“Live less out of habit and more out of intent.”
When you declutter your home, you need to ask yourself the right questions to get to the essentials and live a more meaningful life. This is not about a certain number of items, but it’s about value. Used questions are: “Does this bring value to my life?” and I often use “Does this make me happy?”, or “Do I love this?”. But what if these questions don’t work for you when you declutter?
Don’t worry, I get that. Maybe you see your clothes as an item only and that they are far from anything that makes you happy, let alone loving. In this post, I will try to give to other tools and questions that you can use when you’re decluttering.
In my life, I’ve always been tidying up and organizing ever since I was small. And most of the techniques I share on this blog, come from trial and error over the years.
Does this bring value to my life?
90-90 rule
These are 2 ideas from The Minimalists that I have found super helpful.
The 90-90 rule: take an item, anything. And ask yourself this: have I used it in the last 90 days, and will I use it in the next 90 days? If the answer is no, you can chuck it. The nice thing about 90 days is that it basically covers a season and is, therefore, quite, a rational question. You can replace the number 90 by any other number if that works better for you.
Packing Party
Additionally, The Minimalists have a Packing Party approach, experienced by Ryan, and it links very much to an approach I use (I will talk about that approach later in this blog). You box up everything as if you’re moving, with everything labeled. And you only unpack the items you need. This was for Ryan the start of minimalism and a new lifestyle.
Does this make me happy?
Declutter questions
In my blog, I often use the question “Does this make me happy?”, which is equivalent to “Do I love this?”. Try both out and see which resonates best with you. Say it out loud – pick up some items that you wear a lot, and some that you wear less – do these questions work for you? Do you have the answer?
If so, great! Continue with decluttering your wardrobe. If it doesn’t, please continue reading… I have quite a few other questions lined up for you to use.
Do I need this?
The second question you can ask yourself is “Do I need this?” When you’re still a bit insecure about your reply, try these:
“Do I use this item on a regular basis?”
“Have I used it in the last year?”
“Have I used it over the past XX amount of months?”
The last question might be difficult to answer when you’re holding a wool jumper in the middle of summer. But if you didn’t wear it last winter, how likely is the chance that you will wear it in the coming winter?
Need more guidance
If none of the questions above work for you (that’s very possible, don’t worry), I have another way of working toward an answer.
Situation 1: All your clothes are in a huge pile on your bed. You’re making quite some process in decluttering. But there are a few items where you’re asking the above questions and you just don’t know.
Situation 2: You got quite far in the decluttering process – you were able to filter out all the items you love and/or need and you are very content about that. But then you also have this ‘maybe’ pile. Sweaty palms were involved; these items were not ready yet for a ‘NO-pile’.
‘What if’ or ‘Just in case’ are never a reason to keep your item around
Bag it or box it
The following is a technique, a kind of ‘out of sight, out of mind’, which I’ve used quite often when I started decluttering. This technique is similar to the Packing Party approach by The Minimalists. Give these garments some attention by folding it nicely and then get a bag or box where you can put these items.
Store this bag or box somewhere out of sight – may be on the top shelf of your closet, or close by the front door. The latter is my preference, as it’s away from the closet space and easier to get rid of, and less of a temptation to open. Set an amount of time, say 3 months before you donate it. There might be a time where you want an item from that box back in your closet. That is okay. For many times, I used this technique, I only had to do this once. When you take an item back, only get that item back and don’t look at the other items. Not looking at the other items might be the tricky part of this technique.
Recap & bonus declutter questions
We end this with a recap, and some bonus questions to get you to declutter.
Please remember: ‘What if’ or ‘Just in case’ are never a reason to keep your item around.
The main question is: Does this bring value to my life?
- Does this make me happy? or Do I love this?
- Have I used it in the last 90 days, and will I use it in the next 90 days? (The Minimalists)
- Do I need this?
- Do I use this item on a regular basis?
- Have I used it in the last year?
- Have I used it over the past XX amount of months?
Additional declutter questions
- How many of [XX item] do I really need? Do I have a similar item that serves the same purpose?
- If I were shopping right now, would I buy this?
- Is the only thing that’s keeping me from disposing of this item that I don’t want to waste money?
- Am I holding on to this for sentimental value?
- Does it fit me or my living space?
- Am I holding on to the broken item to fix it in the future? Will I ever fix it?
- What’s the worst that could happen if I get rid of this? What would I do in that situation?
- Could someone else use it more than me?
Which question or way of working resonates most with you?
Thank you for reading.
We’re in this together.
~
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