Post written by Sherri Kruger. Follow me on Twitter.
In the seemingly never ending quest to reduce clutter and simplify our lives it’s just hard to let go sometimes.
A few key questions and a clear vision of where you want to be can certainly help keep you going in the right direction.
As you evaluate and re-evaluate what to keep and what to part ways with ask yourself the following:
Do I use it?
Do I care about it?
When I see it does it make me feel happy?
It really does just boil down to these simple questions. If you don’t use something why are you hanging on to it? It’s taking up space and is just one more thing to clean, dust or move when company comes over. If you can’t bear the thought of throwing it away donate it to charity or give it to a relative who has mentioned liking it in the past. Sometimes it’s easier to get rid of something when you know it’s going to a good home.
If you are completely detached and indifferent towards a particular item there’s really no value in keeping it either. It takes up space and even if you aren’t short on space it’s nice sometimes to just have room for the sake of having room. A lighter, airier home can help you feel lighter and airier yourself.
Finally, the items that conjure up feelings of happiness, great memories and those that just make you smile … keep them.
Perhaps a subquestion to this would be: Are these “good” items on display or packed away in a box somewhere out of sight? Items that give you a sense of joy or happiness should hold a place of honor in your home. Any item worth keeping is likely worth displaying prominently in your home. Every time you walk into the room and you see that item, you’ll be met with feelings of warmth and of simply being home.
As we are now well into the new year take some time to look around your home and see if there is anything you could possibly do without. Start small, do a bit each day and before you know it your home, your sanctuary, will feel lighter and a whole lot more inviting.
Part of my goals for 2010 is to declutter the whole house once and for all.
I guess the one thing I can add to these great tips is that a little maintenance each day may be required to ensure the your new clutter free environment continues to give you the same pleasure it did when you first made it.
I have just discovered that there is so much we can do with “less”… and there is nothing that projects a sense of peace and serenity like a home without clutter. Thank you for the valuable post.
De-cluttering….always a constant struggle for me, but I DO feel so much lighter when it is done…..today, I will find more more things to rid myself of, to bring more space for good to come into my life.
I’ve started in our bedroom and I am working my way through the whole house. I can not believe how much fresher it feels with dresser tops cleared off and paper clutter thrown away. These are great questions to ask yourself. Sometimes a bit hard, but when you see the final result you are glad you did it.
This is so true. I have been decluttering for a little while now and as I get rid of “stuff” it gets easier. I was surprised how much we had and never used.
A tip from flylady (www.flylady.net) for those sentimental things is to take a picture of the item and add the picture to a scrap or a story about why it’s got sentimental value.
Another idea, have a friend help you with this. They will be more critical of the stuff you want to hang onto. They will help you let go.
Less stuff in the way, makes it much easier to keep the area tidy as well!
I learnt about decluttering around 18 months and have never looked back since.
I’m more willing to let things go than the rest of my family but we’re moving slowly toward being able to fully declutter our home.
I’ve been doing a series on this topic on my blog, dealing specifically with crafty-types who amass a ton of supplies. I have some additional suggestions, including:
-Make a plan
-Don’t beat yourself up
-Just keep swimming
and a couple more… see it here: http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/five_things/2010/01/purging-part-ii.html
Simplifying is simple when its just you, but adding a partner/spouse to the mix can really complicate things, especially if one of you is a de-clutterer and the other is a die-hard pack rat. My husband and I have found that agreeing to “clean” the surface of a contained area together works best, with the understanding that no one has to throw/give away anything they don’t want to. When you take everything out or a drawer or a closet and actually spread it all out and wipe it off, it’s amazing how many things reveal themselves as clutter. The fresh, clean, empty space lifts your spirits and drives you to only put things that you want back, and knowing that there won’t be an ounce of pressure from the simplifier allows the pack rat to relax and let go of stuff they might otherwise fight to keep. After all, you chose to share your life with someone, and simple feels so much better when it’s voluntary!
This is such a good exercise to do on a semi-regular basis! It’s so calming for me to have less “stuff” around!
