Detox Weekend.

Amidst the crazy buzz of squeezing in career goals, family time, several unfinished jobs  and the series of self proclaimed victories, our lives are often narrowed down through a  white A4 page frame creating unwanted toxicity in the form of clutter along the way.

Clutter in our lives has occupied the position of an underrated toxic waste that we live with everyday. Now we all know that excess toxicity has proved to be detrimental to the human body system creating a whole range of serious illnesses. To prevent such illness, the need for being in sync with your body through a cleansing process is inevitable and significant.  One of the primary ideal ways to do this is detoxify your body. The same process transcends within our everyday lives as well.  Given that every year we choose to start the new year with a similar attitude, detoxifying your life translates into a similar action and essence. Having said this, why restrict such activities as a yearly thing. I believe a monthly wardrobe detox is so essential to get order, peace and synchrony in your life.  I propose my very own detoxifying action plan.

§   Get a head start and choose ‘D’ day accordingly – Thursday nights are ideal given that weekend traffic usually hinders any chances of formulating a well planned event for a sane minded person and the entire week’s fatigue gradually sets in by then.  To aid the overall cleansing process, it is essential that all plans through the day is organized.

§   Come prepared with clutter control ammunitions – staples for OPERATION : CLUTTER  ..ziplog bags, old shoes boxes, news papers, duct tape and 3 bins tagged under trash, charity and car boot sale. Ensure before you start the clutter ritual, you are well armed with these basic ammunitions to speed your cleansing process.

§   Focus primarily towards the Centre of “clutter gravity” .. wardrobe, under the bed and study table-  Our wardrobes, bed  and study tables are often bearers of several closet skeletons.  These skeletons may come in the form of gifts that either do not fit the inch and size or the time and style. Whatever reason their existence may represent, these things occupy unnecessary space. Organize all wardrobe constituents in order of priority..always worn, sometimes worn and never to be seen dead in these. Obviously barring the 1^st two categories , the rest qualifies as something that goes to the charity or trash bin. Follow a similar process for your study table and  bed storage space with a similar priority scale.

§   Cleanse, protect and transfer – Emotional attachment to things often keep us from throwing it away despite its lack of utility. As difficult it may be to part away from such things, it often adds to the pile of clutter in the sanctity of our homes. Solution ..put away items of emotional significance in old shoe boxes and have it segregated across friends, family etc. Ensure reminiscing from time to time with these items . This would serve the purpose of storing them as opposed to any other household item as well as at the same time not exist to qualify as clutter in the long run.

§   Transform Clutter – With all the retail therapies on bad work days and other shopping sprees, we pile several unwanted useful items over time that generally lose value in terms of appeal but not necessarily utility. One of this is your average everyday high street purse purchases.  Here’s what works for me. Pick out some of the best clutch bags that you think are still in great condition but you may not prefer to use. Advertise these among your friends for occasional borrowing incase of any events etc rather than having them to buy similar merchandise from the mall. Better yet, if you see no scope for this within the social circle, make care packages and distribute these purses as well packaged gifts to the cleaning lady at the office, gym or mall. Trust me. A purse is liked by women of any shape, size, caste, cultural background. Old purses can also be transformed into convenient to go carry bags for different set ups or occasions with bare essentials. You could have one made for work with the bare essentials makeup kit,  one for the gym with refresher gels and one for a day out in the sun. Your choices are anything but limited.

§   The triple R rule of thumb – Reduce, reuse and recycle. Make this your mantra for room organization..especially for the rubble of old magazines, books and other reading material which often end up collecting dust although initially they were intended for a much noble cause of building the study library. Still don’t want to get rid of all the great reading material..your best bet is to transfer some of the reading material to the bathroom, kitchen and the dining table for convenient and timely reading purposes. You can also use old magazines as table mats in the kitchen. No headache of cleaning a regular mat and you could dispose the magazine as soon as your done using them. In the process you reduce the rubble from the study and end up reusing paper in the best possible way.  

§   Trunk the junk – Once you have filtered through most of the things and segregated through it, its time you focus on what can be done with the trash bin constituents. One man’s junk is always another man’s treasure. There are several donation and charity initiatives that carry out donation drives for the less privileged. You need not cross borders to reach out to those in need..charity begins at home after all. Check with your local church / mosque / red crescent society or even the janitor and ask around if anyone could use any of the stock lying around with you.

§   Provide replenishments -  For all the unwanted clothes that still made it through the trash bins and still have no use within your room, pack and save it to be allocated to respective locations accordingly. Find a tailor who could use any form of clothing material as raw material for his creations. There are several thrift store like vendors in your local souk who may find some economical use for the leftovers. Spend a day at the souk and check and see if you could get anyone interested.

§   Clutter Control Clock-  Ensure to have the cleansing process done every 3 months. This will help you being at a comfort zone within yourself in the sanctity of your own room.  

§   A place for everything and everything in its place – Once you’ve completed your cleansing process, create a quick checklist of all the items you’ve placed in your room as per the new setting. This will allow you to not repeat making the same mistakes leading to more clutter by the end of the new year and also make life a whole lot easier the next time you’re looking for something and not ending up making your room look like a bomb site.    

As overwhelming as the process can be, the time spent will be worth it !

Happy detox