Lightening Up: Declutter Media Collections

Day 16: Thursday, January 23
Assignment: Declutter your book, magazine, movie & music collections

Take a deep breath. If you are like me, this assignment is a biggie. I fully admit that this is something that I’m terrible about: hanging on to books and magazines forever. I’m good at outboxing other things that I’ve used and no longer need but I tend to hang on to all printed media as if my life depends on it – and its a shame, because it is the stuff that can so easily enjoyed by someone new. Today’s the day to lighten up a little, and send some stuff back into the world…

Today’s Assignment:

Go through your physical books, movies, music, games and magazines and weed out 10 items that you no longer want or need as part of your collection. For some of you who regularly pass things on, 10 may be a big amount, for others, a small drop in the bucket. If your collection is large, you can always do more a little at a time, throughout the year ahead. For today, let’s all just make that all-important START toward embracing the process of regularly letting things go once you’ve enjoyed them,

Your 10 items can leave your home in several different ways – you could pass them to family, friends or colleagues, you could organize a swap, you could possibly sell them (if your city or town has stores that buy used), or you could donate them. No matter which method you choose, you will be making way for someone new to enjoy them, which is very cool. It’s a win/win.

Deciding where the items go next is less important at the moment than what you do need to do today, which is to move them off the shelf or out of the cabinet NOW and into an outbox (use a special, dedicated one for these items, if need be). We’ve already learned that moving things to an outbox releases a bit of the hold things can have on us and makes it easier to let them go, so let that work for you with this assignment too – it will make the decision-making process much easier.

January Cure Calendar:
• Download our PDF to see the full upcoming schedule (and print it out if having a hard copy is helpful to you)

Join The January Cure: Click Here to Sign Up

January Cure Main Page: Click Here for the assignment posts so far

Questions? Comments? Pictures? Email us about your progress at januarycure@apartmenttherapy.com
Follow and Tweet! The January Cure: #januarycure