Spring cleaning can be a challenging task for many different reasons. In some cases, it can be very hard work, especially if you have a lot of clutter lying around. The manual labor in itself can be a lot to deal with, but it is sometimes not nearly as bad as the ordeal of having to decide what is valuable and what is not. Particularly if you are a pack rat or have hoarding tendencies, it can be very difficult to throw anything away that could be perceived to have some value or future use. However, realistically, most items can be replaced even if they are thrown out, and it is often better to dispose of any useless clutter that is lying around if you cannot see a use for it right now.
One good idea is to sort your items into different categories. For example, you can sort them into the following three categories: items that you definitely want to keep, items that you may or may not want to keep, and items that you know are garbage. The garbage can be disposed of immediately, while the items that you want to keep can be organized and put in their proper places around the house. The items about which you are unsure, however, present more of a challenge. With these, you will have to look at every item and make a decision about whether it is important to you or it is junk. Ask yourself how often you have used it in the past year (this is the rule of thumb for hoarders and pack rats), and if you realistically are going to use it again in the future. If you know that you were just holding on to it for no good reason and will probably not be using it at all, you can feel free to throw it away, unless it has sentimental value. There are many items of sentimental value that are not necessarily used. It is okay to keep these if you feel that you cannot part with them. The only problem is that some people may consider junk to be sentimental as well. If you have crossed this barrier, this can prevent a real problem in terms of extra clutter in your home.
We talked with 123JUNK about those who hoard, and they explained, “Many people who have hoarding tendencies will keep items that they know they are not going to use because they do not like to be wasteful and do not want to throw away items that could potentially be useful. In this case, you do not need to throw the items away, but rather than keep them in your house just to clutter it up, you may want to donate them. There are many organizations that accept items of all different sorts, and a person who obtains an item from one of these places will likely put it to good use.”
However, even though it is good to get rid of clutter, it is not the best idea to indiscriminately throw out boxes full of items without knowing what is in those boxes. If you do this, you could end up throwing out something of great financial or sentimental value and regretting it later. As such, it is a good idea to look at all of the items before categorizing them, so that you make sure that you only throw out junk and not anything that is actually valuable to you. Most items are easily replaceable, but family heirlooms, items from childhood that you purposely held onto, and extremely expensive items that may have gotten lost in the shuffle are not. Additionally, you may have items that are worth a great deal of money, and even if you do not want them in your house, you can sell them for a handsome profit. It is important to maintain a balance so that you are neither a compulsive hoarder nor a compulsive anti-hoarder.
