I Tried the “1-in-10-out” Rule to Declutter, and It Was Harder than I Expected

If you’ve ever met me (or read some of my other closet decluttering stories), you’d probably know that I have way too many clothes. I love most of them, and others I keep around because they’re comfortable — even though they don’t “spark joy.”

Yesterday, as I spent another few long moments trying to decide what shirt to wear, I decided to try The Minimalists’ “1-in-10-out” rule. It’s a pretty simple decluttering trick: For every one thing you bring into your home, you have to get rid of 10 things you already have. I’d recently gotten a new shirt, so I decided to give this rule a try and get rid of 10 of my existing shirts.

The process was easy enough. Flip through all the shirts in my closet and pull out the ones I don’t want anymore. But that’s just the surface level. Once I got into the task, I discovered it was much more difficult than I anticipated. 

The first few shirts were fine. They were the ones I didn’t wear often or were given to me as promotional products. But then I had to make some tough choices. Do I keep the shirt my husband gave me but that I never wear? What about a shirt that doesn’t fit anymore but reminds me of my niece and nephews? Those decisions were hard to make, but eventually I had a pile of 10 shirts to donate. I wanted to keep going, but the sentimentality of a lot of my clothes kicked in at that point, and I had to stop.

When I finished, I was pretty underwhelmed with the results. Because I was just removing shirts, it didn’t free up that much space in the closet. I felt accomplished at having completed the task, but disappointed that I couldn’t physically see a bigger impact. If you want to have that level of satisfaction, I think this rule should be done with bulkier items, or even in a junk drawer.

With that in mind, I headed into my office to sort through my sticky notes and pads of paper. I’d recently bought two more to add to the pile, so I was excited to cull 20 pieces from my collection.

This time, following the rule was easy and fun. I had a ton of stuff I didn’t like because they were branded with places I’ve never been or they were a free giveaway at a doctor’s office — things along those lines. 

Once I powered through my first 10, I powered through another, and then I lost complete track of how many things I was getting rid of. I just kept going because I’d gotten the decluttering bug. And now, my paper collection is thankfully much reduced.

Watch out, candle collection: I’m coming for you next.