By Cheryl Ryan
After moving from our home of 28 years I told myself that I would never accumulate that much stuff again. We had so much crap. So I was a bit surprised that while searching for a potato peeler this holiday I found five. It seems that while many of you were decluttering I was busy cluttering.
From tiny houses to homesteading to Maria Kondo there is a real movement towards less is more. And I love that idea and was actually doing a pretty good job until something changed. Maybe it was the constant shortages. I don’t know but my pantry started to fill up and I guess I became increasingly worried about not being able to peel a potato.
I’ve never tried the Maria Kondo method of asking which items bring me joy. That’s too specific for me. Usually, I just get so frustrated as stuff accumulates in a location that when I can’t find what I’m looking for I finally act. Then I make three piles, save, throw, and maybe. I’m not sure where I learned this, maybe Hoarders. But I can get stuck on the maybe pile so I’m hoping to step up my game as I tackle my closet this week.
It’s really a mess right now. Last month while my daughter was in my closet looking for something she decided to take action herself. She threw half of my shoes onto the floor, because she thinks I have too many, then ran out of time and left. That is the present state of my closet. Every time I go in I’m tripping all over a bunch of shoes while trying to find something.
So this week I will be employing my inner minimalist. My goal is to easily access all comfortable work from home pants and grab a matching sweater. Since most days I’m only wearing socks around the house then wearing simple shoes when going out those need to be easily accessed as well. That will leave a lot of items in my maybe pile. Fingers crossed that since the flow of holiday delivery trucks has now stopped (I’m sure my neighbors are happy about this) that I can really thin all unwanted items and give them to someone that may need them.
Early on last year I did some organizing but couldn’t find anywhere to take stuff. But now many places are accepting donations again. Here are a few:
Habitat For Humanity, Women’s shelters by area, Hope Thrift
I would love to hear about your methods for decluttering.