Note: This is a guest post from Colleen Madsen of 365 Less Things.
I have never considered myself a natural organizer. But in 2007, my family moved to Australia from the USA. Because we were moving into a smaller home, I found myself needing to unclutter a large number of items. Fortunately, we were able to accomplish the task…but mostly, because I had no other choice.
Shortly after the move, a new stage of life surfaced. My husband was about to begin semi-retirement. And to prepare for our new life together, I set a personal goal to again reduce our possessions. Coincidentally, on January 3rd, a segment aired on morning television about people abandoning their New Year resolutions. Turns out, on average, most people only stick to their resolution for three days. Even though I had never been one to take on resolutions, I found great motivation in beating those narrow odds… in fact, the challenge was nearly irresistible to me
I decided at that moment to set a new resolution to minimize our possessions. I determined to remove one item each day for the next 365 days. I started with three items to make up for the missed days, and promptly began removing one thing a day for the rest of the year. I am happy to say I not only completed my resolution successfully but it was so simple and satisfying that I continued uncluttering in my slow and steady pace (an average of five items per week) for an additional two years!
Over these last three years of clearing clutter, I have removed over a thousand things from our home. Also, through the process and through my writing, I have had the opportunity to help many people realize their own goals as well. These conversations have sharpened my desire for simplicity and taught me important insight about uncluttering. I have learned that understanding just a few key principles can help anyone just learning how to declutter.
The 10 Most Important Principles I Have Learned to Help Anyone Unclutter:
1. Stop the Flow of Stuff Coming In. Uncluttering is a waste of time if you simply replace the old stuff with new. You’ll need to begin by slowing the flow of things entering your home. Determine today to buy less. Trust me, you won’t regret it. The freedom from desire to acquire is a beautiful thing.
2. Remove at Least One Item a Day. The process does not have to be a mad frenzy that disrupts your entire household. Over the years, my home has become quite minimalist by simply choosing one item a day to get rid of. This gradual process began to change the way I think about stuff. Eventually, it became a way of life rather than just a crash diet of stuff.
3. Get Rid of the Easy Stuff First. There is no need to make things difficult by trying to get rid of the hardest things first. Most likely, it will simply deter you from the task altogether. Instead, start with the easy stuff and then as you strengthen your will to reduce, the harder decisions will become easier.
4. Put a Disposal Plan in Place. Before you begin, investigate selling, recycling, donating and give away options for the items you choose to remove. The more prepared you are for the task, the simpler it will be… and the more likely you will be to follow through. Ebay, Freecycle, and our local thrift store became my favorite disposal options. However there are endless others to explore.
5. Decide to Not Keep Things out of Guilt or Obligation. Your home should only contain the things you love or use. Don’t let incorrect thinking or other people dictate what you should keep or give away. Remember, if the items are yours, it is your choice to decide what to do with them.
6. Do Not Be Afraid to Let Go. The urge to hold on to items you think you might need someday can be eliminated simply by being realistic about what need really is. Many items in our homes may be useful, but they are not particularly necessary to our happiness, well-being, or the functionality of our homes. Seek to understand the difference.
7. Gifts Do Not Have to be Material. There are so many ways to honor loved ones without giving gifts that end up as clutter. Encourage people to follow this concept when buying gifts for you. Some alternative gifts are gifts of experience or adventure, a gift of time spent together, even cash gifts are appropriate in some instances. I have two clutter-free gift guides at my blog if you are looking for ideas.
8. Do Not Over-Equip Your Home. A home does not need enough linen, crockery, cutlery, or pantry supplies to serve as a hotel. Be realistic about your true needs. In the rare event an unusually large number of guests arrive on your doorstep, you can always borrow from friends, family or neighbors.
9. Do Not Throw Out Things that are not Yours Without the Owner’s Permission. Everyone should have a choice about their own belongings, even small children. Honor them by allowing them to choose. You can encourage hoarding tendencies in others by ripping things away from them before they are ready to let go.
10. Do Not Waste Your Life on Clutter. Every item you own takes time out of your life: time to manage it, clean it, repair it, and maintain it; time to choose between objects of a similar category; time spent shopping for it… and that doesn’t even mention the time spent earning the money to pay for it in the first space. Decide to sacrifice less of your precious life on the pursuit and ownership of stuff.
These ten principles have kept me resolute for the past three years. I had no idea when I began this mission how much stuff I would relinquish over the next three years. What I originally thought was going to be an arduous task quickly became a way of life… so much so, we have just put a deposit on a beautiful, even smaller, apartment with fabulous views of our coastal city, a swimming pool, and gym all within walking distance of everything we want. Semi-retirement is becoming a beautiful thing. Uncluttering made it possible.
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Colleen Madsen blogs regularly at 365 Less Things where she inspires others to reduce their stuff one day at a time. You can find her on Twitter.
