Decluttering Isn't Just Throwing Things Away

This week I'd planned to begin decluttering.  It's chronic with me.  Something about a new year makes me very conscious of the excess in my home.  Someone surmised it was due to the lavish abundance of things which come into a home with the Christmas season but I think it's more than that.  We had a very modest Christmas season and only a few items (all very useful) came into our home.  However, as we neared the beginning of the year my fingers itched to dig into the spaces behind closed cabinet doors, to straighten drawers, to plunder the shed and let go of many things.



I think truly our desire to declutter is rooted in the desire to let go of the things we no longer need, and is as much of a mental exercise as a physical one.  It wasn't just myself who felt the urge.  No indeed!  Christmas week John was in our room going through his chest of drawers and tossing things into a trash bag.  He cleared away stuff in his music room.  He reorganized his tools.  And as he decluttered he talked and talked about things from the past...Purging in another way, as he worked at purging the things he could see.

This season of the year there are sales rampant with organizational pieces, bins, etc.  My point of course, isn't the rampant bid for consumers to consume still more, but to point out the fact that decluttering, among other resolutions, is a deep down desire of many.  The desire to improve our lives by organizing our things logically and to rid ourselves of excess is a perfectly normal human reaction to a new year.  Instinctively, we all seem to know that to clear the decks of our homes usually means clearing our minds and psyches of the things that hold us tied too firmly to the person we were just last year.

A couple of years ago, an acquaintance noted my statement that I wanted to start decluttering my home.  "Honestly, how can you even have anything left to declutter?  It seems to me that you've been in the process of doing this for years now!"   Well, the part where she said I've been doing it for year's now... that's truth.   The trouble is that I come to the end of each year and realize that there are still more things which I no longer need or want, have too much to keep properly contained or which I've failed to provide ample storage for in the first place.  Hobbies change, life needs change, seasons change, we change.

I think there are misconceptions about what decluttering is and what it's meant to do.

Decluttering is not about becoming minimalistic.  This is the first thought many people have. "I don't want to be a minimalist!  I like my things!"   It's okay to like your things...and to keep them!  Decluttering is not about giving up the things that you like or love or find useful.  Decluttering does not mean that you must get rid of anything.  This might sound contrary to what most would have you believe decluttering is all about but it's really not necessary to get rid of anything.  It's actually more about determining where something should live on a permanent basis.  It's about establishing the true value of something.  It's uncovering things from a pile and assigning them a home.  It's organizing things in a logical way.

Decluttering is really about sorting, which is the first step to organization.  It may well be that as you sort you discover you have things you no longer need, or which are duplicates of something that you can use elsewhere.   When John was organizing his tools a couple of years ago he set up a tool box for his car as well as a basic set for the house and the rest of his tools went to his shed.  At one point, he had a separate set of tools in the old shed with his lawnmower so he could make necessary repairs there without trekking into the house or across the yard.  This made good sense.

In my decluttering I look at things and ask questions:
Why do I have this?
What is the value of this item?  Is it sentimental or historical?  Is it necessary to a task?
Where should this item be?

If it's something I no longer need I ask:
Can someone else use this?  Family?  Donation?


I try to make sound decisions and to wait if I'm unsure of what I ought to do.  A few years ago, I was too hasty in my decluttering efforts. I gave away a box full of ornaments from Sam's childhood Christmases all because I'd failed to properly organize the keep and donate piles.  Oh my gracious!  He was okay with it at the time, but I felt guilt for giving away things I felt were his.

Another time,  I tossed a much needed part to the juicer attachment for the Kitchenaid mixer.  I couldn't determine at the moment what it went to, threw it in the trash and three months later realized why it was of importance.

So I've learned to go carefully.  Of course, there are items it's perfectly clear can be donated or trashed right away.  You know yourself which items you've touched in the past six months and how often you touched them.   But there are other things which I feel it is wisest to set aside in a box and put away in the shed or a closet and date it six months from the day you store it.  If in six months none of those things have been required then you're probably safe to let them go.

Here's how to go about really decluttering your home.
Choose an area to work in, preferably one small area.  I started at the back door entry way.   What I have in this space is a shelf with hooks for coats.  Above the shelf is a wall of decorative pieces.  I noted that I had four items that did NOT belong on that shelf.  I removed them and assigned them each a new home.  One item was put to it's proper use and taken outside.  One was carried to the shed.  One was moved to a different area, as it's an item that belongs to someone else and I'd like to return it.  The fourth item went to it's home with other like items.

I then checked the coat rack to see if anything might be moved.  I'd liked to have moved all of John's excess stuff but I'll ask him about it first.  I noted that everything else belonged there at least for this season of the year.  Underneath the bench is where we store our shoes.  I noted that John had a pair he has never worn...I took those and put them in our closet with other items that will be donated.  I will ask him first before I do, but he's had them over a year and hasn't touched them once.  I also removed a pair of shoes from my bin and put them in the trash.  They were very well worn.  I have plenty of replacement pairs in the house.

I then checked the pet snacks container which sits in the corner next to the back door.  I emptied dog biscuits into the biscuit container and tossed that box.

So just that quickly I'd determined that two items could go into the trash, one could be put to immediate use, one could be stored, one needed to go to an already designated landing spot, one item was set aside to return and another was put in donation drop zone.  It took me perhaps 10 minutes to tend to all of that and completely clear a small area.

Hence my suggestion to choose a small space and begin.  If you are going to go to work on a junk room (I used to have one myself so not being judgmental) then choose one small area and work only upon that one area for that one day.  As you touch an item drop them into one of three bins: Keep, toss, donate.  If you aren't sure about something then put it in the keep pile.  As soon as you've sorted that one small area, then take the Keep bin and assign each item in that bin to it's proper home.   Empty the toss bin into the trash.  If the donation bin is full put it in the trunk of your car and plan to take it by the donation site on your next trip out of the house.  Then the next day, tackle the next small area.  Never let the amount of clutter overwhelm you.  Every job can be done completely if it's done a little bit at the time!  Even if you do have a deadline in which to get a job done, break it down into small zones and tackle just that one zone at a time.  It's far better to do a small space and conquer the big job little by little, than to pull every thing from a room all at once and stack up the rest of the house and immobilize yourself with complete overwhelm.

And as you work on sorting and organizing, cleaning and removing, listen to your head talk as you work.  What do these items trigger as you work?  Remember John talking about a bevy of things from his past?  My head speak today was about my children.  I thought at Bess as she nears her due date wondering what she still lacked that was necessary, what meals she might like to have during her 'lying in' period.  I wondered if Amie had moved and how she and her family were coping after the loss of her partners step father. It was a good reminder to contact both those girls!   Sometimes as we sort we might find we're thinking about a past hurt and we resolve to set it aside and forgive.  Make note of where your thoughts roam while you work.  

Now I am off to tackle a new space.   Happy decluttering!