Making decluttering painless
You’ve been living in the house forever, or the kids have finally moved out, or you thinking of downsizing. So, you take a good look around and you suddenly realize how much stuff you have! It’s time to pare down and declutter.
In recent years, I have gone through this process twice. First, I moved out of 2200 square foot home, into an 800 square foot apartment. Then, I moved into Mr. Very Right’s, and helped him sort through the accumalation of over a dozen years of marriage, and two years of bachelorhood.
It seems like a very daunting task to sort through everything. However, some planning and tools it really isn’t that bad. And the benefits are well worth it in the end.
Where do you even start?
I started with the area that most irritated me, the kitchen. Nothing in Mr. Very Right’s kitchen was in a logical or efficient place. As well, we were combining kitchen tools and appliances, so decisions had to take place on what to keep. Or, start in an area of the house that is least used. you won’t disrupt the household,while you form decluttering habits.
Wherever you start, start small. Tackle:
- a corner of a room;
- a closet;
- a shelf;
- a drawer.
How much time is this going to take you?
It took me several months to go through Mr. Very Right’s from top to bottom. But don’t let this scare you off. The trick is to only work on a task for 1 to 2 hours maximum. I literally set a timer, quitting as soon as it went off. This keeps you from getting overwhelmed.
It also helps you stay focused on a selected area. Just keep plugging away at one section, in manageable time chunks, until it’s done. Then you can stand back and see your accomplishment; motivation for moving onto the next section.
How do you make this as painless as possible?
If you go in with a plan for how you are going to sort, and stick to that plan, it’s really quite simple. While professional organizers may differ on the number of bins, they all agree you should have bins to sort into. At the bare minimum, you need three bins:
- Give Away
- Throw Away
- Keep
However, you can get fancy and divide up the bins into:
- Give to family and friends
- Give to charities
- Put in garbage
- Recycle
- Put away
- Repair then put away
How do you know what goes in each bin?
I was very strict about what I kept, based on very simple advice from a professional organizer. I asked myself three key questions:
- Do I use this item daily?
- Do I use this item seasonally?
- Do I really love this item?
If I couldn’t answer yes to at least one of those questions, out it went.
However, in the process be prepared to experience an emotional roller-coaster, as you take a trip down memory lane. This may even include some tears. That’s okay. Experience those emotions, take a break if you need to, then come back to focusing on sorting.
The house is all decluttered, so now what?
Keeping your household clutter free is a habit that needs to be developed. I have formed this habit over 3 years, but it’s a new concept to Mr. Very Right. To help him, we do regular decluttering the night before the cleaning service arrives.
You can also:
- have a 1 in 1 out policy such that if something comes into the house, something has to leave;
- ask yourself the Do I love it?/Do I need it? questions before you buy something;
- have a designated place for an item before you purchase it.
Is it really worth all this effort?
A cluttered house is actually associated with a great many emotional and psychological issues, such as:
- lethargy;
- procrastination;
- family disharmony;
- living in the past.
When Mr. Very Right and I finished sorting through all his stuff, he could not believe how mentally and emotionally lighter he felt.
And when it does come time to move to that nice smaller retirement home, you will be ready to go!
Suggested Reading:
The Power of Decluttering
Downsizing From the Family Home
Pitch, pile or file?
Your turn:
- What tricks do you have for keeping clutter free and organized?
- Do you have a particular area in the house that routinely gets out of control?
I had a client last year that was “sandwiched” with stuff. Her parents and his parents had both downsized into Seniors’ Centres and left my clients will most of their furniture and household goods. The clients did not want to get rid of the stuff as their children were starting university/finishing high school and could use the stuff for furnishing their own apartments.
We spent quite a bit of time sorting through all the stuff and making a warehouse “store” in their basement so that the children could “shop” in the basement before heading out to spend money. It did take up quite a bit of space but we knew it was only temporary and it certainly helped the family save some money.
In most circumstances, I would agree with giving stuff away that you won’t use within one year but in this case, it was worth keeping stuff for over one year.
Jacki Hollywood Brown’s last blog post..End of the School Year
@Jacki – this is a good point, and I think we all go through this for awhile with young adults. And it becomes a judgement call as to when you say “Come get your stuff”. The kids’ dad just moved to a new house, and as part of the process of moving he told all the children (mine and his wife’s), come get it now or forever hold your peace. I have some stuff for my daughter who is still in university. The other two are settled into apartments, and I gave them everything.
