Effective Strategies for Paring Down Your Stuff
It typically happens without intention and often without you really being aware of it. You need a new tool or a small appliance or some other gizmo to supposedly simplify your life. The next thing you know, you’re trying to figure out how you got all that stuff and where you’re going to put it. Time to remove some of the clutter, right? Sounds simple, but it can be a challenge. While there may be a few things that you haven’t used more than once since purchased, you may find yourself rationalizing about many of the “once in a while” items that crowd your home. Here are a few simple things you can do to start lightening the load.
Tip #1—Find a Meaningful Place to Start
At the beginning, the process can simply be overwhelming. You may feel like there’s clutter everywhere you look. If at all possible, look for a project that will have an visible impact, one that will be obvious to you every time you walk through the door. Do you come into the house through a mud room, a porch or some form of an anteroom or foyer? You may find it best to start there, as you’ll be some encouragement every time you come home. For example, do you have boots, coats, hats, gloves and other outdoor gear piled up just inside the door? Make that your first step and it can be an incentive to keep going every time you come home.
Tip #2—Don’t Try to Do It All in a Few Days
Hey, it took a while to accumulate all that stuff…don’t expect to winnow it down in a day or two. If you do, chances are good you’ll burn yourself out and throw in the towel. Pick your first project, say the mud room, and then break it down into sub-projects, such as the boot tray, the coat rack, the pet supply shelves. Then start on one sub-project and stay with it until you’re done. Ideally, make it a simple one that won’t take more than half an hour. Then you’ll quickly feel a sense of accomplishment.
While you want to build momentum and gradually increase the degree of difficulty of the projects you tackle, it’s typically not a good idea to save the most daunting until last. You’ll likely find yourself fretting over the “big project you still haven’t finished.”
Tip #3—Establish Rules and Be Firm
Decluttering, at its most fundamental, is about offloading things that aren’t meaningfully contributing to the quality of your life on a regular basis. Set a specific length of time…a year is typically a good benchmark…and be willing to sell, donate or dispose of anything you haven’t used for that period of time. As you’re doing this, expect that some items will carry emotional baggage, reminding you of a special time in your life. It’s okay to keep things for sentimental purposes, but you should continually remind yourself what your goal is here.
Tip #4—Find a Way to Use The Things You Love, but Have Forgotten
You can expect that, while you’re going through the piles of things you haven’t used in a while, you’ll find something that you truly love, that gave regular meaning and value to your life at one time. Give it new life by finding a way to bring it back into prominence in your life. In the process, you may discover other things that you acquired that distracted you from this item for a while, but no longer hold as much value.
Decluttering in a Nutshell
You can successfully declutter your home and your life if you:
- Pick a good place to start
- Ease your way into it
- Set some basic retention rules and stick with them
- Let yourself rediscover some items that still hold value in your life, so that you can let go of others
