Note: This is a guest post from Courtney Carver of Be More with Less.
Decluttering is usually the first step people take to simplify their lives. It is often the easiest and most effective place to begin. Removing the excess from our homes naturally encourages us to look at the more challenging, often hidden things that also complicate our lives: debt, busyness, mental clutter, just to name a few. But it often starts with physical possessions.
Decluttering teaches us how to let go and create space. Owning less helps us save time and feel lighter. And it often causes us to rediscover the joy of giving.
If you feel overwhelmed with stuff or struggle when it comes to letting go, start with some of the items that don’t come with major emotional attachment—or at least, the items without positive emotional attachment.
If you are looking for a good place to start, let go of these 10 items to jumpstart decluttering:
1. Clothes you don’t wear. Clothing is a great place to begin. Most of us have too much of it, but we still wear the same things over and over again. Donate the jeans that don’t zip. Toss the socks with holes. Remove the outdated fashion. And if you have an extra coat or hat, give it away. There are lots of people who could use it this time of year.
2. Unidentifiable items in your junk drawer. It might be too soon to jettison the entire junk drawer, but you can easily remove the items that have no name, no place, and no meaning instead of saving them just in case you remember why you put them there in the first place. If you don’t know today, you won’t know tomorrow.
3. Lotions and potions. Get all of your lotions, potions, makeup, shampoo, and other products into one place. Put the things you use every day back where they belong. Toss the rest.
4. Lonely items. If it can’t be used without a match, and the match is long gone, it’s time to let go. Think cassette tapes without a cassette player, Tupperware tops without containers, and lone socks.
5. Kid stuff. Instead of shaming your kids into decluttering, make it fun for them. Announce a prize for every 10 things they can collect for donation. The prize can be a family activity or your child’s favorite meal. If you have more than one child, offer a bonus if everyone hits their goal to encourage them to work together.
6. Stale food. Set a timer for 15 minutes and go through your pantry, freezer, or refrigerator. Dump anything out of date, or opened and stale. If you find things that are good but you’ll never eat, bag it up and drop it at a homeless shelter or church.
7. Extra dishes. If you have two sets of dishware, silverware, or glassware, one can go. If you love your good dishes, use those every day. If they are stuck in a box somewhere and you never use them, give them to someone who will.
8. Other people’s stuff. If your home has become a storage facility for friends and family, make a few phone calls. Be kind, give notice, and politely ask them to remove their stuff or offer to help if they aren’t interested.
9. Things that bring you down. Sentimental items are usually saved for later on in the decluttering process, but letting go of things that remind you of people, places, and events that have hurt you in the past will make room for more joyful memories.
10. The guilt. This might not fall in the “easy” category, but if you let it go now, it will make the rest of the journey more meaningful. You paid enough already with time, money, and attention. Guilt is the worst payment of all. With guilt, you continue to pay with emotion, by holding onto the past and by punishing yourself for old habits. Say goodbye to guilt.
Letting go of these items will lighten things up and encourage more decluttering, more simplicity, and more freedom. Once they are gone, celebrate your progress and dig back in.
A simple life is waiting.
For more, check out our The Declutter Your Home Checklist.
As for the “lotions and potions” recommendation, please don’t toss them. If they have not separated or congealed, they’re still useful. Donate them to your local homeless shelter or other facility that serves the homeless. Homeless women love the smell of cologne and nice lotion, and it’s a treat for them. Moisturizers and other creams are also very welcome. (Anything with sunscreen is an added bonus.)
Good point Catherine because these will all end up in a landfill eventually, but to extend their usage in a creative and helpful way is more sustainable. On the food spectrum, I had a sibling ask me about honey, saying she had thrown some away because it had crystalized, not realizing it was still good. Education here too is the key, and if you make a little priority of doing this you will not only save money, help others out, but be more thoughtful of your purchases in the future.
I am not sure about other states but in California in certain cities like Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco & Sacramento they have shops where you can bring in your clean/reusable plastic or glass containers to refill them with everything from shampoo, lotion, dish/laundry soap with natural products that are non-polluting.
