Many of us believe that with the new year comes a new you. One of the biggest challenges we face is to achieve those New Years resolutions. One of mine this year was to totally clean out my room. Each year I try to get rid of some stuff but this year I did a complete purge.

In the past 11 years I haven't gotten rid of anything other than clothes and old furniture so I thought to start this new year to get a fresh start. Starting with my clothes again, I found t-shirts from old sweet sixteens, sweatshirts from ex-boyfriends and sweatpants with my high school name down the leg. In the past few years, I kept all my clothes that had any sentimental value to them. This year I put them in a pile in the corner of my room unsure what to do.

For the second part of my room purge, I decided to take on my walls. My poster and picture covered walls. Posters of bands and movies I swore I'd love forever and pictures of friends I couldn't imagine not talking to everyday. Just like my clothes I put in a pile and debated whether or not I wanted to get rid of them. Even if these friends aren't in my life, it felt weird to get rid of such a major part of my life. Over the past few days the little corner in my room haunted me. I'd find myself looking through the old pictures which prompted me to look through my high school yearbook. I found myself thinking of how crazy it is that I've been out of high school for almost 4 years and how much has changed. After contemplating for almost a week, I decided to get rid of almost everything. While I was someone who kept things for just the memory, I know this was the right move. I'm not sure if in 40 years I'll wish that I still had that senior class shirt or the picture of me and my ex-best friend, but I know that for now it's the best thing I've done.

Cleaning out my room has been therapeutic. Now in my room there's only pictures of people I'm still friends with and/or have good memories with. Clothes that I'll actually wear. I've gotten rid of all these negative memories that were in my daily life. While I didn't realize how much of a difference it made, I instantly felt better once I got rid of all of my things. Even though there's a bunch to do in cleaning out 12 years of stuff from my room, I'm off to a good start. Starting off the new year by cleaning out the room is one of the best ways to start off the year. While my walls are bare, I'm excited to fill up my wall with all new memories.