Why am I de-cluttering 2 Households and How do I make it easier?
- Jennifer Thomas
- Jan 16, 2018
- 2 min read
I recently heard a statistic from a professional organizer, Regina Lark, that floored me. The average American household contains over 300,000 items. 300,000 items. I'm sorry, I have to say it again...300,000 items.
This 300,000 item statistic has led me to begin a huge purge. We just purchased a shed so we have an appropriate place to store outside items, like shovels and rakes, because having shovels and rakes next to my clean clothes in the laundry room for 12 years has pushed my patience to the maximum.
Over the weekend, we (mostly my husband) went through one of the shelving units in the laundry room and purged two garbage bags worth of broken or expired items or items that are no longer useful to us. While he was working the laundry room, I went through four kitchen cabinets and purged one garbage bag full of legitimate trash, expired food or unmatched food storage containers. This is not even 1/8 of our house and we purged 3 garbage bags of stuff.
This is completely crazy. How did we get these things? Why do we still have broken items? Why did I never throw away the empty Swiffer box?
In Taming the Paper Tiger, Barbara Hemphill of the Productive Environment Institute, coined the phrase "Clutter is Postponed Decisions." Why are we postponing decisions? Holding on to things because we don't know what to do with them just creates a weight on your mind. Items that don't have a use, take energy from your home (that is paraphrasing Marie Kondo). I know I'm not the only one with these issues, or there wouldn't be 8000 self help organizing/de-cluttering books...right?
I get on these kicks. Over the summer, I purged our closets. It was freeing and inspiring and then I lost steam.
So why am I restarting now? It is the new year, the time when people typically get energized to get organized. So that is part of it. Also, the new shed is inspiring. It is like a clean slate and I don't want to move broken, old junk into it. And clearing stuff that belongs in a shed out of my house, is inspiring me to effectively use the space in my house and clear out things that I don't need.
Now, onto the 2 houses thing. My mother-in-law has difficulty with decision-making. I can't even begin to describe the postponed decisions there. So I am working on her house too.
On her podcast Happier, Gretchen Rubin discusses and warns against decision fatigue. She said that creating routines and rules protects you from decision fatigue.
So, when I come up against an item (at my house or at my mother-in-laws) that doesn't receive an instant keep or discard response. We have questions in place to help.
1. Do we use this item?
2. Is this item sentimental?
3. Does this item make us happy?
4. Will this item be more useful to someone else?
5. Is this item broken? Is it in disrepair?
These questions usually get to the heart of the issue.
Do you struggle with de-cluttering? Is decision fatigue a problem for you? Which books have you read that help you keep your house clutter free?
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