Declutter

For a while now I’ve been feeling trapped by our stuff. We don’t have a lot of stuff, but we have too much stuff. If you ask anyone who knows us, they’d say, “You don’t have too much stuff!” and I’d reply, “Yes, yes we do.”

When we bought this house last year, we gained more than 600 square feet and a whole lot of garage space. We thought we’d be oozing with free space but instead we’ve managed to take up nearly all of it. We’ve not filled every space on the wall like a Cracker Barrel, but we aren’t as minimalist as I’d prefer. In fact, as I get older, I long for everything to be as simple as possible.

So when I saw this on Pinterest the other day, I thought it was a good nudge to get the balling rolling:

More reading and surfing brought me to this blog post about scaling down your closet, something I’ve done in spurts over the last year. This statement about boundaries accurately expresses exactly what I feel we need in every room of the house:

Boundaries force us to identify the difference between “really important” and only “somewhat important”  — just ask anyone who has ever been given a limited amount of time left to live.

From becomingminimalist.com

My dilemma is always the same: sentimentality. I’m very good at getting rid of what isn’t special to me, but I’m painfully reluctant to toss anything that is remotely nostalgic (hence the rubbermaid container full of childhood stuffed animals. Y’all know we can’t find the Wuzzles anymore, so how can I get rid of them?).

I am only moderately attached to things we have “just in case,” such as extra linens, extra winter coats, and extra sets of dishes. But is “extra” necessary? Or is “extra” just nice to have? Could someone else benefit from our “extra” stuff?

These are the questions of the day.

More and more I’m feeling the pull to sort through every room and designate what to keep, what to give away, and what to sell. Finding the ambition to tackle this project isn’t hard. Forcing myself to answer these ten questions honestly is another story.

What about you? What are your rules for keeping and tossing?