I’m in the process of moving apartments right now. We have tons of boxes laying around the house filled with things we don’t use frequently but are still taking with us (pots and pans, for example). In order to reduce all of the things in the boxes I’ve been making the rounds and asking myself three things:
- Have I used this in the past month? Three months? Ever?
- Could someone else benefit from this since I don’t?
- Do I own anything similar or can I do the same thing or get the same results with something more affordable?
Answering these questions really helps me decide on what to keep and what to throw away or donate. It sounds easy to do, this practice of “just throw away everything!” but it’s really hard when you think about the money you spent, the many times you told yourself you should have used it and never did, etc. And this becomes a lot worse when your mind tries to trick you into keeping things you never use. You start thinking:
“But what if I really want to make *insert random meal* and I need *obscure cooking utensil*?”
“Everyone needs a cheese knife! At least, that’s what my sister says. And she buys lots of cheese.”
“I can definitely get some use out of this empty shoebox.” (Except not really.)
Before, I would give in to these thoughts as well as others and sometimes I would give in too easily. It’s different now. Now I’m forced to make a decision because not only am I moving and don’t want to carry more than I have to, but I’m also trying to slowly transition into a more minimalist lifestyle. And we all know that the goal is to own less which means I have to do a lot of decluttering. A lot.
I make the rounds every other day or so and every time something else leaves a box. And every time it gets easier and easier to just let go. I’m confident that we’ll end up taking all of the necessary essentials and only those to our new apartment, and we’ll be a lot happier because of it.
Life, Decluttered. 
I think this is the toughest part of decluttering. I’ve slowly become a declutterer/minimalist over the past year and my biggest obstacle has been overcoming the “what if” question.
Great blog, just subscribed!
Thank you! It’s a process, but it can be done!
I really, really, REALLY want to declutter and live on less (like I do in my dorm room), and my mom and I are in the process of throwing out things from years ago (she still has my workbooks from first grade!), but it hasn’t been easy to reverse the effects of hoarding. At the same time, though, it’s so hard to throw a bunch of things away, knowing that all you’re doing is creating more waste.
Do you read mnmlist.com by any chance?
It really isn’t easy. I still have stuff in my parent’s house that needs to be thrown away asap. In the year that I’ve lived away I’ve never gone back for anything! So it’s pretty clear that I can do without it completely.
I started reading minmlist.com a week ago, actually!
My mom does the shoebox thing. There are 7 of them stacked in the hallway! I know exactly how you feel, though… I’m a total hoarder. Random craft kits from high/middle school I never finished using, all my notes and materials from the last two years of college, brochures and magazines that have some nice design work that I “might” (aka never) use for inspiration, and way too many mementos of things that I never look at.
I finally sorted through my wardrobe, though, and it feels good to finally have cleaned something!
It’s a start!