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This year we have decided that we've finally had enough of being owned by our stuff and want to do some serious decluttering in the house. Our biggest problem is paper clutter but there's still too much of everything else (like clothes and trinkets and broken gadgets).
It won't be easy because the last time we tried to declutter it didn't go so well.
Have found this calendar online that could be of great to us- and to anyone else who needs some encouragement to finally "let go" of clutter:
It won't be easy because the last time we tried to declutter it didn't go so well.
That's because "de clutter" is too touchy feely and too softball an approach to work. You need wholesale removal of everything from the room at one time.
THEN decide which pile each item goes on (trash or donate or keep) before bringing ANY of the stuff back in. Do this sorting by the curb where the donate and trash items will remain and go over the 'keep' pile twice.
yikes, MrRational-that sounds like more work than necessary. Might be a deterrent to most folks.
If you have time to do one whole room at a time, go for it. More practical would be to do one closet/dresser/shelf at a time. and start by not letting any new stuff in. That means mail you don't need, buying stuff you don't need, etc. That website will probably help. Don't mean to sound self righteous but I've been getting rid of stuff for the last couple of yrs. (yea-years!) I'm to the point now that it's pretty easy. If I can't use it, I don't want it.
5 yrs ago I went from a 2000 sf house to a 1300 sf one. Next move is to a 1085 sf one. I think that's about as small as I want but time will tell.
I had started the declutter process back in August, when a friend of mine asked to have a garage sale at my house. She had decluttered her home, but lived out in the country, and I live in a higher traffic area that would get more garage sale customers. I made a quick trip through rooms then, removing things to get rid of, but I knew I needed to do a more thorough job.
I was on vacation for the last week and a half, and had made the decision to finish decluttering. I took one room a day, went through every shelf, drawer, closet, cabinet, etc. This time I wasn't waiting around for a garage sale, I just wanted the stuff gone so I took it to Goodwill. I had a plan and stuck to it: 10 rooms in 10 days, a room each day and I wasn't going to stop until I was finished.
For me, it didn't work to do a little at a time. I had tried a few years ago to clutter bust, but when I just did one drawer or cabinet every few weeks it didn't make much difference, wasn't rewarding, so I wasn't motivated enough to stop bringing things into the house.
Now that I have spent my vacation decluttering, I LOVE my clutter free home. It is very easy to clean and keep clean, and I have strong determination to consider every single thing I even think about bringing into my home. I sort my mail while standing over the recycle bin in the garage, and very few things actually make it into the house.
yikes, MrRational-that sounds like more work than necessary.
Might be a deterrent to most folks.
In my experience... not to the folks who actually want to get the job done.
There may be exceptions and you may be one of them... but most only want to give lip service to it.
Just like the other NY resolutions that never get followed through on.
If you have time to do one whole room at a time, go for it.
More practical would be to do one closet/dresser/shelf at a time.
Nope. That's where the discussion started. Dissatisfaction with poor result.
Re-read Renault and Missik999 posts.
I'm to the point now that it's pretty easy. If I can't use it, I don't want it.
Good for you. Most NEVER get to that point though.
I have alot of stuff that I would like to get rid of, but I would rather have a yard sale. Only probably with having a yard sale is that I am out in the boonies!
I have alot of stuff that I would like to get rid of, but I would rather have a yard sale. Only probably with having a yard sale is that I am out in the boonies!
You know, I considered storing all the stuff I pulled out of my house so that I could have a garage sale in the spring. But it took up one side of my garage, so I gave it to Goodwill.
Sure I could have stored it for the winter, organized it, priced it, set up tables, taken a couple days to have a garage sale but it was soooo much easier to haul it to Goodwill. The empty space and lack of clutter are worth much more to me than the few hundred dollars I would have made from a garage sale.
yikes, MrRational-that sounds like more work than necessary. Might be a deterrent to most folks.
If you have time to do one whole room at a time, go for it. More practical would be to do one closet/dresser/shelf at a time. and start by not letting any new stuff in. That means mail you don't need, buying stuff you don't need, etc. That website will probably help. Don't mean to sound self righteous but I've been getting rid of stuff for the last couple of yrs. (yea-years!) I'm to the point now that it's pretty easy. If I can't use it, I don't want it.
5 yrs ago I went from a 2000 sf house to a 1300 sf one. Next move is to a 1085 sf one. I think that's about as small as I want but time will tell.
I dedicated my vacation to decluttering my house, and for me it worked better than the drawer-at-a-time method.
I went from cluttered to model home clean in ten days, and I am highly motivated to keep it that way.
Clutter has been an ongoing problem for us, but we're making progress. What helped me most was the realization that you can't put things away if they don't have a place. Even though we want less stuff, we do have to introduce some new stuff to hold and organize the old stuff that we want to keep. A new dresser/buffet, some hooks, some binders, some shelves, some containers, etc.
Other than de-cluttering, our goals include creating a guest room with a home office in a closet, some new furniture, new light fixtures, ongoing painting, extend the patio, and build a shed/studio.
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But thanks for the link.
