Decluttering

It's the new year and I tried to do a bit of decluttering today.

Then I realise that the biggest obstacle to clearing up is having:

1) A maid who wants to keep everything I throw out
This always happens. I throw some old clothes, old shoes, cosmetics, bags out and ask her to bring it down to the garbage chute. She asks if she can keep some as they are still good, and guess what, close to half the load is given a new lease of life - just now stuffed in her room- cluttering the already crowded room where my daughter also sleeps, OR stuffed in our full-to the-brim storeroom that I am trying to clear. The most dismaying moment was for my shoes - I cleared some old shoes to make way for new ones, But she decided she wanted to keep them and wear them now so they went back into the shoe closet, which she shares with us. Darn!!!

2) A husband who insists on keeping all the boring financial journals - CFA journal, Financial Digest, all the boring ARMY News Mags, Pioneer News, NUS Alumnus Journals that come by every month. He claims he wants to read them and ticked me off the last time I threw a load out. But I know he won't because issues from 8 months back are still wrapped in their plastic covers! And they are so boring you won't even want to read it in the loo. Sigh. But to keep our marriage strong, I have now arranged them in our bookshelf. Maybe next year I can throw them out.