Living out of a backpack has afforded me many advantages. One of the main ones it that I do not have to worry about keeping my house organized and clutter free.
Since I don’t have a home, how can I give advice on how to declutter a room? Easy, I’ve done it many times before.
The last time was with my mother. I like to think of my mom as an elegant hoarder. She has some really great pieces, she just has too many of them. Her house looks like an antique consignment store. Every wall has paintings in gilded frames, every square foot of floor space has a piece of furniture from some different part of the world.
I love her, but she drives me crazy. She thinks that I am crazy for living out of a backpack and, I'm sure, she wonders about my mental health.
Anyway, I was at her house a year ago and she wanted to declutter that place. She had read a book on minimalism in an effort to understand exactly what the hell I was up to. Now she wanted to give it a try. On a trial basis.
We started with one small room. It was just off the living room and at one time it was going to be her office. That didn’t happen. Across one whole wall was a shrunk from Germany that held dinnerware that was never used, it was too nice. There was a loveseat, a mahogany chair, end tables, a coffee table and some other things I can’t remember. There was also a small desk shoved into the corner where she would sit and try to work.
I told her we could get this done quickly but she had to be honest. She assured me that she would be. I told her that we could get everything cleared out in two steps. Each step was one question that she had to answer, honestly, and we would do them for each item in the room.
She rolled her eyes and I just knew she thought I was crazy. I probably am, but that is beside the point.
The first question that you need to ask is this:
Do I Need This?
This is probably the most difficult question to answer. Of course you need it. Why would you have it if you didn’t need it?
Too often, we get needs and wants confused. Every ad on TV is trying to convince you that you really need their product. But really, do you actually need a Diet Coke or a device that cooks bacon in the microwave. Probably no. You may want those, but you don’t need them.
In my mom’s case, she realized that it had been a few months since she actually stepped foot in that room. We got rid of a few books and two small paintings right away. Everything else was a struggle.
The shrunk was not going anywhere. She loved that thing and it was far too heavy to move.
An ottoman was soon gone and the desk she rarely used followed soon after. Once she realized that she had a desk in the living room that she used every day, there was no need for the other desk.
But just because you don’t need an item doesn’t mean that it has to go. There was a Tiffany-style lamp that she didn’t need because she rarely went in there, but she wanted to keep it because it looked nice.
Which brings us to the second question.
Why Do I Have This?
This question goes to your intentions for owning a particular item. For my mother, she wanted the lamp because it was pretty. She enjoyed looking at it and could appreciate the effort it took to make it.
Clothing is another area where we hold onto things we no longer use. Maybe if we lose some weight we can wear them again. It would probably be easier to donate the clothes, lose the weight, and buy new ones as a reward.
We have a lot of emotional attachment to things, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Once you figure out exactly why you have an item, you will be on the road to getting rid of it if you don’t have a good reason to keep it.
These two questions are just the start. You do not have to declutter your whole house in one session. It could take days, weeks, or even months to get your home decluttered. The point is to get started. Take your time and before you know it you will have less clutter and more happiness.
Just get started.