It can be a little challenging at first, like using your own cloth bags for produce and shopping (just make sure you wash them every so often) but for me it comes down to using natural products and only buying what I need plus connecting to a larger community of like-minded folks.
I agree fully with this article. I live a very happy simple life and it began with letting go of things. I always tell people who say that they can’t let go of sentimental items that they should take a picture if them.
I have been doing this. It is very freeing. I still have the picture but not the clutter.
I didn’t know anyplace would accept an opened bottle of lotion. Thanks for the info. I am using a great lotion that I got in a fragrance I don’t care for. It’s almost gone now but if I had known homeless shelters would accept, I could had donated an almost full bottle.
Or use them up before buying anything else.
Only if they are unopened!! Bacteria will only add to their problems!
Shelters don’t want opened or half-used lotions or potions. So don’t just dump them without asking first if they take such things.. Unopened, still viable things – of course.
We moved from Oh to FL in 2010, and then to GA in 2019. That makes it easy to unclutter. Only pack what you really want…
“Special dishes aren’t for special times, they’re for special people” ~ Carolyn Ingalls, Little House on the Prairie
I love this quote. It has helped me keep perspective on more than just dishes.
One of my favorite all time quotes also!
Old clothing is a big one for us. Hard to convince ourselves to throw out those pants/ shirts from ten years ago that don’t fit anymore (THIS is the year we’ll finally fit them again!)
From time to time I just have to factory reset my phone and computer just to eliminate all the clutter.
We also own three dogs and they bring so much clutter. Old leashes/ half destroyed toys- we just need to throw them out.
I do want to see a here’s how to de clutter in an environmentally friendly way, when it comes to tossing lotions and shampoos and beauty products, or the lidless containers and socks and maybe clothes that are beyond being donated that maybe you use for yard work or house etc. Any time you say toss, we have a responsibility to toss it in a way that won’t be a burden to the environment, because ultimately while you’re decluttering your immediate home life and getting the relief from that, our planet is our home too, I’m struggling with that part but it’s making me start researching for more solutions that encompass my values.
I am right there with you. Every time I think about decluttering what can’t be recycled or reused, I think about where the decluttered items will end up — the landfill? Yikes and then I stop. So, I’m struggling with that, even knowing that it will encourage me to accumulate far fewer things that might end up there.
I think we need to look at that when we purchase the item. At that point the decision is made as to what type of container or item will, at some point, end up in the trash.
Agree! You should never buy clothes you do not need. Try to exchange with friends or family instead. And do not toss clothes in trash. Use the glass and metall and paper and battery and electric devices and food waste… bins that are available.
I read your blog every day. Thank you! Regarding throwing out socks with holes in them, I agree, but Inhave a friend who had breast cancer. I made pillows for her post surgery recovery and used the holey socks to stuff them with. These are great suggestions and I’m going to share it on my Facebook page.
I read somewhere (pinterest I think) something similar to number three but with your kitchen utensils – so many we collect!! Put them all in a box somewhere else in your kitchen. After a month, you keep the ones you have gone into the box for (that you USED) and the rest can go to the thrift store. I can/jar food so I had to exempt my canning tongs and the like that I use twice a year but it really works! And for number five – bribing isn’t the answer. Leave your kids to figure it out for themselves – by following your example. Besides, a ‘prize’ is just more clutter, eh? Unless it was a pizza party or something. I like the idea of having one day a month to go through and collect items for the thrift store. Put it on the calendar on the fridge so everyone knows it’s coming up.
I just did the prize thing with my kids today. They each earned a trip to frozen yogurt and $5 because they did so well. No clutter! They got so much for Christmas I couldn’t breathe.
Joan, as a teacher, I can say I totally agree with you. The prize for kids should be taking their used toys to a thrift shop knowing that another child will have the chance to love their toys like they did, at one time. It is important for kids to feel the value of giving to others without expecting anything in return but that wonderful feeling of helping someone else or the planet. I had my second graders work at a food bank during Christmas time just stacking canned goods from the floor to the table, to make it easier for the basket fillers. They would ALWAYS ask if they could go back and help again. It was so fun.
Thanks for posting this! I am someone who does better following a list to get things done and this is a starting point for me.