This summer has been full of travel, with everything we needed tucked neatly into a carry on sized suitcase. It's been a great reminder that when you're surrounded by people you love and beautiful places, you don't need that much stuff. Now that we're home, we want to bring some of that freedom with us so we're lightening the load.
After all that travel, home feels like its just full of stuff so we're embracing some of that easy breezy summer travel attitude at home by asking ourselves some key questions:
1. Do You Need the Book? We started reading books on the kindle for iPhone and it's changing our whole approach to book buying. Not only are we not accruing physical books, but when a great book is recommended to us, we can download it immediately--very satisfying. Of course that doesn't help us with the books we've already got. But to thin them out we consider: if we had to move, would we bring them? And: in 10 years will I remember this book? If it's a yes then it's worth it. If no, it gets donated to a friend or a library.
2. Do You Love It? It's easy to feel you ought to hang onto something, but the real question is, do you love the thing, does it make you feel good, or do you use it? Does it bring something positive to your life?
3. Do You Wear It?. Now that summer is winding to a close, it's easy to see what we've been wearing all the time and what has remained untouched. There are certain dresses and skirts that we've simply outgrown. Maybe last year they were our go-to, but it's ok to let them go if it's been a couple of summers and they're still on the hanger. This is a great time to take stock as fall is upon us.
4. Does It Help You Work? With a new season, we need to clean out our desk and lighten the piles that have accumulated. Following these 4 steps for decluttering your desk we're starting with the piles and asking ourselves what is really necessary on the desktop for working? Are their things pinned to the bulletin board that are old and outdated?
5. Would You Pack It? If you were leaving on a trip tomorrow, what would you take with you? What do you presently use? Not last year or two months ago, but right now? This helps keep us current with what we actually need.
Image: Laure Joliet)
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Purging is so therapeutic! My husband and I have mounds of stuff headed for Goodwill next weekend, and it feels great. I haven't been able to ditch the books, though, but every other category has slimmed down quite a bit.
It is motivating to see the space open up. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've taken more than 25 large boxes of stuff to goodwill, and its already hard to see the space I've cleared.
You've motivated me to attack the closet with clothes I might not have worn for 8 years. Having too much space (3900 sq ft) is a curse!
I meant to say the closet has lots of clothes, including some I haven't worn for 8 years.
Its easy to get motivated when I'm across the globe - I'm bookmarking this page to get my pumped up on this again.
Purging my desk this move has been wonderful- I cleaned and purged a desktop organizer which had become a clutter catcher where projects went to die. It felt so good to rescue what I needed, realize I'd completed others without benefit of "this essential paper" and just lighten up.
I am a habitual purger and it feels amazing, but never in a million years would I purge my books! A Kindle is definitely smaller and a much better option for say, traveling, but a book is an experience not just a thing.
We purge books a couple of times a year. As academics, we have a LOT of books, and many of them no longer serve their purpose. In addition, as we've moved through our lives, some books no longer hold interest for us. Don't get me wrong--we still have LOTS and LOTS of books, but passing along the ones we no longer need/want/use is surprisingly cathartic, once we got past the "we can never get rid of books" mindset. Of course, it helps that our local library holds twice a year book sales that help support the library. It is much easier to pass things on when they go to things you believe in.
You are actually telling people to get rid of their books?! Ugh, just lost all respect for you, Apartment Therapy. First of all, most people's homes are not cluttered because they own too many books. Secondly, you can't get most books on the Kindle. Third, what kind of anti-intellectual moron tells people to get rid of books completely? Paring down your collection is one thing. Eliminating "the book" from your house is idiotic.
Donating to charities is helpful. My guy's generosity allows him to overcome his habit of unthinkingly keeping things that have become useless and for which there's no room. If I'll never read a book again, then it's better to pass it to others who can enjoy it before the copy eventually is destroyed by time.
Calm down Invsgirl! This post wasn't saying to get rid of every book you own. It just recommends donating or giving away books you don't love. This post wasn't advocating running out and burning down libraries!
AT does this post all the time. Purge! Then buy more stuff! Purge!
Good advice here... I try to do a small purge at the end of each season. Right before summer I took 3 boxes of clothes to Salvation Army. And I see lots more in my closet that can go at the end of summer. I think starting, by itself, gives you the motivation to keep going!
Oh and #4 - their!? argh!! there, there, there. :) Thanks, rant done!
What am I, a nomadic hunter-gatherer? I already live in a 525sq ft Manhattan apartment, I don't need LESS STUFF, I need more room! And more leisure time to pursue the hobbies that the stuff belongs to.
Obv it's possibly I'm just not the audience for this kind of post, but on the whole I find the "decluttering" movement kind of irritating. And yeah, I don't want to buy a new Stuff Item to replace the old Stuff Item that I threw out last year when the original worked perfectly well.
Umm... guys?
Maybe it's not super-clear, but if you actually read the lead-up to this post, it's about packing for a trip.
Personally, I'm terrible at it - especially if I'm going somewhere with my mother. We're both crafters, so I'll bring multiple projects to work on while I'm gone... and then I won't get a bit of them done because I spend my days outside or inside, reading or napping.
Er...no? It's about how the freedom of traveling light has made the author want to live as lightly as if he or she were on a trip all the time, as far as I can tell from the 4 lines of copy? And the tags aren't for travel or packing either, they're "declutter," "organization," and "personal health."
That last one should tell you exactly what we really think about people who like their stuff -- that they're unhealthy, mentally and probably physically too, god knows, because all that bad energy and Not Letting Go is probably clogging their arteries right this second.
I'm just learning that I don't need every book that has ever passed through my hands. It's quite liberating really, but also hard to admit that I'm no longer 'the book girl' who has a million books. I am keeping the ones I love and going through them every so often so even that collection gets smaller.
Every single time I throw clothes away, there is always something I wish had to wear a month or two later. It's terrible. I refuse to throw clothes away now unless its ripped or really really ugly (like what was I thinking buying into that trend? kind of ugly)