Over the past weekend I ventured into the darker corners of my home to review a large amount of “stuff” I wasn’t using. I had been moving and shuffling these same boxes around for a few years, always planning to “get to it later.” Today was the day to open them up and discover what “treasures” lay inside.

I used a basic criteria for deciding to keep an item:

1. Have I used this in the last year?
2. Do I have an immediate use for it now?
3. Is this valuable monetarily and easily re-sold?

If I answered yes to any of these questions, the item remained. If not, into the pile it went. Using this strategy, I was able to remove three large boxes full of junk from my home. The most common items were small useless trinkets, notes from college (that I’ve never looked at since), and packaging from electronics I’ve bought.

Other notable positives from the work:

• Extra storage space in guest room closet.
• Found a complete Dremel tool in box I bought 4 years ago.
• Decided to sell my old TV and VCR on craigslist for a small profit.

After this experience, I think I should do this more often. Is once a year enough to remove all of the junk we accumulate?