Cleaning out the Closets & Letting Go of "Stuff"

Over the past three years I've been trying to minimize our possessions. This is a hard thing to do with our family - my husband is a packrat, and my kids tend to be as well.
They all love their stuff.
I on the other hand, have always been someone who can let stuff go fairly easily - I don't get attached to your everyday items, because in all honesty, this stuff doesn't add value to my life.

So how do I go about cleaning out the house? It's a process that takes about a week, for me. I always start in the bedrooms, the living rooms, the bathrooms, and the kitchen/dining. [I am banned from the garage, unfortunately, so I can't clean that area out].

Bedrooms & Office:

-My office is in our bedroom, and consists of my computer, printer, desk, and 4 baskets.

I have a tupperware basket with 3 drawers that hold my printer paper, printer ink, pens, pencils, tape, staples, post-its, scissors, stamps, and envelopes. I go through my pens and pencils often, and donate them frequently to my kids for school. Another basket is full of important files where I keep documents that I access often [i.e. tax info, EOB's, paystubs, Benefits, and a folder each for the kids, Joe, and myself. All other documents are kept in our filing cabinet in the garage - out of sight. [I need to purge that thing though]. The two other baskets on the desk are for my Nerdy Pumpkin bags and packaging materials, and the other one is for all of our electronic things [ipods, chargers, earphones, etc].

Magazines - Do you keep your annual subscriptions and have piles somewhere in a basket or a bookshelf? Yeah, that was me five years ago. Instead of keeping them and creating more areas for the dust bunnies to reproduce on - recycle them! If there's an article you liked, rip it out and scan it into your computer! Then get rid of it.
Mail - I go through mail immediately. I throw the ads in the recycling before they even enter the house, and statements I recycle the envelopes right away. The statements come to my desk, and are sorted accordingly. Most of them I will pay, and shred. All of my accounts are online and I download the statements quarterly. I have electronic folders in my documents that are labeled accordingly. Easy peasy.
Books - I am trying to reduce my book stack, but there are essentials I can't let go of. But the majority of my books are digital now, and it's so much easier whenever we have to move. Fiction books, read them, then donate them to a friend. Unless you're going to re-read something. In that case, consider going digital.
Electronics - Have you used in the past 3 months? Does it work still? If so, keep it. If not, get rid of it, there are a lot of places you can donate these to.
Kids artwork - I keep the good stuff! But I can't keep it all, that'd be crazy with my 3 kiddos. A lot of their everyday artwork I will scan or take a photo of it, and then I can remember it electronically. I can print it out in whatever size I want, and it will preserve the look of it. Don't feel guilty for throwing away some of it - really. I hope no one thinks I'm horrible for doing this. But if I kept every piece of school work or artwork from my kids, I'd be swimming in a pool of papers. RECYCLE!

For the bedrooms - I sort through all of my dresser drawers. Do I need 20 pairs of socks? No. I always maintain 10 pairs, when new ones are bought, the old ones are donated. Simple. Same with underwear and bras. 10 of each.

To help me figure out what clothes I should be donating, I turn all of my hangers around backwards. Then when I wear something, and go to return it to the closet, I turn the hanger around the correct way. After a month of doing this - whatever is not turned around, I donate. I also use the rule that if I haven't worn it in 6 months, it needs to go away. Same with shoes. I'm not a huge shoe hoarder though, so it's easy for me to let them go when they're not worn very often.

And I maintain that with my kids and have taught them the same rule of thumb - 10 of each. My kids typically outgrow clothes within months, so this cycle of in with the new and out with the old is very familiar to them. Same with toys - teach your kids to donate toys they no longer play with, or are broken. Oh, you're going to fix it? Have you fixed it yet? Chances are no, that toy will remain broken and shoved under their bed for the next 10 years unless you teach them otherwise. Also donating toys they're done with teaches them a valuable lesson to give to others. They don't need 50,000 Legos, or even 50 army men for that matter. Teach them how to conserve, not hoard.

Linen Closets - Sometimes we don't even know what is in the back of that closet, right? Maybe you should go find out. I'm guessing that none of us use more than one sheet set at a time - so why do we have so many sheet sets? Rule - have 2 sets of sheets per bed. You really don't need more than that!

We also keep our board games in the linen closet. The kids grow out of a lot of the games over time, and I have them help me sort through which ones to donate to their schools. Most of the time kids are really honest about what they use and don't use, and it's good to teach them to donate things that they're not using anymore to people who will use them, and possibly really need them.

Living Rooms:

-There's not much in these rooms that usually need purging. The only area that I de-cluttered last summer were the media bookcases. Hundreds of DVD's, and I felt like I needed to keep buying bookshelves the more DVD's we bought. Now they're all condensed into a CD carrying binder. And now that they're out of sight, we never buy new movies. I sold the bookcases and gave one away to my mom. Now I don't have shelves upon shelves of movies to stare at. There's one binder for PG-13 and under, and one binder for R, UR, and some PG-13's that we don't think the kids are old enough for yet.
Candles - A lot of people have so many candles in their homes - and half of them probably aren't used. Sell them, or give them away. If you haven't lit that candle in over a year, you never will, and you don't need it.
Decorative trinkets - you either bought it, or someone gave it to you. I liked these things - but I couldn't tell if I any of them added value to my life. So I packed them into a box and put them in the garage for a month. The month went by, and I didn't miss anything. I left them in the box for a couple more months. Eventually I brought back out 2 of those decorative items out of 14. Wow! That was eye-opening for me. So now when I feel the urge to buy that cute porcelain panda candlestick thing at Pier1 - I really analyze and question myself before spending the money on it. 9 times out of 10 I walk out empty handed and feel great when I do!!


