The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up After Christmas

Yeah, yeah. The first post of the New Year is supposed to be about eating healthier and exercising more and all that jazz, but I thought I'd branch out and talk about our domiciles losing weight and shedding excess, instead.

If you haven't heard of or read this book yet,

just know it will motivate you to throw out at least four sweaters and the contents of a junk drawer before you lapse into untidiness again. Kondo had an odd habit of talking to discarded shirts and socks, but she did have some good ideas about only keeping what gives you joy. Sadly, this brilliant idea was tempered by the reminder that you can't throw away everyone else's stuff, which is really what prevents me from having joy in my own house.

Anywho, if we can't throw everything away and be magically reborn, decluttered, at least we can get rid of what we can all agree is meant to be gotten rid of. To wit,

Cardboard boxes

Styrofoam peanuts

Snarled, defunct Christmas lights

Oversized cardboard can be broken down and leaned against your blue recycle bin.

Styrofoam peanuts can be put in a large plastic garbage bag and dropped off at a place like Mailboxes, Etc.

And crapped-out Christmas lights can be dropped in a bin at the Girl Scouts of Western Washington office until mid-month:

King County Regional Office

13029 NE 20th St,. Bellevue, WA, 98005

If someone happened to give you an appliance in block styrofoam this Christmas, remember that those unwieldy things can be dropped off at IKEA, the next time you go buy unassembled, profanity-inducing, discount furniture.

So let's start the year with lean, mean garages, if not bodies!