Organize your belongings and start 2021 on a clean slate

RAPID CITY, S.D. — Did you get a Christmas gift you may otherwise not have chosen for yourself?

We’ve all experienced getting items that don’t match our style or personality, or we may already have the item.

Gift-giving and receiving comes with obligation.

Paula Gapp, certified KonMari Consultant, explains, “Gift-giving can carry a lot of emotion and expectation or feelings of obligation too along with it – to just receive their gift without any expectations of feelings of obligation to – to just be grateful that they thought of you.”

For the gift-giver, it’s way to express their gratitude for you, so just be grateful in return for their thoughtfulness. Show appreciation.

The KonMari Method of making the most of a gift you receive is to open immediately, remove the package, and start using right away.

Then decide: if it still doesn’t suit you, thank it for the joy it brought when you first received it – and bid it farewell. You can then re-gift it or return it.

Gapp says, “The way I look at it is that, it is in the gift giving – that the person gives you the gift and it’s up to you to do with what you want, really.”

You don’t want to add to clutter in your home if you are already experiencing it.

Decluttering can be hard, since many associate possessions with value.

“I think decluttering is important; why is it hard? For a lot of reasons. All the gifts that we receive, we feel guilt probably about getting rid of those, but if it doesn’t fit in your space or your lifestyle, then there not really a reason to keep it for six months and then get rid of it, you can move it out now,” adds Gapp.

Consider donating your items to charity or reselling them. The sooner you start the organizing process, the faster is will get done.

Focus on organizing your belongings into categories to make the process less intimidating – like clothing, books, or sentimental items.

Feel good about your space – it’s where many us have spent a lot of time in in 2020 – that way you can move forward into the new year with a clean slate.

Gapp says that the months of January and February are great to get your home organized, because it may be colder outside.

It may also help to get an accountability partner.