5 Questions to Take the Guesswork Out of Decluttering

De-cluttering can be overwhelming time-consuming. While it’s true de-cluttering can take a lot of time, the results can be life-changing!  Before organizing your space, I like to talk about getting to Ground Zero.  This is the place where all the unnecessary, unwanted, and junk is gone and you are left with the things you love and need.  When you get here you will then be able to begin to organize your spaces. De-cluttering first is key!
You know you need to de-clutter your kitchen, office, spare room, or garage.  You keep looking at the space and walking by it, vowing to get started “tomorrow”.  Tomorrow comes and goes, as do weeks and months. Why haven’t you started? Why do you keep walking by, feeling overwhelmed, guilty, and frustrated?   It may be because you don’t know HOW to start to de-clutter that space. It’s easier to put it off, ignore it, and tell yourself that you will get to it later.  
Here are 5 questions I ask my clients.  Answering these questions will help you to gain clarity and decide if you need to keep the items or not.   Let’s get to it!

1.  Is this useful to me?  Is this something that we need in our home?  Does it serve a purpose, or is this something that I have used, but an not using anymore?  When you stop to think about it, we go through phases of life, and each phase has things that we have collected at that time, for a reason.  If you moved passed the season for the item, feel free to pass it on to someone else who may be ready to use it.
2. Do I have something else similar to this that I can use?  I love to use the example of wooden spoons in a kitchen.  How many do you really need?  Sometimes we collect similar items that can be used for the same purpose. For example pressure cooker, crockpot or slow cooker, instant pot, rice cooker.  These four small appliances take up storage space. When is the last time you have you all of them? A solution could be: keep the instant pot because it can be used as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, and rice cooker.  This is one example of streamlining appliances or tools that we have.  
3. Am I only keeping it because I spent money on it?  This can be a tough one.  Money is something that causes us to hold tightly onto things.  We can’t bear to let something go if we have spent a lot of money on it.  We ignore the fact that we don't use it, it doesn’t fit, it’s broken, we frankly don’t even like it.  But we are bound to keep the item because we spent money on it. I’m giving you permissions, actually, encouraging you to let go of these things!  If it’s not serving you and you won’t use it, why are you using valuable space in your home to store this item? Especially if you can’t even get a refund!  I encourage my clients to let go of the guilt, rehome the item, and chalk it up to a bad purchase decision. You know we have all made them! Toss the item, toss the guilt!
4. Am I only keeping this item out of obligation?  The gift, the treasure, the things that someone thought you just had to have!  Sentimental gifts are hard. Keeping something because you want to because you have warm feelings about the memory associated with the item.  I am all about saving things! Keeping something that you don’t want or need, because it was a gift is not necessary. Would that person really care if you kept it?  Can you send it on its way to bless someone else? Please lose the guilt of holding onto something out of obligation. This can fall under emotional manipulation. Don’t go there, make your choices, and keep it if you love it.
5. Am I saving this “Just In Case”?  This is one of my favorite questions to ask. I like to start with a) when is the last time you used it?  (good grief it its been years!) b) do you think Just In Case will be coming for a visit? c) do you know of someone else who has the same item that you could borrow if Just In Case comes to visit?   I also like to add, if you are an FB user and need something for a one time use, ask your friends, someone is bound to have it! 

If you are ready to de-clutter, I would love for you to join the July Weight Loss Challenge!  During this month, we are de-cluttering our homes, and tracking the weight of what we are de-cluttering.  I did this last year and our home lost 822# of STUFF!  Join us in the Organizing Your Chaos FB Group and download the free #JulyWeightLossChallenge Tracker to help you as you declutter your home!  I would love to know how much weight your home will lose :)

Let's Do It Together!