Every year during the month of March, the City of Santa Clara holds its Annual Spring Cleanup Campaign. Residents of the city are able to put most any junk out onto the street in front of their houses for disposal. Dump Day is a great way to get rid of the stuff cluttering your house. From obsolete computers to old clothes to broken pool supplies, there’s been plenty of stuff we’ve gotten rid of over the years.
One person’s junk is another person’s treasure, however; another the Dump Day tradition is watching people from who-knows-where combing the streets of Santa Clara, looking for deals among all that trash. After re-landscaping our front and back yards, I had no more use for an old push mower. Within one minute, I kid you not, of putting it out on the street, it was scurried away into someone’s pickup truck. There were several other items that lasted about as long, include a broken microwave and table. Enjoy them, folks!
When decluttering, I run the “I’ll Never Use This Again” test on things I’m considering throwing away or recycling. I recently came across a nice little printout, shown above, which accurately describes this very thought process. If the item meets a few of these tests, it’s gone.
One of the big projects for me in my quest to have a completely uncluttered existence is getting rid of all of my paper statements. Since college, I’ve kept meticulous receipt of all of my bank statements, bills, etc. Although I’ve been scanning or downloading most of my statements for several years, I keep the paper copies as backup. I don’t think my shredder would last an hour trying to shred all of that paper from the past twelve years!
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