You are reading Part 4 of the 7-part series on How to Skilfully Declutter Your Home Once and for All. If you are new to this series, then you may find it helpful to start from Part 1.
“I keep my room messy so that if someone tries to kill me, they’ll trip over something and die.”
This is what my friend Laura said to me. On several occasions, she and I talked about my experiments with Need-Centric Organisation. Considering the benefits of this trial, she asked me if I could help her tidy up her house. Now as you can imagine, as a caring friend, my response was…absolutely not!
I couldn’t compromise her security, could I? Not with a massive killer on the lose!
Kidding. I said I’d help her.
In fact, that moment became an inspiration for me to write this entire article series. I wanted to help you and others through this method.
In the previous article, we looked at the first stage of this strategy: Elicit. We considered how to derive a list of needs based on your goals. We also established that ignoring this step will trap you into perpetuating clutter. Regardless of how much time you spend cleaning your home, like spam emails the mess will keep coming back.
But what do we do once we have made our list of needs? For the answer, let’s look at the second stage of the strategy.
Stage 2: Eliminate
This is where the fun begins.
This whole new approach will enable you to remove clutter systematically, saving you plenty of time that’s eaten by the usual cleaning rounds.
1. Sort Items
Start by gathering all the stuff inside a target area in one place. For instance, if you’re decluttering a wardrobe, take out all the clothes—in and outside of the closet—and put them on the floor. The floor offers you plenty of space that you’ll need later as you begin the sorting process.
Then, picking up one item at a time sort them into the following three piles:
Pile A: Essentials
This heap should contain only those items that are part of the list of needs you created in the previous stage.
Say your list has “Trousers – 2 pieces” and you manage to find those two trousers. Put a tick against that list item after placing those trousers in this pile.
In most scenarios, this mound should contain a maximum of 10% of all the things that you’re reviewing. If that’s not the case, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. The high number of objects in this pile suggests that your list of needs has more items than necessary. Go through the refinement exercise and reduce those items further.
Pile B: Inessentials
All the optional things you can’t let go of go in here.
Whether it’s “I can’t bear to let go of this teddy ‘cos Uncle Bob gave it to me!”, or “I paid $300 for this pen so I ain’t giving it away!”, or “I don’t need these clothes now, but I’ll need them later in winter!”
Basically, anything that has a monetary or sentimental value attached to it, or anything that you think you’ll need later goes into this heap. Remember though that this pile should only make up about 10% of all the items.
Pile C: Clutter
Everything else left goes in here.
Typically, this heap should make up about 80% of the total stuff that’s under review. If that’s not the case then consider moving more items from Pile B into this mound.
Pose yourself questions such as “Have I used this item in the last six months?”. If the answer is no, then see if you can put that item in this heap. Be ruthless. And I mean ruthless.
2. Remove Clutter
Let’s say you’re done with this rigorous step of categorising all your stuff into the three piles. The next thing to do is to get rid of Pile C (Clutter) completely.
You can either sell those items, give them away, or chuck them in a bin. Follow your heart, by all means, but make sure they’re gone as soon as possible.
You sorted items and removed clutter. And with that, we’ve completed this entire stage!
As you begin this process, you may find it challenging to renounce those items that have either monetary or sentimental value attached to them. Do we have any tools to overcome those challenges? Yes.
Mind Management
As you go through the process of elimination, your mind is going to play all sorts of games with you and it won’t let you carry out this exercise effectively. So, like a skilful advocate, you want to go equipped with some tools.
Imagine yourself in court against your other self AKA The-Unhelpful-Chatter-of-Your-Mind. Let’s call this other self: Ari.
You are the proponent of minimalism as you want to create a clutter-free space. Your objective is to win arguments that Ari creates as she gives all sorts of reasons to keep a firm grip on things.
If Ari says, “Oh, I paid so much money for this shirt. I can’t get rid of it.” then challenge her by asking: “How much would you pay for this used shirt if you were to buy it online or from a charity shop?”
This is an excellent way to help Ari diminish her bias. She’ll realise that the item in question doesn’t have as much value as she perceived.
Voila! Objection overruled.
But clever Ari is ready with an even stronger argument. She knows that emotions are your weak point. Listen to what she has to say this time: “I know I’d get peanuts for this shirt but it was left to me by Aunty Joan. I can’t get rid of it.” In those circumstances, have a compassionate chat with Ari.
Tell her, “Anything extrinsic can be damaged, stolen, or lost. And when that happens, it’ll hurt. The fact is, sooner or later you’ll have to let go of all your possessions anyway. Death robs us of them all.
So a better way is to reclaim those memories that are currently attached to the shirt, and put those precious pearls of recollections in the safe locker of your heart. That way no one can steal them from you. No one can damage them.”
Success! Case dismissed!
Take The Challenge
In this article, we considered how to remove clutter from your home objectively. By relentlessly letting go of the items that don’t serve you anymore, you not only make your home look spacious, but you also start to feel happier.
Tidy room, tidy mind.
This entire strategy will help you keep your home tidy for a longer time than anything else I know.
The next article will uncloak the last stage of the strategy. It’ll show you how to organise any area based on your needs. It’ll also describe why prioritising different segments of space is the best way to increase your efficiency.
Additionally, you will discover tools to help you make confident shopping decisions. If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to decide whether you should or shouldn’t buy an item, these tools will enable you to make faster and more reliable decisions.
In the meantime, are you ready to take on a little challenge? Select an area of your home that you wish to be tidier. Identify an item from that area that you haven’t used for a long time. Ensure that this object no longer serves your needs, but pick one that contains some emotional investment. You have a memory or monetary value attached to it.
Can you apply the mind management tools described above and remove that item? Can you do it today?