Dejunk your life

We've become slaves to stuff. Liberate yourself by dumping the junk.

WARDROBE
Throw out clothes you haven’t worn for two years, as well as the I-don’t-knows. The same applies to ties, scarves and other accessories. Don’t fall into the trap of dressing as you did when you were 18. Body weight, structure and skin tones change. Your wardrobe should change with you.

BATHROOM
Throw out half-finished prescription creams, pills, ancient vitamins and every cosmetic beyond its shelf life.

DESK SENSE
Make a decision about each memo, fax and e-mail as it arrives, act on it, file it or bin it. Throw away newspapers older than a week. Dump all magazines barring the most valuable ones.

MISCELLANY
Keep a check on overflowing bookshelves and CD collections. Give the mistakes and never-plays to charity. Keep the good hardcover books and ditch the paperbacks you’re not likely to reread. Convert your debts into one bank loan so that you have one standing debit order going out each month. Don’t buy hundreds of cleaning products – you really can clean the kitchen and bathroom with the same thing. Finally, weed out ‘duty’ acquaintances and prune your address book down to the people who really matter.

Article originally appeared in Capespan Courier Dec 07/Jan 08 – see www.capespan.com

Written and edited by Mariette Greyling, www.tomar.co.za