New Year’s Resolution: Decluttering and Tidying

Is your new year’s resolution to do some decluttering and tidying at home? You don’t even have to wait until January to curate the contents of your home. Start now and put stuff in boxes, you’ll feel better for it.

Introducing: The Storage Box, Your New Best Friend

Storage boxes conjure up images of moving houses and of packing things away to be sent to a storage facility. If you are actually moving house or simply having to store items offsite or in the loft to make space in your flat or house, you will need to order storage boxes.

In the US alone, the self-storage industry (personal storage) was estimated to be worth USD 22 billion (2011, see TED Talk below).

You can choose different sized-boxes for different purposes and keep them in wardrobes and cupboards away from sight. A typical example is to pack your winter clothes away during summer and pack your summer clothes in winter to have more space in your clothes rack.

My latest decluttering project was to find out what on earth I was hiding in a multitude of drawers, where stationery was happily cohabiting with body lotions and business cards (don’t ask). It’s time to put stuff neatly in clearly-labelled boxes and throw away things I haven’t used in years.

Small Flat Living Teaches You to Have Less

Living in a studio flat teaches you to keep belongings to a minimum – in a way, you acquire a “hand luggage” mentality because, just like when you are flying to a destination carrying only hand baggage, living in a small flat means that space is limited. Editing is a must: regular decluttering sessions allow you to finally see the floor after it has been flooded with paperwork and goodness knows what else had been lurking there.

You don’t have to have a chronic hoarding condition to be surrounded by stuff. Sometimes, all it takes is to lower your cleaning and tidying standards for a week and bills start piling up on your desk and dirty dishes colonise the area formerly known as the kitchen sink.

Review: Davpack Cardboard Storage Boxes

I was kindly sent samples of different-sized cardboard boxes to review from Davpack. The boxes arrived the day after organising the delivery, which I was very impressed about. The website says that next day delivery is the norm, as the company uses an overnight delivery courier.

10 various-sized carboard boxes arrived flat-packed in excellent condition. I received double wall cardboard boxes, which are stronger than single wall and can hold up to 30 kg.

As soon as I opened the boxes and sealed them with duct tape, I wished I had a cat because cats love boxes!

Cats in Boxes

Boxes as Children’s Toys

Friends with children told me that boxes are their children’s favourite toys: with a bit of imagination and some colours they can become anything from castles to kitchens!
After emptying the contents of two drawers, I had to sort out different small items and gradually put them away in a box after discarding what I no longer needed. The box weighed 3kg after I finished the decluttering process with still plenty of space left for more items. Of course I threw away some items I no longer needed from the drawers I emptied.

The box I used was the smallest size from the selection at 29cm x 36cm. The box is very sturdy and I was very happy that it could hold more than two drawers’ worth of items.

Decluttering: Before and After

I looked at the Davpack website to learn about the other ranges of boxes they have. The homepage is very well organised but, after you click on a category, I found the long lists of items in each category a bit overwhelming. For double wall cardboard boxes alone there are about 370 sizes to choose from. There are different pricing options according to quantities ordered. For example, for industrial orders of 50+ packs of double wall cardboard boxes you can get 30% off.

Davpack also supplies various types of packing materials including tape, so it is basically a packing one-stop-shop.

If you are planning to declutter and store things away, or you are moving house, or you are donating items to a charity, I would say that Davpack boxes are a good choice.