Minimalism: Decluttering

I know, I just did Marie Kondo’s tidying up plan in April, but guess what? I still have way too much crap. I figured I was doing fine because all of my t-shirts fit in a drawer. But that drawer was jam-packed and I still only wore about 5 of those shirts. So I took to my clothes again and reduced them to 3 drawers and ¼ of my closet space. I flipped all my hangers around and as I wear clothes, I will hang them back up regularly. So in a few months, I may declutter some more once I assess what I actually wear. Otherwise, everything I have now is one of my favorite outfits.

Next I went to the bathroom and organized all of my makeup, hair, and jewelry into one drawer. I was pretty much a minimalist in those areas already, so this was easy. What wasn’t easy was all of my excess items “just in case.” I have several bottles of lotion, body wash, perfume, etc. all collected from Christmases past. I couldn’t bring myself to throw away these things because I know I will use them, but I did let my family and friends know not to buy me anymore of these products in Christmases future. So one day I will catch up and then I will only have exactly what I need.

Colton had to help me with the next one because it was hard: movies and video games. I decided to cycle the GameCube and NES back to my siblings since we hardly played them anyway. That left us with just 4 consoles, see we’re such minimalists! ;P Colton went through our physical copies of games and got rid of duplicates and ones he doesn’t play anymore. Most of them are digital anyway. As for movies, they only stayed if they were one of our favorite movies that we would definitely watch again. With the availability of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, it is not so necessary to own physical copies of DVDs. But we kept our favorites just in case, and for the special features, of course.

Our lease for this apartment is up December 1, so I had a good idea to help us ease into this whole minimalism thing. We have a little storage unit on our patio and it irks me so much that we have it full of crap. So I decided I would bring everything that was in storage inside. We would assess what we really need and keep it in the apartment. With the new space from decluttering, it shouldn’t be an issue. Anything we feel we don’t need will go out to storage. This gives us a fail safe. If we happen to need an item we “got rid of,” it’s right outside in storage. If we don’t go looking for it before December 1, come moving time, it goes to donation. Of course, there are a few exceptions like my hope chest that we simply don’t have space for in this apartment that has to be in storage for now, but I cleaned out my arts caddy, a few boxes of books, and some decorations we had out there. Now the things we truly value are easily accessible and the things we don’t need are out of sight and mind. 

One thing we’ll need to remember going forward, especially if we happen to move to a bigger place in December, is not to fill up our space with things we don’t need. Our current possessions still feel cramped in this small apartment, so if we get a bigger one, we can just spread these out more tidily instead of buying more junk. Many minimalists have a one in, one out rule where if they buy something new, they have to get rid of something they have. They also have a 20/20 rule for just in case items where if you can buy something in under 20 minutes for under $20, then you don’t need it in your house. I’m hoping we can continue this decluttering journey forever so our homes feel full of love, joy, and peace instead of stuff we don’t need.