We accumulate and acquire a lot of possessions nowadays. Learning to let go of things and declutter our homes becomes a challenge. It can be tough to let go of things because of guilt or the emotional importance that we assign to things. Even little things, like a calendar that came in the mail, coupons that haven’t quite expired yet, pens and pencils that add to the heap, things that are still good, but that we don’t really need. It can make us feel wasteful and ashamed of getting rid of things that aren’t really needed if they’re still usable. This is where we need to set limits for ourselves.
Giving yourself a limit will help you to shift your focus. For instance, before you even count, decide how much space you have for ink pens. Find a container for them and then set a number limit for how many you are going to keep. Let’s say, 20 pens. That is plenty of pens and/or pencils to keep in the house. Even if you have ten family members that all want to write something at the same time and all ten people run out of ink at the same time, you’ll still have enough pens. So, once the limit is set, you can select your favorite twenty and donate the rest to a school or church.
Now, apply this principle to everything in your home. Let’s say that you accumulate magazines. I decided to set my limit to fifteen magazines in the house, which just about fill up one of those magazine-style office organizers. I keep my fifteen magazines there and donated the rest to my doctor’s office. When new magazines come in the mail, I have to decide if I’m going to keep it and replace one of the old ones, or sit, read it right now, and then put it in the recycling bin. If it’s a magazine from a company that is selling something, I immediately throw it in the recycling bin or call and ask them not to send any more. Anything in that magazine is also on their web site, so I really don’t need them in my home trying to get me to accumulate more stuff.
This brings me to the last part of how to declutter your home by getting rid of all the things you don’t need. The last part is about limiting what comes into the home in the first place! When I know that I have a limited space and a limited number of allowed objects in any one category, I have to decide when I’m out shopping if what I’m thinking about purchasing is an upgrade from one of the prized possessions I decided to keep at home. I find that I only buy things that are more useful or are of a higher quality than what I had to begin with. This helps me to buy less a lot less often and end up with less junk.
About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for velvet hangers which are space saving hangers, non slip hangers and slim line hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.