Something else that I find really helps if you’re attached to the STUFF is an “outbox.” Anything you’re considering getting rid of, put into a box. When the box is full, close it, tape it shut, and put todays date on it. Also put the date 3 months out and circle it. Put this date in your calendar as well. On that day, if you haven’t missed or gone looking for anything in that box, without opening it, take it to Goodwill (or your choice of appropriate reuse location).
This is something I’ve been tackling since last Summer and it’s great to see the progress accumulate. However, i’ve still got a long way to go, especially since a lot of charities would just throw out my “stuff” [i volunteer in one and have seen similar items get binned], which makes me less happy about getting rid of it.
Thanks for the great post,
~Rose.
Great post!
We’re getting ready to put our house on the market and have gone through the entire house with 4 boxes: Keep, Pack, Donate, Trash – a simple, common way to de-clutter.
Once the surfaces became cleaner, the house looked bigger, and the kids (and the parents!) found out that they enjoyed having more free space.
So, I took it one step farther.
We unpacked some of the items that we had packed and went through them again – items that we thought we could live without for 3-6 months while selling our house and moving. And we discovered that much of that stuff could also be donated.
So, the question we now ask ourselves is would we miss this for the next 6 months. If no, it goes!
I’m going to share this with my blog readers…it’s emphasizing my current topics. I love your posts. Thanks!
When my wife and I came to the USA as grad students from Ukraine, we just had two suit cases. In our appartment we have added one twin-size mattress, two chairs and dining table and some cookware. We have added crib when our daughter was born. One year we have moved 4 times (round trip for internship – 2, trip to full time job -1, bought a townhouse-1). Each trip would require to load and unload. We were so blessed to have only necessary essentials — it took me 3 hous to load all our stuff myself to the truck. After that we have decided to keep our posessions to the minimum. We live in the two-bedroom townhouse and have two kids now. Since we do not have much extra space, once again we try to keep only essentials. As soon as our kids grow out of clothes or toys, bikes, ice skates, etc we either give them to our friends with younger kids or Goodwill. Whenever we are thinking whether we need to buy something, we run it through my mother-in-law test: “Is it going to be another dust collector?”, i.e. “Do we really need it ot just want it?” We plan to buy a house in the nearest future. We want small house because it will keep us close as a family (we enjoy spending time together and our living room is the most popular one in our house) and we will not need to buy stuff to fill the empty space. The best way to fill the space is with happy faces of the family members.
I’ve always hated clutter and never really had any, but when I started learning about minimalism…my life changed. About six weeks ago I donated 795 items, then I donated another 100. My trunk is full again and I can’t get enough of this process of realizing that I truly need so little to live happily. I’ve become so passionate about it that I started a blog, http://lessisfabulous. It’s about living simply in Las Vegas – a city that is anything but simply. Reading these comments motivates me even more!
I’m inspired by decluttering and minimal living websites. One way to automatically declutter over many years is not to raise kids. The world is overpopulated and why leave more carbon footprints by having more and more people to pollute and consume? I prefer not raising kids, but to put my energy into helping group homes with kids and handicapped adults. Raising kids is expensive and parents tell me they can break the bank wanting more and more. The Zen website I just read is by an author with six kids! How can one live a simple minimal life with such a large family? I see lack of consistency and care about the environment if anyone has more than one child in the 21st century. Now, back to tackling the clothes clutter. I already tackled the furniture last month.
what do do with old cameras vidieo cameera, cords and such, , to do with lamps, electric equipment, not useable, what do do with old blankets sheets etc
It’s never quite easy decluttering our home. It’s a continuous task for everyone. I like to use home organizers for my stuffs at home. I’m also using a unique memo pad holder that can be useful at home and in the office.
Check out http://www.theoriginalfinger.com
This is what has made all the difference in my thinking of “clutter”. When I realized that all the items that brought me the greatest happiness, or made me laugh or cry, where packed away in boxes, I could toss the other ‘stuff’ much more easily.
I got so into de-cluttering and simplifying that I created Clutter Free Living Now to try and help other people that may just be starting out with this new concept.
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Thanks and more power.