When you begin your minimalist journey, the first thing you set out to do is start decluttering your physical items.
There are usually two types of declutterers; those who get rid of everything immediately and those who take their time moving slowly and consistently through every item in their house.
Then you have the mood declutterer. That’s me. I declutter when I am in the mood, when the feeling hits me, and when I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.
After years of decluttering here and there, I got serious and began decluttering more consistently. I tried to gamify my decluttering by setting myself up to declutter 2023 items in one year.
How hard could it be?
Two things happened. Counting seriously slowed me down, and it took me nearly a year to recognize this. I also didn’t realize that I would need a break after a big purge. Decluttering can be a lot.
You need to be very clear about you are going through this change in the first place.
Before I started my journey, I got clear on my why. The main reasons are
- Family Freedom. I wanted to spend more time caring for my people, not my stuff.
- Time Freedom. I wanted to schedule my life around what was important to me.
- Financial Freedom. I wanted to stop wasting money on things that did not bring me value.
So after 18 months of decluttering my home, I’ve found a method that works for me.
Before I tell you about that method, let me share what didn’t work and why.
Marie Kondo Method
If you have not heard about Marie Kondo – where have you been? Seriously. When you hear minimalist or declutter, people immediately chime in about sparking joy.
Marie’s method is where you take all like items out at once (i.e., books, clothes, toys) and then decide whether or not each item sparks joy. If it doesn’t spark joy you thank it and remove it from your life. If it does spark joy, you return the item to its space and organize it well.
Everyone has raved about her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and how it has changed their lives; however, this method did not work for me.
One of the main reasons I pursued minimalism was to take care of less stuff. With Kondo’s method, I knew I could easily find a reason to love something enough to keep it.
I moved on.
The Mins Game
In this game, coined by the Minimalists, you remove one thing from your home the first day, two things from your home the second day, three things from your home the third day, and so forth until you hit day thirty, where you have removed close to 500 items from your home.
This works best (I feel) if you are playing with others. The team concept is what makes it motivating. When a group of people commit to something together, you don’t want to be the only one getting rid of things.
Playing the Mins Game can help you quickly eliminate that top layer of clutter you are not attached to. Fortunately, some people get so good at the game they continue for another 30 days. Or they start over entirely, removing 500 items each month of the year.
While it’s always a fun challenge, this method was not sustainable for me. I found myself scrambling to remove anything I could find, not considering whether or not I was ready to let go of the item. Hasty decluttering can cause regret and slow down your journey to less. That leads me to this point.
The hardest thing about getting rid of your stuff is letting go of it mentally first.
Fifteen Minutes A Day
This method makes sense for most. You take one area of your home and spend fifteen minutes a day tackling the clutter in the house. This one is so good, and I want it to work; however, it has never worked for me. Mainly because I am a mood declutterer but also because doing a tiny bit doesn’t feel productive. I want to declutter the whole space when I am in the mood.
So while I am always trying this method because I know it can work if dedicated, I usually stop after a few days.
The One Method that Worked.
Believe it or not, the one method that works for me is the Packing Party Method mixed with a little Clean slate method from the book Lightly by Francine Jay.
The packing party method encourages you to pack up all of your belongings as if you were moving, then remove items as needed within the next few weeks.
The Clean Slate Method asks you to empty the space or thing of its contents, then replace what gives you value or what you truly need.
Jay mentions, “That’s why a clean slate is so magical: It lets you bypass decluttering altogether and get straight to curating your stuff. It’s about deciding what to keep rather than what to toss.“
Modifying the two methods to fit my needs where the answer I had been looking for all along.
I started with my son’s room because he’s eight years old and not yet attached to every little thing. I removed a ton of wall hangings, unworn clothing, and unused toys.
I shoved them all in a box and transferred them to another part of the house.
I only put back in the space the things I find him using daily and books – plenty of books.
He commented only on his room’s cleanliness, not noticing that I removed over half of his toys and artwork that was strewn across his room.
My goal is to let the items sit for a couple of weeks. If he doesn’t ask for anything or doesn’t miss anything, I will begin to donate and discard those items.
Before you come for me about respecting his things and space, I think you have to know your child well. I know what matters to him, and before I permanently get rid of anything, I will ask.
Here’s why this method works for me.
I can put time and space between the thing being removed from the area and, ultimately, the house. Sometimes, we don’t know we can live without something until we’ve tried it.
I am allowed to see what the space feels like and weigh out the benefits of returning an item or not.
I’ve removed all clutter from the space and can sort it all at once. I tend to use my garage as the sorting center.
Now, there is still work to do. There is making decisions about whether or not to keep it, sorting, finding a place for the thing, and lastly, physically letting the thing go.
This takes time and precious energy; decluttering can be challenging and mentally exhausting, so it is essential to find the declutter method that works for you.
There is no shortage of ways to declutter but start with knowing why you are on this journey in the first place. Then, plan to keep new or random items from re-cluttering your home. Lastly, decide the best method to release the excess in your life.
