Starting Clean with the New Year

Over the holidays, I had the opportunity to clean up my room at my parent’s house. There is something that is quite liberating when you can get rid of stuff. It makes you feel so…clean. If you get emotionally attached to things like I do, the thought of letting something go can be quite painful. However, not all things end up in the trash.

There are some items that I couldn’t part with. Little knick knacks of toys, hand sewn clothing and other articles of clothing that have too much importance; too many memories that are too precious to be thrown away. For example: the handmade book my brother made while he was in elementary school, my father’s old stamp book collection, an old book my grandmother gave me as a child, my sister’s sticker collection that she had when she was a child, and a box of toys my mom used to play with as a child. Sometimes I wonder if they knew that I had kept these things…things that might have been trivial to them but not to me.

Of course, there were things that were thrown out as well. There were two boxes of books and old VHS tapes that were donated to our local library. A box of old electronic equipment that was put up for recycling (there are places where people take old electronic equipment and disassemble them for recycling), and more than four boxes of old college notes, papers, and projects that were recycled.

I find it interesting the little things that I do to start off a new year. Apparently, cleaning was one of them. I felt that by removing the old clutter from my room, I could have a much more organized way of living and life.

Now, if only I can clean up my brain the same way!

[tags]cleaning up, start off a new year, memories, stamp book collection, recycling[/tags]