Hello everyone! Today’s post, I’m sharing how I, an emotional keeper of things, declutter my stuff!

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I love to keep everything! For me, it all has a memory attached to it, or the thought of throwing it out is a horrifying waste of a perfectly good item, or could be useful “one day”. I still struggle with getting rid of items. I currently have two shirts and one pair of jeans with holes in them that I’m struggling to throw out because they were some of my favorite items. But I’m getting better and here’s what has helped me so far!

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How I Declutter

The first thing I do is lose my mind. Just kidding! Well, kind of. I do recognize that the amount of stuff that I have does give me a perpetually annoyed and suffocating feeling. It totally puts me in a bad mood when I just see all the stuff! So I knew something had to change and I had to get rid of things. Here’s what I have found works for me!

Make It A Challenge

I think I got this idea from YouTube, where people will do a “daily declutter”. There’s a few variations where someone picks one item every day for a month or a sliding scale where on the first day of the month then one item is decluttered, day two is two items, etc. The sliding scale sounded cool but so much pressure to get rid of so many items. The first one sounded much more doable!

It ended up being a weekly declutter, as I would find an item and then grab a few more, worried I’d forget I wanted to declutter them too. So I would pick up 7 items or so on weekends and easily completed the task! I did it for about three months before it was no longer so easy. I do like a lot of my stuff and found it wasteful to get rid of them so that was hard to deal with. But I am very goal-oriented so wanting to meet that 30/31 item goal was very motivating for me! So far, it is the ninth of October when I am writing this and I have decluttered two items so I’m not doing well this month but fingers crossed I can kick it into gear!

Let It Sit

I scoffed at this tip at first when I heard it but it’s helped! Once the items are bagged or boxed up and ready to be dropped off at a donations bin, let it sit for a bit! I thought “well that’s silly, then the temptation to take stuff out is there”. And that has happened to me! I have let stuff sit and taken it out again, worried I’d regret it. But then I remembered why I wanted to get rid of it. For example, I wore a top that I took out of the bag and remembered that I didn’t like the way it fit. So I washed it again and it went back into the bag. I think that was a very powerful lesson to learn!

I still let stuff sit, but the rule is that I have to think of the specific item and then go grab it. I can’t just take “one more look” to check out the items. So far, I have completely forgotten what’s in the bags so I know they’re ready to go.

Be Honest

This one is so important. I don’t want to keep something that I won’t wear, doesn’t fit, etc. But again, that guilt of getting rid of an item that isn’t damaged is real! Or a book I haven’t read! Or a decor piece that I do still love!

At the end of the day, I just have to take a deep breath, admit the item in question is not serving my life in a positive way, and let it go. I do like Marie Kondo’s idea of “thanking” the item for the joy it once brought me. It’s a practice that makes me feel a bit silly, but it is helpful so don’t knock it until you try it I suppose!

Forgive Myself

There’s a lot that goes into this one.

I forgive myself for being wasteful. I forgive myself for having spent/wasted that money. I forgive myself for not using the item. I forgive myself for just not wanting to read that book. I forgive myself for getting rid of an item that could be useful “someday”. And so on and so on.

The important thing is to forgive myself and then move on with the lesson that I don’t want to have to do massive declutters just to get the amount of stuff I have under control again.

Start Again

Okay, let’s say I’ve reached my goal of 30 items this month! Now what?

Well, I start again! I make another numbered list in my bullet journal and then try to fill out that list. Again, I have way too many things so there’s still plenty to say good bye to. It’s not always easy, but it does feel good in the end!

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So that’s my process and how I declutter! Hopefully this helps someone out there but feel free to give me more tips or resources to review if you have any!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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