All of us have “stuff” that tends to clutter up our homes. It consists of things like our extensive collection of shoes, countless clothes, tons of paperwork, old CDs, DVDs, knick-knacks and other random things that accumulate over time. And for various reasons, we develop ties to those things that make a decluttering process, even one started with the best intentions, hard to complete effectively.
It can be difficult to decide whether to part with things that have emotional connections. It’s also normal, I see it on almost every decluttering project I undertake!
But for decluttering and then organization to transform your home – and your life – in the ways they should, some difficult decisions do have to be made.
Here, I’ve provided some advice below that I both use for myself and share with my clients to assist them in overcoming those obstacles.
Those Justifications…
Many of my customers will try to convince me right away as to why they should keep something that should perhaps be donated or discarded instead. Most often, it is a justification motivated by sentiment.
What I always say in response is, “If you have to justify maintaining it, you probably shouldn’t, so we should think about this.” There is a clear distinction between instinctively knowing that something is something you must keep and rapidly giving in to the sentimental reasoning that is keeping you from making a decision based on logic.
Sentimental reasoning like hanging on to things you had in college, and have good memories attached to them, even though you haven’t worn/used/seen them in years. These kinds of things can be hard to let go of, but they usually don’t have a place in your current home – and grown up life – so often it really is time to say goodbye.
One in and One Out
You most certainly have a fixed amount of habitable space unless you are outrageously wealthy and live in a huge mansion. And limited space can fill up fast. To help stop clutter before it even starts, one in, one out is a helpful rule to implement.
This ‘rule’ says that if you buy anything new, you must discard something else. For example, you should be prepared to give up something to make way for it if you must have that new set of pillows or a pair of shoes. Usually the old ones they should be replacing!
Talking Things Through
I strongly advocate talking to yourself as you organize. Never be hesitant to speak to each object you are sifting through, whether it be in your head or out loud.
As an illustration, let’s imagine that as you are sorting through your closet, you find a gift that you received at random but haven’t thought about in over a year. As in the year that has passed since you put it there.
Your excitement at having found it is often going to be the initial thought. But keep asking yourself things like, “How long was it hidden away?” Have you ever wondered where it is? Did not having it make your life considerably worse in any way? You can start to see and understand if you’re attempting to rationalize retaining it or whether it’s something you simply can’t live without when you start to ask yourself these questions.
Often people think that the biggest reason to hire a professional organizer to help them declutter their space is to have that extra pair of hands to help, or to have someone who has better ideas about how to organize what belongings remain after decluttering. And those are two excellent reasons to hire a professional organizer (like me.)
But we also serve as a sounding board, and the voice of calmer reason, when it comes to making all the inevitable keep/don’t keep decisions that derail so many decluttering and organization projects.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never rip something away from you and force you to part with it if you really don’t want to give it up, but I will help make sure that everything you hold onto (and we later organize) truly has a useful place in your home.
Going Digital
Old greetings cards. Ticket stubs. Letters. Random paperwork that you ‘might’ need one day. Paper clutter can rapidly pile up, and for many of us, it does. Many people have a problem with paper, but there are many solutions available to help us fight the overabundance of cards and paper keepsakes we have, and most of those solutions are digital.
For example, you can take pictures of the cards you don’t want to throw away and upload the images to your cloud storage account like Dropbox. There are also a ton of programs that can assist you uploading your children’s artwork, select the dates for archiving, and storing data about when it was created.
Most bills you pay can be paid online, and even if you are worried about saving things like receipts for the IRS, guess what? Uncle Sam has been fine with digital copies for years!
Ready to declutter and organize those spaces in your Houston home that are getting harder to look at – because they are so messy – but you just don’t know where to start? Start by booking a call with Just Organized by Taya. Let’s have a 15-minute Zoom chat about how we can help. Or, if you want to get started as soon as possible, book an appointment here, we can’t wait to help!
Working with Taya and her team is easy. You can book an appointment easily on her website, or contact her directly at 832-271-7608
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