We have a problem with clutter. I sometimes feel like we are drowning in it. Then we have very different thoughts on how to declutter. I am almost convinced my husband is a hoarder, but a sneaky one that hides his stash. I am a person who drops things and leaves them where they fall. Then given that this is a childless environment, there is no driving need for us to to have good discipline to instill values into another person. With all that said, these are some of the decluttering principles which could and do work in our household:
If you trip over it
There isn’t a day that goes by that I am not tripping over something or kicking something. And I don’t say this with any measure of pride. I do know that I should be putting my various shoes away, but then I just drop them in the lounge and continue to kick them about the room.
The obvious solution is to not drop everything and anything, and then to leave it there. Plus it becomes a trap for the pug hair that is floating about.
As part of my 2020 goals, I will now endeavour to do something about the item I trip over. This may seem like an obvious principle to live by, but it is not something that I have felt compelled to do nor was there really any reason for me to. I am basically a teenager that has never had to grow up or adult in any meaningful way.
If you cant remember owning it
I still find items that I don’t even remember owning. Now if I can’t remember owning it, why do I pack it away where I found it? This is a never ending loop that I find myself in. Plus the amount of energy that goes into trying to remember all my possessions and where I could possibly find it, is exhausting.
My sister likes to tell me, “Procrastination is just a delayed decision.”
So by packing the item back, I am just delaying the decision of removing it from our environment. From now on, a decision will be made for every surprise item that is found unintentionally.
If you stored it
This relates to the point above. There is no good reason to store something if you aren’t going to use it. If the intention is to make use of the item, or garner some pleasure from it, then by all means store it. However, should the intention be to just store the item for no valid reason, it should be removed from our environment.
no connection (financially, emotionally)
There is such a thing as sunken cost. I may have purchased something and then didn’t like it, so I hang on to it because I have spent money on it. There is no good reason to do so, as I am not going to recoup the monies because the item is still here. All that can be done is to learn from the experience and then to remove it from our environment. This would also lessen the guilt I feel every time I see the item and thereby remove it from my mental environment.
There is a need to have mementos to spark memories, or it could just be items that had a reason for being in my life. However, if the item has served its purpose and I can remove it without any emotional upheaval, then it is time to do so.