Decluttering should be easy. We know at some level that less is more, and we may well have the time now to go through our things during the pandemic. Ultimately, we or someone else will have to dispose of all of our worldly goods, and we may not want to put that on someone else’s shoulders. So why not just do it?
It reminds me of the advice to lose weight. It’s simple – eat less and exercise more. But it’s hard to do, in part because our bodies have evolved to hoard food internally. That way we won’t starve to death if food were to get very scarce. We also hoard food in our cabinets, clothes, furniture, etc. so that we will have things handy if we need them later. We accumulate stuff faster than we use or dispose of it.
Nevertheless, it is possible to make progress in decluttering. My wife and I did this when we moved from our larger suburban home to a smaller downtown apartment a year and a half ago. Here is what we learned during that process.
We knew that our choices were to keep, sell, throw away, or give away our excess stuff. Our process was to ask ourselves – what don’t we really need? We also found ourselves asking – what is the best use of each item? Here are two examples of how those questions informed our actions.
My wife stored much of her art in the basement. She did not expect to display most of it for the foreseeable future. She could sell a small number of pieces, but that would take considerable time and energy. So, she invited friends and neighbors to an art giveaway. She gave away 300 pieces of art in 45 minutes on our back porch. Not only were friends excited to receive the art, but she also felt joyful afterwards knowing that her art would be appreciated by so many people in their own homes.
We disposed of extra clothes and household items through Goodwill. Also, since I knew that I would not need household tools in our new place where household maintenance was part of our rent, I donated them to Minnesota Tool Library where I knew that they would be used over and over again by others.
Every item to be evaluated was a thoughtful decision. Decluttering was exhausting. We found it easier to spread it out over time. Mornings worked well when we had more energy to make the decisions.
Now that we have moved and put our stuff away, we conclude that we were not tough enough. We are planning to do more decluttering this winter when we will not be able to go outdoors as much. We are also now more mindful and careful about what we accumulate so that we can manage better how much stuff we keep around.
How would your life be different if your home were more decluttered? Whom can you give joy to by giving stuff away?