Ah, spring! When a young man’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love, and my thoughts turn to where I can get the best deal on Murphy’s Oil Soap bought by the gallon.

Yes, it is time for spring cleaning, the quaint tradition of cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, or washing every single item in the house.

It’s fun on a bun!

A lot of people also choose this time to get rid of items that are cluttering the house. As I have recently unpacked 208 boxes of household goods, I learned a nifty trick I would like to share with you all regarding decluttering.

It’s called the rule of PLUM (because it rhymes with thumb, get it?):

Place

Ask yourself, can you find a place for it? Is this place pleasing to the eye? I couldn’t find a place for my wok, other than on my living room table, so away it went. Also, “under the bed” is a perfectly viable storage option. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Love

Do you love it? Does your spouse love it? Do your kids love it? Those are the opinions on loving an item that matter, not what your mother loves. Unless she lives in your house, which is a topic for a completely different blog post.

Useful

Does it have more than one use? Can you repurpose it for better use? Be careful with the last question. Entire Pinterest boards have been dedicated to the repurposement (or upcycling) of things. While it might be a nifty idea to make a handbag out of old soda pull tabs, consider the logic of storing said pull tabs. Or consider the fact that you may have no idea how to make a handbag out of old soda pull tabs, and they will just sit forever.

Memories

Does it remind you of a happy time in your life? Or, conversely, does it bring up bad memories? Don’t hang on to things that don’t make you happy. My mother-in-law crocheted an afghan for me years ago. A perfectly lovely afghan, but every time I see it, I think of what a failure I am in her eyes. So I put it into storage, in the hopes that someday she will like me again.

This rule of PLUM has helped me to get rid of a lot of the “clutter” in my house, and as we all know, a clutter-free house inspires a clutter-free mind.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

How do you decide what goes and what stays when cleaning and purging? Share with us!