Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 2: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 2: tip is to get rid of old things that you
Speaker 2: aren't using or that you won't use now that you
Speaker 2: have new items from the holidays. Doing this will reduce
Speaker 2: clutter and probably save you time when you can more
Speaker 2: easily find the things that you do want to use.
Speaker 2: So I recently had a revelation while looking in my
Speaker 2: sock drawer. I have eight pairs of winter socks that
Speaker 2: I wear on repeat from mid October to May. I
Speaker 2: also have about half a dozen pairs of workout socks
Speaker 2: that I wear regularly, because well, I do my laundry
Speaker 2: weekly and it is the rare week when I am
Speaker 2: exercising more than six times. There are definitely six favorites.
Speaker 2: I never dip out of the pool of favorites for
Speaker 2: any kind of sock, and so I know exactly which
Speaker 2: fourteen pairs of socks I actually wear, and yet oddly
Speaker 2: I have many.
Speaker 1: More pairs of socks or worse, individual socks sitting in
Speaker 1: my sock drawer. Why are they there? I guess I
Speaker 1: wore them at one point in my life or at
Speaker 1: least acquired them, but they are never in the rotation.
Speaker 1: They have no chance of actually being in the rotation,
Speaker 1: since if something happened to the socks I wear, I
Speaker 1: would just replace those socks. These socks I don't wear
Speaker 1: were taking up space and making it mildly more challenging
Speaker 1: to grab the socks I do wear. So I got
Speaker 1: rid of all the stretched out old ones and the
Speaker 1: ones with holes. Hey, at least it's a start. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you too have things in your home that you never use.
Speaker 1: I am guessing you may also have got some new
Speaker 1: things over the holidays, which is very exciting if so,
Speaker 1: take some time today to think out with the old.
Speaker 1: You can grab a big trash bag for trash. You
Speaker 1: can find a box or hamper for anything you plan
Speaker 1: to donate. Just because you are getting rid of something
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it can't be used by somebody else, though
Speaker 1: we do need to be realistic here. If you are
Speaker 1: donating clothes or household items. In many cases, the nonprofits
Speaker 1: that accept these items accept them in order to sell
Speaker 1: them in order to raise funds, which means that if
Speaker 1: they can't be sold, they will likely be dumped. So
Speaker 1: either you are dumping them or the nonprofit is dumping them.
Speaker 1: It might be easier if you just do it. You
Speaker 1: can schedule a pickup for donation items from a group
Speaker 1: like Green Drop if you have a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: to go out the door. But honestly, this out with
Speaker 1: the old mindset as we come into the new year
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be a huge purge. You can just
Speaker 1: recognize that in many cases, when we use things in
Speaker 1: our daily lives, we use the same things over and
Speaker 1: over again. I have my favorite pens. I will never
Speaker 1: use the cheap free pens I got once in my
Speaker 1: drawer because I have a favorite type of pen. If
Speaker 1: my favorite pen goes dry, I will buy more of
Speaker 1: my favorite pens. The old pens are never going to
Speaker 1: get promoted into regular use, so they can go. When
Speaker 1: you get rid of the old things you don't use,
Speaker 1: you won't have to wade through these old things that
Speaker 1: you don't use in order to find the things that
Speaker 1: you do use. We almost always have our favorite things.
Speaker 1: In general, it is better not to have too many
Speaker 1: items beyond the favorite things. So getting dressed, or finding
Speaker 1: a pen, or even finding a mug in the morning
Speaker 1: is a straightforward process. The start of the new year
Speaker 1: is as good a time as any to think out
Speaker 1: with the old, then it is in with the new
Speaker 1: and a much less cluttered life. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.