Spring is upon us and, if you haven’t already begun, join me for a month of eradicating dust bunnies, clearing cluttered spaces, and finding new homes for old stuff. Every Friday, I’ll be posting about tips, tricks, methods, and my own journey to tame the mess. Grab your spray bottle and a garbage bag and let’s get started!
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Spring cleaning fills me with equal parts trepidation and excitement. An entire season dedicated to cleaning, organizing, and decluttering sounds great, mostly because the end result is a space that is fresh and serene. But trying to get it all done at a time that already feels too busy can make me anxious.
Some people turn to chocolate or alcohol for comfort. I start planning.
There are so many ways to attack decluttering. Some people get it done in one fell swoop, dedicating hours, even days, to the task until it’s done. Others polish off one room at a time. And some go even smaller, working on one area of a room or for a set amount of time each day (say, 15 minutes). Smaller isn’t necessarily worse, but it is a slower process.
Ideally, I’d love to start and not stop until I was done. I tend to gain momentum as I go, and stopping and starting goes against my “a body in motion stays in motion” philosophy. But it doesn’t really jive with my current season of life, with three little kids at home all day who are less than sympathetic to my need for clean.
So I’ve long since moved on from my preferred Plan A. While 15 minutes a day is manageable, by Day 30, my Day 1 efforts will be nothing but a memory. Decluttering one room at a time is the method that works best for me and my family.
It’s important to decide not just how to declutter, but where. The order you decide to go in will depend on what type of person you are. Do you prefer to start with a small victory to get the ball rolling and your confidence up? Go with the front closet, if you have one. It’s a small area that houses practical things, like winter coats and backpacks. Deciding what stays or goes shouldn’t be too taxing.
Or would you prefer to do the worst first? Everyone has their own “worst,” whether it be a box of sentimental items that are hard to let go of, or a clothes closet that makes a Macy’s clearance rack look organized. Either way, getting the hardest thing done first can make the rest feel like child’s play.
I’m all about “eating that frog,” but, while it can make me more productive with my daily habits, it really slows me down when I’m decluttering. And that’s probably because my “worst” is my kids’ room. Since their input is (mostly) needed for clothes and toys, it can become a laborious and torturous process, with more tears and tantrums than I usually have…ahem, I mean usually have to deal with. Deal with, right.
Moving on.
So you know how and where you’ll be decluttering. Now the questions is what are you going to do with all that stuff?
For us, there are usually just three main options: donate, throw away, or keep. I like to have three boxes/bags/pack mules available to divide everything up. And if I can do an even, three-way split, so much the better.
You may want to be more specific in your divvying up, if it suits your purposes. Maybe you take special donations to certain people or places and it’s easier to separate things that way from the start. Or you want to add a recycling box. Or you want a place to put the things you’re just not sure of yet. Decluttering can be as simple or as fancy as you want it to be. The important thing is to end the process with less stuff and more peace.
How do you decide what gets to stay and what has to go?
Marie Kondo likes to ask if the item gives you joy. You should only keep what makes you happy and get rid of the rest. Maybe I’m a little shallow or simplistic, but I mostly ask myself, “Do I need this?” and “Does it have a place?” Cavewoman decluttering.
But both her questions and mine lead back to the same place. Nothing steals joy faster than walking into a room where stuff is scattered everywhere, having no place to go. And when you hold onto something that is no longer necessary or important when it once was, you’re left feeling conflicted and unsettled. So when you decide what you want to keep and let go of, ask yourself these questions or make up your own.
Decluttering is a very personal experience. On the surface, it seems very practical. Just a matter of getting rid of some belongings. But the things we own are in our houses for a reason. We’ve attached significance to them. We remember where they came from, who gave them to us, why we got them. They may be causing us stress, but they might also be filling a hole in our lives. When we get rid of that material filling, that empty space is hard to ignore.
So, declutter at the pace that’s right for you, in the order that you want, divesting only of the things that you feel you should say goodbye to. Create a battle plan that fits with what you want to see done this spring. Because, Hoarders aside, no one can declutter your life better than you. Or should.
Do you have a plan for how you want to declutter? Are there any areas that you dread going through because you know they have a lot of emotional attachments? Let me know what your strategy is for a successful spring clean-out!
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