Another thing I’m proud of is getting rid of about 50 friggin’ bottles of craft paint. You know, the ones that cost about $1 on sale, and multiply, I’m pretty sure, as they sit in storage boxes for years. Those. I tossed all the almost-empties and dried up ones, and sorted the rest for donation or sale. I now own NO craft paints. When I need some, I will buy some. So there.
There have been lots of things like that in this de-cluttering process, and that’s what motivates me to keep going. In fact, that reminds me that I need to contact April about the banker box full (yes, FULL!) of diskettes I found—she works for a technotrash recycling company. I wonder what they’ll recommend for the four dusty laptops in my garage. And the 79 serial cables. And the 326 telephone cords.
One rule of thumb I’ve been applying to this huge task is the I-haven’t-seen-or-thought-about-or-needed-this-item-in-at-least-a-year one. It works—sometimes. But it doesn’t apply to everything, so last night I browsed the ‘net looking for ideas to help us thin down our possessions (especially with Katie, because the screaming doesn’t seem to be working). I found one site that recommended just two rules: the above rule, but with six months instead of a year, and simply getting rid of 10-15 percent of all belongings.
This means that if Katie has 300 stuffed animals, she would chuck 30-45 of them. I LOVE that idea! She does not.
There are tons of sites out there with tips on de-cluttering. But I’d like your help. How do you decide whether or not to keep things? How do you decide when it’s time to get rid of something you’ve had for a long time? Generally speaking, what’s your best advice for de-cluttering?
Winner of the best suggestion gets my undying devotion. You can’t buy that, Pal.
This doesn't really apply to getting rid of things permanently, but to get a room to a state that I find appealing (less cluttered!), I go through with one of those big plastic bins and put everything that's piled up/unnecessary into the bin. Then I can tackle the bin on it's own, separately. That's worked for me, for years, to get each room decluttered.
ReplyDeleteDon't ask me how it's going with the bins right now... I have some major work to do when I get home but if I think about it, it will ruin my vacation mojo.
One that I like for getting rid of clothes is to put all your hangers on the rack backwards. When you wear something, put the hanger back normal. At the end of a year, if you still have hangers that are backward, get rid of those items.
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved here a year ago we tried to use the philosophy of simply, "Do we love it? Does it make our lives better?" and if the answer was no, we chucked it. With a few exceptions obviously, especially with the kids things because that's harder - for them it was "Would they notice if this was gone? Is it worth the space?" But MM is so young - it's gotta be harder with older kids.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't really apply to getting rid of things permanently, but to get a room to a state that I find appealing (less cluttered!), I go through with one of those big plastic bins and put everything that's piled up/unnecessary into the bin. Then I can tackle the bin on it's own, separately. That's worked for me, for years, to get each room decluttered.
ReplyDeleteDon't ask me how it's going with the bins right now... I have some major work to do when I get home but if I think about it, it will ruin my vacation mojo.