I waited about twenty years for a free weekend to clean out my house.
It never came. There was always a grandchild’s birthday, a church supper or a cold I couldn’t shake. I kept telling myself I’d do it right, all at once, when I had the time.
Then came the last year of my mother’s life, and I had no weekends at all. I had long drives, waiting rooms and phone calls. Some nights, I got home with ten minutes before I had to start supper.
One of those nights, I was too tired to take off my coat. I opened the drawer by the stove. I threw out two broken spatulas and a bag of old twist ties.
It took ten minutes, and it was the only thing I could fix that whole day. I stood there and looked at that drawer for a long time. (I may have cried a little over those twist ties.)
That’s when I stopped waiting for the big day. You don’t need one. You only need to know what to declutter in 10 minutes, what fits in an hour and what needs an afternoon.