This One Question Helped Me Declutter 3 Huge Bags of Closet Clutter
When The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up took the world by storm, I too subscribed to that now-famous method of getting rid of excess by asking if an item sparks joy. The question is still effective, as it reaches down to your gut reaction to your possessions and allows you to act on those feelings. For many, getting rid of everything that didn’t spark joy transformed not only spaces, but also lives. For many others, it became one weapon in the arsenal of the war against clutter.
But what happens when too many things spark joy or the strategy loses its edge? Lately, I’ve found that turning the question on its head can be an even more effective strategy. Rather than looking for a reason to keep something, focusing on the cost of holding onto it can be wildly more powerful when you’re in a decluttering rut.
It’s something I learned from this Instagram Reel by Tessa Hughes (@spatialawareness____). In the caption, Hughes says, “Instead of asking yourself ‘does this spark joy?’ or even ‘do I love it?’ try asking, ‘do I want the job of managing this item?’”
She points out that every item you have is a “job” that “requires maintenance, management, organization, upkeep, etc.” Embracing this perspective when going through things makes keeping something the exception rather than the rule. And if you’re serious about decluttering, that’s what you need.
I tested this recently with the toy closet in our bonus room. It’s full of games and activities for my kids who range in age from 5 to 15, and it’s such a tricky spot to deal with. I always think they’ll “rediscover” something they haven’t played with in a while or find myself unable to get rid of something for sentimental reasons. Things get mixed up, shoved in the wrong place, or have broken or missing pieces that may or may not be somewhere in the mess. These are all roadblocks for me when trying to thin out what to keep in there.
When the space is overstuffed and disorganized, it’s overwhelming for me and my kids to the point where they don’t even go to the toy closet to choose things to do. Now that summer’s here, this has become even more obvious, and, honestly, a problem. What good is a toy/activity closet full of unused items? It was time to go through it.
Armed with my new question (do I want the job of managing this item?), I got to work. With my kids’ help, I emptied the entire closet and categorized items (games in one pile, activities in another, puzzles in another, etc.). At this point, we decided what to keep, donate, or toss. Some items it was clear we’d outgrown or never used.
The usefulness of my new question came into play with items that would have derailed my decluttering efforts in the past — specifically items that were either nostalgic or broken. It was so hard to get rid of these because they were attached to memories or I felt it was wasteful not to fix them. However, it’s exactly this kind of clutter that represents undone tasks or storage needs that drags me down the most.
As Hughes says in her post, they constitute actual work. The real question is whether they’re important enough to dedicate my time and energy to. Invariably, in this decluttering session, the answer was no.
Toys that we couldn’t play with because pieces were missing got tossed. I’d rather spend my time playing with the kids using functional games we already have than trying to fix, find, or replace pieces for games or activities that have already done nothing but take up space. Additionally, I let go of some sentimental games that the kids have outgrown because I was honest about the space, effort, and time it would take to keep these games, and for what? So I took a couple of pictures and donated them. I also tossed duplicate items.
In all, I got rid of two large garbage bags and a box full of donations. Best of all, as early as the afternoon of the day we cleaned it out, my kids started pulling out games and toys they hadn’t played with in months!
Although I’ve reorganized the toy closet multiple times, cutting through the reasons I had to keep too much is what made the difference in how this closet served our family. Asking “Do I want the job of managing this item?” helped me get rid of items that I’d kept through too many iterations of closet reorganizations and brought us to a place where the closet is full of only things that will get used in their present condition in our current life.