It’s time for the big clean up

IF you think life has become overly hectic and complicated, you’re not alone.

Our homes, minds and life-styles are overflowing with things and stresses. Was life truly simpler back in the day?

I think every generation believes things used to be less complicated for generations before them.

Henry David Thoreau said “I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all encumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run.”

Over the years I have managed to acquire many so-called time and effort saving gadgets without actually winning back the time they were supposed to save. I’m a list maker, and an organiser, I like to feel like all of my ducks are in a row. But since my kitchen was refurbished about two months ago I’ve hardly been back into my living room which now looks like a cave where ‘car booters’ live.

This tells me that probably we have a room full of things we don’t need any more. Time to purge? When we get rid of old things we clear old energy from years past as well. Although it’s definitely not spring anymore I know I have to have a major clear out.

Here’s a few tips I’ve found to make some space for summer.

1) Unsubscribe from e-mail lists you never read and set your computer to clear junk and spam mail regularly.

2) Donate furniture and junk that has been hanging around for years.

3) Organise your wardrobe, get the winter clothes in a storage box and recycle or donate everything that doesn’t suit or fit. Get rid of every sock and piece of underwear that has holes, are close to being vapor, or look like they belonged to grandma. Look how much room there is now!

4) Get rid of paper clutter. Keep documents that are still pertinent and shred or burn everything else. Recycle magazines and donate books. It’s a bit daunting to do it all in one go, but also very liberating.

I’ve done smaller versions of ‘The Big Clean’ before hand, but this time I really want to go for it. Sometimes when you change a room other things change too, it’s exciting to see what might happen!

So at the supermarket this weekend if they’ve run out of bin bags and rubber gloves you know where to look.

mallorcamatters.com