I hate to dust and polish silver – thus I have little to dust and am attempting to get rid of my mum’s silver.
My Mother and Father moved 21 times between my turning 16 and the end of graduate school. When my Mother died at 94 she had sorted down to the bare minimum and even all of that was divided up into give away, box to this grandchild, and something to each child. She loved the photo viewer that made her pictures into a slide show…
What a shining model of efficiency and memories blessing.
I now work with 3 seniors who have hording problems – one massive trouble…and are finding it hard to think about letting go and moving to assisted living….it is so overwhelming but it is how most of them lived their lives…
I think we spend about 15% of our lives acquiring to 80% of our lives letting go…5% just to breath
Nice post.
I am waiting for the airport transport to pick me up …so I will not check follow comments today
I will missing reading here your lovely posts, but will return soon.
Patricia’s last blog post..FREEBIES and PARTY FAVORS
I have a very strict one in one out policy and I go through cupboards and closets and other storage areas on a regular basis to cull. Also I move a lot, so I get to get rid of tons of stuff then. It’s a miracle, really, that I have anything left.
@Patricia – enjoy your trip! I have given up on dusting, and have hired a cleaning service. But before we did, I insisted that Mr Very Right declutter our house with me. I refused to pay someone to dust stuff. I went through the ‘letting go’ when I left my 16 relationship. I got my possessions down to what was critical or very meaningful. And now I hardly buy anything. It has to be an essential need, or really ‘speak to me’. And anything I am finished with, like a magazine for example, goes to an interested child, friend, or recycling. I absolutely dread the thought of going through my parents’ stuff one day. There’s a lot!!!
@XUP – I am pretty unrelenting about a one-in one-out policy as well. I am challenged on the culling, because Mr Very Right thinks absolutely everything might have a purpose someday. I win some of those battles, but I lose most of them.
Both my husband and I are finally landing on the same de-cluttering page. You are so right about the emotional attachments that can sometimes create the clutter. This year, I hope to be free of so much stuff! We can barely get one car in our embarrassingly huge garage. I really liked your three key questions as a way to sort.
Lori Hoeck’s last blog post..‘Think Like a Black Belt’ around the web
@Lori – broken stuff, stuff you no longer use, that’s pretty easy to get rid of. But stuff with emotional attachment? That’s tougher. You really need to allow time to relive the memory of each object. Cry, laugh, or just reflect. Then you can probably let it go. Turns out the attachment is really to the memory, not the actual object. Of course, that doesn’t mean you chuck it all. You will know when something needs to be kept. I even put something in the To Be Thrown Out bin, against my gut, and hauled it back out with relief before it made it to the garbage. It’s a simple ceramic cat with a silly pink bow, that my kids gave me for my birthday one year. It is now curled up on my kitchen window sill. And everytime I do the dishes, it makes me smile.
I suggest that together you work out what “one day” might mean – set a deadline – and if the thing hasn’t served a purpose by that date — out if goes. Of course you’ll need an elaborate spreadsheet to keep track of all the deadlines, but it’s worth it.
@XUP – good advice, and what I plan on doing is a modified version of this. Each winter, when we are hibernating with nothing to do, I am going to walk him through his pile of stuff and see what we can cull. The deal being, he has to get rid of something … anything … just as long as the pile goes down.
Hi Eliza,
Decluttering’s part of my job, so I can’t risk commenting or entire essays will flow!!
Just an admin thing. I can’t find your previous or recent posts. Am I being daft?
janice’s last blog post..Holidaying at Home: The East Neuk of Fife
@janice – a wee bit daft, but not entirely. If you linked directly to the post, you have 2 options. You can click on the categories tab and select Body or Spirit. Or you can click on the Home tab, in which case the recent posts are at the bottom (3 in each category). And essay comments are allowed, OR you may offer up a guest post
Makes sense, now. I always seem to click through to your comments page which doesn’t have all the yumminess down at the bottom. I also tend to look at buttons for archives, and sidebars for recent posts, too. I’ve learned!
Happy to do a guest post any time. Seriously, I’m a homemaking addict. Luckily, being a writing obsessive and having kids stops me doing as much as decluttering and wall knocking down as I’d like to! That’s why I enjoy seeing other folk do it; oooo, the vicarious pleasure
janice’s last blog post..Holidaying at Home: The East Neuk of Fife