Decluttering days

Hosta flowers - you can see some of the hail damage on the leaves. One of the hostas in my front garden was shredded; sadly, it will look awful for some time yet.

Now we're coming up to New Year, I've bitten the bullet and am doing some serious decluttering. It won't make a huge difference to the way the interior of the house looks - I like most of my tchotchkes and they will stay - but more to the inside of my cupboards. There is a lot of stuff that I have kept, with the best of intentions, meaning to fix or alter or repurpose them. 

Part of the decluttering process is absolute honesty. Do I really want this? Will I really use this ever again? Will I take up this hem, alter this curtain...etc. etc. I tend to keep things like old curtains, just in case I move house and the curtains will fit the new windows (they don't fit the current windows, which is why they are in storage). And duplicates of things - two (or sometimes three) of everything, in case I lose or break one. It's best to give them to charity, I think, then at least someone can use them, instead of just filling up a drawer or a cupboard. I keep ancient seed packets with ancient seeds. They will not germinate and I know this, but still I keep them. I found two brand new spanners in a box. I have no idea why I have them or when I would ever use them; I do not fix my own car or plumbing or even my bicycle myself. 

I have kept a lot of newspaper and magazine clippings, about gardening and cooking. These were yellowing and musty and I have never looked at them again after clipping them. The Internet has obviated my need to keep such stuff; if I want to know how to prune a fruit-tree, Google will tell me. And I will still keep my books, my many gardening books.

So I'll continue, and then have a big houseclean so I can go into the New Year all bright and shiny. Many cultures have this "clean before the new year" custom, but I've never bothered before. And I may not bother again!