Quick tip for you as you pursue a life of owning less:
Begin by identifying what you need, rather than identifying what you can remove.
Often times, when we set out to declutter a space or a category of items in our home, we begin by looking for things that we can remove.
We identify the shirt that doesn’t fit, the kitchen utensil we don’t use, the toy that doesn’t get played with, or the old make-up we stopped using years ago. We scan our closets and drawers asking the question, “What can I get rid of?”
To declutter faster, change the question you are asking.
Rather than asking, “What can I get rid of?” Ask, “What do I need to keep?”
The new approach will change everything.
For example, let’s say you want to declutter the clothes you wear to work. You could go to your closet, try on every outfit and every accessory, looking for things you no longer love or no longer fit. When you finish, you’ll probably identify a small pile of clothes that you could donate at your local drop-off charity.
This is the approach of looking for things to remove.
Or you could try a strategy of identifying what you need.
If you go to work five times each week, theoretically, you only need five different work outfits (assuming you only want to do laundry once/week). Go to your closet and identify the five outfits you love the most and would choose to wear each week. This is all you need to keep and everything else could be removed immediately. After all, you’ve kept everything you need.
Now, this is your life and your closet. I may be comfortable wearing the same clothes every day, but you may want a little more variety than five outfits. It’s up to you (obviously). You may look back at your closet, after identifying five outfits, and notice a few other outfits that you want to keep. You know you don’t need them, but you may still want a few more. Take them out and set them next to the others.
You can keep what you want, but your mindset will have changed—knowing that you are now keeping things you don’t actually have to have.
In the end, all the remaining clothing in your closet can be decluttered. Your donation pile will almost certainly be larger than the previous approach.
And this principle can be applied in countless areas in our home.
How many sets of bed linens do you actually need?
How many towels per person are required?
How many place settings or coffee mugs do you need?
How many televisions do you use at a time?
How many coats, decorations, spatulas, scissors, pens, hobby supplies, tennis racquets, or toys are actually needed?
Identify the minimum. You can keep more if you want, but you’ll find the process of decluttering goes much faster when you start by asking, “What do I need to keep?” Rather than, “What are the things I can get rid of?”
Karen says
What a paradigm shift! I love this idea!
Boone says
How do you get past the fear of “might need it; keep it just in case”?
Kaidee says
I suggest having a box set aside for those things…
Put a future date on the box (eg 6 months away) and only after that date open the box.
At this point you’ll probably feel more clarity on the question of whether you’ll ever need them again (helped at least in part by realising whether you’ve missed them at all in that 6 months!)
Hope that helps some.
Maria Pinto says
I love this approach! It has a more positive vibe to it, and just thinking about it does a mind shift for me as I have started cleaning out stuff again. It is like saying the cup is half full rather than half empty. With that in mind I will try not to think of it as a “chore”, but know what I will gain by having less!
Thanks again Joshua for more inspiration & to all of the posters for other good ideas & thoughts.
Stefanie says
I never actually thought about it this way, but I love it! This will really change my decluttering. Thank you for this post. It’s actually one of the most helpful posts I’ve read.
Ann says
This is a total game changer for me. I have been decluttering for three years…and have made great progress…but had hit a wall. This is exactly what I needed to read. This concept is so different and inspirational. Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of this??? Thank you.
Chris says
This is probably the most useful piece of advice I’ve read on my journey to owning less. I can’t express in words how much I look forward to reading the blogs from Joshua. Over the last four years my life has been completely changed by the positive and simple approaches posted on this site. I can’t thank you enough.
Susan Copley says
This sounds so obvious, but it really has helped me to make decisions. My other strategy is to ponder (given my ever advancing age!), what items can I reduce so that our kids don’t have to eventually do so much sorting. They live in the UK and in distant states with full houses already; they may want a few items, but definitely not much… Thanks for your articles, links, etc.!
Clo says
This is a paradigm shift from “What should I REMOVE,” to “What do I need to keep?” This totally turns inside-out most decluttering plans and organizing procedures. I recently applied this mind-set/approach to my office supplies at home and found I only needed very little. I donated a large supply of brand-new office supplies to a school which DOES need the items.
Natasha says
This sounds like a really helpful decluttering idea. I look forward to implementing it in my storage room!
Judy says
I already implement this—-
So helpful. This technique works well.