Further Reading:
The Declutter Your Home Checklist
Image: Yorick…
Donna says
The more I declutter I feel like I’m losing weight…I feel so light….stuff makes me feel heavy….and in the end when your children have to clean out your house because you are in a nursing home and they don’t want your stuff they will rent a dumpster and just dispose of it with no conscience they won’t want your stuff I know first hand I did that with my siblings when mom and dad had to go into a nursing home…..nothing mattered to us it was just stuff……
Pam says
Donna I agree children don’t want their parents stuff, I have asked our grown children if there was any thing they wanted, the answer was no nothing, kinda hurt a little. But on the hand when my Mother passed away I have a few of her things still and now that my in-laws have both passed i have a few things from their house…..I think it’s me i understand maybe one or two things a person might want from a love one that has passed…but in my case i still have stuff from when i was a child…I have kept my now grown Children art work, their dolls, their scout pin, ect ect, ect….My children say my house looks in side like a second hand store. I can’t bear the fact that my stuff would be hauled away in a dumpster…my husband always say he wants to back up his truck and make a dump run.
Donna says
Great site sure could use all this advice
Audrey says
On FB I saw a yard sale for the high school’s theatre department. I determined that every cabinet and closet in the house would cough up at least one thing for the sale. While you might not “see” the difference in my house without those things I feel that it’s much lighter. I can see the back of some closets I’ve avoided. It feels good and is a good start!
Julia says
Thank you so much for writing these very helpful tips!!!
Will begin my one-piece-a-day to declutter now
joelle says
I am moving and need to seriously clean house. I am taking pictures of all my kids school art and going to have them printed as 8 x 10’s so they will store neatly in page protectors in a binder with the rest of their school mementos. I am reducing an over stuffed file cabinet to 2 4 inch binders.
I love the 1 item a day
Sharon Fisch says
We declutter every few months. My husband and my kids and I know that in one room of the house (it used to be our small enclosed bar, now it is my crafting room!), as we find things we no longer need or want, we stash them in bags and then I take it over to a charity when I get two to three bags. We also have given clothing away to other family if we think they could use it, and books are always dropped off at our local public library for sales. Of course I go to the sales every two months to see if there is anything I really really want. But as I have retired, and kids are getting ready to move out in the next coming year or two, life is slowly decluttering. Feels good. Of course agree with #8 and #5. Tough for us.
Alice says
When I moved house we used self storage to help to de-clutter it worked really well because it kept the things we needed out of the way to make space to help us sort through everything else.
Lindsay says
Great article, and website! I have begun my process of decluttering and minimizing by belongings, but I am at the point of now being overwhelmed. I have eliminated about 20 boxes so far from my kitchen, living room, clothing and kids’ room, but now I feel like everything else is a grey area (if that makes sense). I still have the office, craft room, and garage. There is still just so much stuff I blows my mind! Any suggestions on how I should proceed? Should I take a break, keep pushing on, or what? Thanks for all your great writing and advice!
Kelley says
Hi Lauren! Great job on the decluttering! My advice is to keep reading blogs about minimalism that inspire you, and keep working! Reading these blogs will help clear your mind regarding the “grey areas.”
Another tip for things you can’t decide about is to set aside a certain box for “maybe” items, and leave it out somewhere visible. If you end up needing an item, take it out of the box. After a month or two, you’ll be so tired of having this unsightly box take up room in your house that you’ll be ready to get rid of that stuff!
Margo says
I’ve found that watching a few episodes of a “Hoarders” marathon always gives me PLENTY of incentive to demonstrate that I have the ability to throw things out that those folks do not. The first time I left some free “goodies” at the curb in front of my house and watched them disappear in short order made me giddy, and sent me hunting around the house for more stuff to put at the curb! It’s soooo much easier that eBay or FreeCycle or Craigslist or the classifieds at work… It also made it easier to have the proverbial “A place for everything and everything in its place.” I had a large kettle my mother gave me and that I wanted to keep, but didn’t know where to put it, it was so big. I’d just left it out and in the way. Then I realized I had a whole section of a cupboard over the refrigerator that held nothing but cheap vases from florist bouquets. I kept two vases that I had actually purchased, and put a box with the rest at the curb, making room for my kettle.
Ana says
Love the concept of minimalistic living. I’m glad my husband thinks the same way :) Most of the time, at least. We’ve agreed that things we store in our house – is under my management, as I am a part time housewife and therefore it is up to me to decide what to store in cupboards and what not. Garage – is managed by my husband :D So if there is the thing he wants to keep and I do not – I remind him that it must be stored in the garage, which often makes him change his mind. He does the same to me, saying that if I want to keep something, it should be in cupboards.
We were doing fine, decluttering our life, but I just recently struggled with rule nr 1, – it is so damn hard to stop flow of stuff as it is not always under my control. The recent experience was our trip to see my in-laws in Europe (and we live in New Zealand) and we ended up with “treasures” that apparently were collected by my in-laws and their now deceased parents for my husband (living in USSR meant that spare set of 64 pieces cutlery and heavy-cotton manchester were hard to come by, therefore were bought at any opportunity). The worst thing was that we had to carry all of these “treasures” back from Europe to NZ, as these were presents: all these things had value 20 years ago, but they are not worth a penny now, all outdated, old-fashioned, cutlery oxidized and black, manchester does not even fit our NZ duvets and pillows and has to be altered. I was feeling terrible packing all these things, and knowing that another 64 pieces of forks and knifes, and 3 sets of old-fashioned manchester (which would require my time to alter them) are going to end up in my house. For 3 people in the house we certainly can cope with maximum of 6 forks and knives, and 3 sets of manchester which I already own. I’d love to get rid of these things, but they are sort of not mine…. Any ideas would be very helpful :) I already thinking of cutting up that manchester and making (a loooot of) gift bags from them. What to do with cutlery I do not know….