them. I bought new, lightweight luggage and we were able to pack everything we needed and still be under the weight limit.

I call this my Spring Cleaning in January. Sorting and donating is also inspiring me to do the deep cleaning and such around the house. We have such amazing weather this week, too. It just seems like the right time.

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