Bathrooms:

Medicine cabinets - check all the expiration dates and get rid of the old. If you're not sure what it is, get rid of it. I fill pill bottles up with coffee grounds, duct tape the lid on, and throw in the garbage. Most local pharmacies will take them for you, some won't. Don't ever dump medicine in the sink or toilet.
Nail polish - test each one, after awhile, they get goopy and gross and you just need to discard it. Donate colors you no longer wear to your local Girl Scouts chapter!
Makeup products - if you haven't used it in 6 months, give it away, donate, or throw away...don't hold on to stuff like that, it creates clutter and clutter creates stress and stress creates premature aging. Maybe then you won't need those 6 different bottles of anti-wrinkle cream that you've used once each.
Lotion, Misc. products - same as the makeup, toss it if you haven't used it in more than 6 months. Even 6 months is a long time for hygiene products...but ultimately just remember, if you really aren't using it but you're keeping it because paid too much for it or you think you "might need it someday," then that's not a good reason to keep it. Let go of the idea that you'll be wasting money if you get rid of it - you wasted the money on it the day you bought it, and I'm sure that day is long gone! Just don't do it again. When you go to buy a random product, ask yourself if you really need it. Chances are you don't.
Don't "stock up" on products. {Tp is fine, that's an essential that doesn't expire.} But hygiene products I don't like to back stock because they do go bad over time.

Kitchen & Dining:

Utensil drawers/crocks - Do you have 500 different kitchen gadgets? Cool. Do you use them all? To find out, put them all in a box. When you need something, use it. Then replace it into the kitchen drawer. At the end of a month, whatever is left in that box you most likely do not need. Donate it. Sell it, whatever you want - but if you don't use it, there is no sense in keeping it.

Coffee Mugs - I used to have more than 40. We all get coffee mugs as gifts or we buy for ourselves. They take up so much space, and I'm guessing there's only one or two that are your go-to coffee cups. I now have 12. That seems like a lot to me, but I had to justify it because when we have friends over, many times we offer coffee, and I'm not serving it in hot pink plastic kid cups. So 12 it is.

Sentimental items - This is tough for me, but I'm learning to let go of these things. They may be sentimental to me, but I don't use them. For instance, my grandmother's wedding china. It's beautiful, but it just sits in my wine cabinet collecting dust. My sister will use this set, and display it beautifully in her china hutch. It's hard to let go of these things, but part of letting go is learning how to be less selfish in holding on to those items. Sharing and blessing others with those items is better than keeping them all to myself. I can take photos of them, or even keep a couple pieces to remind me of my grandma. But I don't need the set because I don't use it for it's intended purpose.

I have a dish setting for 24 people. It was a lot at once, but since the kids do dishes as a chore, I've lost quite a few out of this set from them accidentally breaking. Oh well.

Go through every kitchen cabinet - Do you need 8 crystal serving plates for each season? I don't. Maybe you do, but most people get these types of things for gifts and then shove them in the back of their cabinet and never see them again. I have a kitchen cabinet that I used to call Narnia. Because things would disappear back in that cabinet. I cleaned it out on Friday, and now Narnia is empty!

Pans - When was the last time you made mini donuts or a bundt cake?! Me? Never, but I had a pan for each. I have them to a friend, and I'm sure if I ever needed to use one of them, she'd let me borrow it. Baking pans and dishes that you don't use are great "swap" items. Maybe you have a friend who has cupcake pans that she doesn't use, but she makes bundt cakes every weekend? Trade! If not, donate them to a local culinary school, high school for home-ec, or goodwill.

Vases - we all have so many of these, and most of them probably don't have any special value. Donate them to a florist shop or goodwill. Keep 2. You don't need more than that, unless you literally have a vase of flowers in every room - in which case, stop reading, this post is not for you.


I feel like Pete and Repeat here. Do you see the pattern?
If you don't use it, give it to someone who will.
If you haven't used it in 6 months, you don't need it.

Know the difference between needing something vs. wanting it because it will look cute and you like it in that moment. Will you like it in 5 years? 20? Is it really worth the money you'll be spending on it? Is it a timeless piece, or something trendy right now? 


Benefits of decluttering your things:

-Less to clean. You don't have to dust all of this stuff and you can spend that time with your family doing something else.
-Analyzing what you need before you buy - after this process, you'll be more likely not to buy that cute decorative item at Target that will just sit on your mantle and collect dirt.
-You will save money. Instead of buying that cute trinket, put that $15 into your savings. Everytime you go to buy something that you just don't need, put the price of that item into savings. It adds up quick! Maybe even enough for a nice family vacation? The benefits can be great!
-You'll learn the difference between want vs. need.
-Living in a clutter free environment reduces stress and anxiety.

I am more than my stuff. My memories are within me, not in the things I possess. Things that are sentimental to me, are useful for someone else. My stuff does not weigh me down or hold me back. 

These websites below are all resources I visit a few times a year, to help me let go of all that stuff. All of the tips and rules above were derived somewhere from these articles, and I try to live by them daily.

Sources:

10 Ways to Let Go of Your Stuff

18 Things You Can Get Rid of Today

10 Creative Ways to De-clutter Your Home - Becoming Minimalist

Letting Go of Sentimental Items - The Minimalists

40 Ways to Let Go and Feel Less Pain - Tiny Buddha