Yesterday evening I looked into my daughter’s room, only to see a grand mess. It wasn’t that the room was really very messy, but there were little scraps of craft materials everywhere, dolls and stuffed animals piled high, and various doodads on the counters. There was an aura of general disorder, and I can’t stand an aura of general disorder. I’m not a packrat or a clutter person.
Visual clutter can be comforting if it feels organized, but I still find it oppressive after a time. I feel a deep need to declutter, to shift things into places where they look right and to remove items from the house entirely. Bags of things exit our house every month. Currently I have four boxes of items sitting ready for a garage sale next weekend, and that’s just this month’s collection.
Over the next few blogs, I’ll outline a few of my decluttering rules. I’ve already discussed one way to avoid clutter: avoid becoming a thrift store glutton. Stay away from the good deals, new or used, or those good deals will soon be cluttering your home. Yes, it’s all right to buy what you need, but buying because you might need something is not a good idea. It just leads to excess stuff.
After yesterday’s clutter experience and this morning’s clean of my daughter’s room, I’ve come up with another decluttering rule. There are many tiny objects that come into our home. These objects don’t look large, so I don’t give them a second thought. I just open the door and they come in: necklaces, notepads, pencils, and bandaids, to name a few. I found four finished boxes of bandaids in the room this morning. My new rule is that I will evaluate all of the objects that come into our home, no matter how large or how small they are. Even small objects make clutter. If we’re not going to use it and if I think that we will end up throwing it away within two years, then it’s not going to come into our house.
We’ll see how long I last.
What are your rules for decluttering your home?
(Image courtesy of justneal at stock exchange)