2020!! New Year, Same fabulous YOU!

It’s 2020 y’all. I am not sure how we have managed to float (or fall) right into a new decade.

I feel like I was just playing a gig at a church somewhere in Alabama with my family band welcoming the Y2K into existence and here we are twenty years later and at the dawn of a new decade! I don’t know about you, but I am more excited than ever to get to living in it!!! Lately around the Kadish house I have been busy DECLUTTERING. I have taken SIX black trash bags to good will and filled several more with overall garbage. My goal in the new year, as I throw out all the junk I bought and hoarded over the last TEN is to buy less junk, and instead invest in things that are quality. Spend less on less.

There is something about being in a beautiful store or even Target and buying into the overall aesthetic. It’s usually calm, sparse and beautiful. So you buy the new things and get them home to your house only to realize the $75 wooden vintage bread makers bowl that looked so gorgeous in the Joanna Gaines portion of Target has no space to live on your cluttered shelves and instead has added more CLUTTER. And instead of giving your home an overall feel, you have accumulate more things you don’t need or have anywhere to put! NEW year, SAME crap. Not me. Not this year. It’s gonna be a NEW YEAR. AND LESS JUNK!

SO…. here are some of my rules for cleaning out your junk drawer, your home… heck maybe even your life.

SEE WHAT IS THERE. When I open my kitchen utensil drawers I am usually in a hurry cooking and will skim over the cheese grater we never use and the rusty can opener I already replaced and move onto the the thing I actually need in the moment. It’s a fact. Life is busy and we often stop seeing our homes, because they become a place to function. COOK. CLEAN. SLEEP. EAT. Instead, pick a drawer (the utensil drawer is a great one to start) and SEE what is actually in it! How much of it do you need? What have you used lately? Chances are you don’t use 50% of it and you can easily get rid of the rest.
HAVE YOU USED IT? This is common sense but my rule is, if I haven’t used it or worn it in the last year, for the most part… it’s gone. If the kids haven’t played with it in six months, donate. If you haven’t cooked in that pot, donate. If your hubby doesn’t wear sweaters, why are you hanging onto them? Don’t take up valuable real estate with things you don’t use.
REWARD YOURSELF. Get rid of 12 pairs of shoes you don’t wear? Buy ONE quality pair you LOVE! Empty out your kids toy bins, take them to buy something new as a reward! It makes this process fun for everyone.
MAKE IT A GAME FOR THE KIDS In my house for every basket of toys my oldest chooses to donate, she can either get a treat or some cash to either save for something or buy a new toy with. She usually saves the money. She also goes with me to Goodwill to make the donation. I want her to know she doesn’t need to hold onto things to make her happy. And her old things, she doesn’t use anymore will give someone else the joy she used to find when she played with them. But she is still human, and we all like incentives!
INVEST in bins, baskets and drawer liners. They make organizing so much easier. They keep things in their places and they give your children’s books, games and toys a designated home. IT’s a lot easier for little ones and adults to clean up if they know where it goes! Give it a home! Stick a label on it and everyone knows when it’s time to clean up where it goes!