Revamping the cabinet; Do it now and be merciless

“Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle.” ? Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

It’s that time of the year when we should be like President Rodrigo Duterte. Seriously.

Purge.

January is a new beginning, a fresh start, a time of reckoning — we have been blessed with more gifts and stuff than we would need — what to consume, what to use, what to keep, what to give away? Yes, it’s judgment day in our homes and we have to be merciless.

The President, who vowed to make his regime a “purging” one, has recently fired several officials from the executive branch of government because he believed they were no longer needed in their posts.

With the same kind of toughness, it is high time to initiate our own cabinet revamp. The cabinets of the wooden or steel kind, I mean.

Open them up, clear them of their overstaying inhabitants. Pry away those that have been sticking to their posts like glue. Vet each piece, whether a pair of pants or a blouse that you no longer fit into,  as you lay it down on a mat or hang on a rack. For knickknacks, get rid of your collection of stirrers the way a friend did recently. Or bulky mugs that show off where in the world you’ve been to. Just post them on IG as proof that you’ve seen the world.

For clothes, some subscribe to the one-year rule: if you haven’t worn it in a year, dump it or donate it. Exceptions are your baptismal gown, your prom gown and your wedding gown. Tootsy Angara recycled her Pitoy Moreno prom dress and wore it to a Senate function. Your grandchild can wear your baptismal gown, like the British royal babies wear those of their forebears. You may also want to hold on to your Puccis and Guccis. If anybody or anything can make a comeback, it’s fashion. But temper your love for the Robert Downeys in your closet.

As for your kitchen cabinets, now is the time to check if some canned goods there are already gathering memories from Christmases past. Check expiration dates and throw those that threaten to make you expire from a bum stomach.

For cabinets with your utensils, sort and curate the stuff inside. I once found out I had multiple sets of measuring cups!

It’s also time to give oneself the cold shoulder. Clean your refrigerator. This is difficult, because no one loves leftovers and no one can stomach throwing leftovers, unless they stink more than an estero. My generation grew up being mindful of the starving children in Africa, and we like to put off throwing leftovers till the refrigerator sinks with their weight. But unless we become experts in preparing the right amount of food per meal, a refrigerator full of Tupperware is the reality we have to face along with the extra pounds padding our hips after the holiday season. So, with steely determination, resolve to empty your refrigerator of has-beens. This will also make it easier for you to shed the pounds as you do the month-old spaghetti Bolognese in a dark corner of your refrigerator.

With your cabinets revamped, you can look forward to a clean slate in 2018! But please restrain yourself from filling up the emptiness in your life now. Believe me, we all need empty spaces to make our lives full.

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But it isn’t just our cabinets begging for a revamp. Our lives, too, need some de-cluttering. I recently re-read a book on my shelf that I thankfully did not throw away, Simplify Your Work Life, written by Elaine St. James, author of the bestseller Simplify Your Life, which I bought in National Book Store in 2003 (I put down the date of acquisition on the foreword).

St. James used to work 60 hours a week, she barely had time for family and friends, and rarely took a vacation.

St. James started to simplify her life by getting rid of the clutter in her house (a tip I learned from Oprah: To minimize clutter in a room, make sure only three major activities take place there on a daily basis). She streamlined her cooking and other household chores. She minimized her wardrobe (a real workout!).

Finally, she cut back on her work schedule. Seeing the changes in her life, people started asking her how she did it so she wrote a book, Simplify Your Life. When the book became a bestseller and she was engulfed in a flurry of speaking engagements and promotions, her life threatened to become complicated again. She resisted that.

St. James also clarifies that simplifying one’s life doesn’t mean “retreating to a cabin in the woods and leading a dull, inactive existence.”

 Among her tips, which are discussed in detail in the 298-page book (the tips are very specific, and with real-life examples), are the following:

• Leave your briefcase at the office. “If you’re unable to complete the work you feel you must do during your regular business day, something’s out of whack.”

• Learn to seize time. Time is seldom handed out. You have to seize it for yourself. You have to make time. St. James says one way to seize time is to get into the habit of taking five minutes at the end of the day to clean up your desk and get it ready for the next day’s work. That way, you already have a head start the next day, and it could make you win your career’s big race.

Another reason you should do this, says the author, is that, “It sends a signal to your psyche that you’re wrapping up work for the day” and preparing yourself for other activities like being a full-time mom or a star in your gym.

Let me add to this the advice a Navy Seal gave in his speech before the graduates of a Texas University, “Make your bed every morning.”  It primes you up for an orderly day, helping you save time because of the sequential, methodical manner in which you accomplish your tasks.

• Minimize the paper glut. St. James says close to 90 percent of the paper you keep in files is never used or looked at again. So try to handle incoming papers just once, and decide which action to take.

• Get organized. The author reminds us of the cardinal rule of organization: Have a place for everything and keep everything in its place except when you’re using it.

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Let me conclude this piece on purging by sharing these words of wisdom, again from Marie Kondo, the Japanese de-cluttering guru.

“The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.”

 “No matter how wonderful things used to be, we cannot live in the past. The joy and excitement we feel here and now are more important.”

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)