Wednesday, 1 January 2014.

I’d gotten up just before 9:00am, and for the past hour and an half I’d enjoyed some relaxing surfing (online, not on the water).

Now it was 10:31am, and I started debating about whether or not to begin one of my new year’s resolutions.

At 10:33am, I made up my mind.

If I didn’t start now, I never would – and later, I would have yet another reason to hate myself.

So I got up and began doing something about one of my long-time problems: hoarding.

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As regular readers of Black and Blue Man may recall, I’ve written previously about decluttering my hoarding life and making some initial progress.

But since then (way back in…yikes, July 2012), very little progress has been made.

As the somewhat blah year of 2013 drew to a close, however, I thought about ways to ensure that 2014 would not become yet another fucking blah year, and one way was to really declutter my life.

Recently I spent two weeks visiting family interstate, and during that fortnight I had a lot of time to think about the upcoming year and some resolutions I could make.

After some thought, I decided that:
(a) I would start my decluttering resolution on New Year’s Day
(b) I would declutter at least every second day at one hour (or a few hours) at a time
(c) I would start from one corner of my kitchen

Although the anal-retentive part of me dreaded what lay in store, another part of me that enjoys defecation looked forward to it. Purging meant liberation, both physically and psychologically.

*

So at 10:33am I went to that corner of the kitchen to begin my 2014 decluttering adventure.

Occupying that corner was a small wire-shelving unit overflowing with stuff, and other stuff stacked around it.

First, I cleared the shelves, decided what I still needed and didn’t, kept little of it, decided to bin much of it and put the rest aside to clean it and donate it to charity.

Second, I wiped down the shelves and its stand with disinfectant wipes to remove years of dust.

Third, I cleaned the corner of its years of dust.

Fourth, before breaking for a shower and lunch, I returned the shelving unit to the corner and found that the stuff from it I’d kept now only filled one of its four shelves.

Fifth, after lunch, I wiped down the other stuff that had been stacked around the shelving unit, found that I could now put most of it in the three empty shelves, and reordered what was left over in a better way around the shelving unit.

Sixth, I wiped and washed the items I’d earmarked for charity, which was mostly cutlery – and which included one item that may or may not get it own post in the future.

Finally, I hauled the six shopping bags of items I’d decided to bin down to my apartment building’s garbage room.

All up, I spent almost three hours beginning my 2014 decluttering adventure.

And I was glad I did.

It was a small step, but also a big one.

Not only does that corner of my kitchen now look a lot better, but in my mind it positively gleams.

And as the year progresses and I hope that I stick to my resolution, I want that gleam to spread throughout the rest of my home.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