Baby Steps Toward A Less-Cluttered Life

I am on a constant search for things in my house to get rid of.  Even though you probably don't know me, you know this is true because I keep writing about it: sometimes I Pretend I'm Moving, other times I Play The Minimalist Game.   I really don't care how it goes, but if we don't use it, I don't want it!  That goes for clothes, toys, books, kitchen "stuff", furniture, whatever.

Some things are way easier to get rid of than others.  Think of a shirt that never fit right, or a movie no one likes.  Those are the no-brainers.

Some things are an easy and obvious choice, but not until you think of them.  Once, just after I moved into a new house, I needed to clear a space in a hurry, so I grabbed everything I'd been organizing and tossed it into a box, then put the box on a shelf in the hall closet.  Nearly one year later I noticed that box, still sitting on the shelf, under a stack of towels, untouched.  Obviously, I didn't really need anything in it.  I took a quick peek to make sure there wasn't anything precious inside, then dumped it into a bag marked Donate.

Most of the time, though, it's not so quick, nor so simple.

But then how do you decide what to keep, and what to get rid of?

With a family full of kids, if you're not constantly purging, the number of things in your house can really sneak up on you.  You can have what seems like a reasonable amount of clothes for your kids, and then after a couple of birthdays and a bag or two of hand-me-downs left on your porch, one day you'll go to put away the laundry and be surprised that you can't shut the drawers in their dresser anymore.  Or you can walk into the playroom and see that somehow, there are toys covering the floor, and yet there are still a ton of them on the shelves.

This is your cue.  The answer is literally in front of your eyes.

If there are clothes in the dresser, but also a week's worth in your basket, you know immediately which are the favorites.  Empty the drawer into the Donate bag, and replace them with the clothes in the basket.  Those are the ones your kids chose to wear, anyway.

I always, always have a "Donate" bag sitting in the corner of my closet.
When I come across something we don't want or use anymore, it is so easy
to toss it in the bag.

If there are toys on the floor, and toys on the shelf, you can tell without hesitation, which toys your kids like to play with.  Do everyone a favor and empty those shelves into the Donate or Yard Sale bag, and then have your kids put the ones they really like, back on the shelves.

There are a million websites full of ways to purge, methods of determining what you really use and what you should get rid of.  But what it all boils down to is this:  if you use it, keep it.  If you don't, don't.

Sure, there's room here for great-great-grandma's china set, if you just can't part with it.  That's not what's really filling up your house though, anyway.  The stuff that creeps in and fills up the spaces is the dress that hangs in the closet, day after day, because the one hanging next to it fits better and is cuter.  It's the older sheet set that sits in the linen closet, still perfectly useable, but doesn't match your new comforter, so you never put it on your bed.  It's whatever you kept after you replaced it with a new one.

Start paying attention to what doesn't get used, and then be bold.  Just get rid of it.  Of all of the literally thousands of items I've donated, sold or given away over the years, I have regretted maybe five of them later.  And frankly, I can't even remember any of them right now, so obviously there's not a huge hole in my heart for them.

If there's a frying pan that always stays at the back of the cupboard, donate it.
If you have a stack of sweaters in your closet that are literally collecting dust, give them away.
If there's a chair in your family room that is so uncomfortable that no one sits in it, put it out on the sidewalk.  Someone else wants to reupholster it.

Pay attention.  Take a baby step towards a less-cluttered life.

Kate