It comes down to; if you don’t use it, lose it. If you can’t store it in an organized way, toss it.
When my husband + I went on our honeymoon we stayed in a suite that had a very small living room, fold out table for a dining space, + a minuscule kitchen; 2 element stove top, bar fridge, microwave, single bowl sink, + an 18″ dishwasher. Small. I thought we were going to go crazy trying to make do with such a small place. It was our honeymoon – I didn’t want to feel like we were compromising on comfort.
But it was enough. With some planning it was a cozy, romantic home for us. We didn’t feel cramped or that we were missing anything.
In fact, it was so satisfying to have just enough, to not have clutter, that I wanted to bring that into our home.
When we got back I adopted a routine of assessing everything I come across in our house.
do we need it?
do we use it?
when might we use it?
is it realistic to hold on to something we may use one day in the future?
do we have room to pack it away, so it’s not taking up valuable real estate/creating clutter?
do we know anyone who might make better use of it?
I ask myself these questions on a regular basis. [A link for a downloadable checklist is below.] If the answers are ‘no’, or don’t seem reasonable, then the item goes into a box or bag I have set asked for donations. If I have a really hard time assessing something, mostly for sentimental reasons, I’ll pack it away for six months or so, then will assess. If I haven’t missed it, it needs to go.
Sometimes this comes up in day-to-day life. Sometimes a fit of organization will take over + I’ll relentlessly + ruthlessly tear apart a closet, storage room, anywhere there seems to be an excess of stuff.
I’ve found I glean more happiness, satisfaction, + contentment from shedding items than in gaining. Clutter is irritating + unsettling for me. Nails on a chalkboard, kind of irritating.
The unfortunate part is that there always seems to be more stuff to deal with…
The next challenge is to really crack down on the accumulation, whether by hand-me-overs, new purchases, or gifts. We really don’t buy a lot, yet the clutter does seem to build up.
I find clutter to be intensely irritating. I become a not nice person when there are too many ‘things’ piling up + lying around. I crave + desire a tidy environment, though you wouldn’t always guess it if you were to walk into our home on any given day. The way I see it though, is that, ultimately, when you have less clutter, there are less things to tidy + more time to do other all the other things that are more satisfying + fulfilling.
click on the following link to download: embrace the purge checklist