After living in our home a little over three years and finally completing a huge DIY renovation project, we realized things were getting crowded. Household items we had "frugally" hung on to in our move went unused, and the way we used the rooms in our home had changed over time.
Many can't afford to move or sell a too-small house in the current economy. Find more space (and peace) in your home by living with less.
The footprint of our house is less than 800 square feet, including a home office that gets heavy daily use by both myself and my partner. Our master bedroom is in the bungalow upstairs, and last year we added a 12 x 22 living room (plus bath, storage and sauna) by finishing our basement. So at just over 1000 square feet of living space -- again, including a work-from-home office -- we don't have a lot of room for clutter, and our small space forces us to think smart about what we keep in it!
I know the fact that we don't have kids (and therefore kids' stuff/toys) made the process of decluttering much easier, but I hope these tips will benefit anyone -- including those overwhelmed by an avalanche of brightly colored plastic toys!
On to the basics:
- Look around your home with fresh eyes. Let yourself linger on the things you LOVE about it -- your favorite reading chair, children's artwork, that cute thrift store piece of junque. Imagine being a stranger and walking in, too... does it feel welcoming? calm? lived in but under control? What do you want to project -- and experience -- when you spend time in your own home?
- Pay attention to what works and how you use your space. Is your dining room really a home office these days, and can you embrace that? Do you need a formal queen anne dining set to seat 12, or does that no longer fit your life? Do you often host guests and need a place for them to sleep? Think about your home as a whole and how you use each room/space. Work toward setting things up in every room so they work for your REAL life, and only keep what fits with that.
- Come up with a plan and priorities. There's lots you COULD do, but pick one project to start. Do you want to clear out that spare bedroom to make it an office? Motivate yourself by imagining it as the office, seeing yourself working in there and the benefit it will have in your life... and then make a plan, break it down into steps. (Example: 1) call my sister for help sorting, 2) dedicate Saturday to bagging donations, 3) get Bob to put donations in his trunk and drop off).
- Sell, Sell, Sell... and give away, recycle, repurpose. I've sold over $3000 worth of items in the past year on Ebay, Craigslist, and Facebook. Those are things we had just sitting around our house, literally hundreds of things: from books at $5 to old laptops at $150. We're coming up on prime garage sale time of year, too (find out when your subdivision schedules it neighborhood wide to take advantage of extra traffic). What I couldn't sell I happily gave away, or put at the curb of my house well before trash day (sorry neighbors). Constantly asking myself "is keeping this worth feeling like I am living with too much stuff?". Things were always taken from the curb before they made it to the landfill, thank goodness. It might be hard to part with items for free, but focus on the benefits (peace of mind! not tripping over them!).
- Speaking of focus: keep refocusing your energy by imagining (reasonable) goals, and really ask yourself with every item: Do I use this? Have I touched it in a year? Would I use it say in a different room or could it be re-purposed? Could I sell it and make even a few dollars towards something I actually need/want? Could someone else in need really use this? Can I just let it go from my life and make room?
- Take concrete steps: put it by the curb TODAY. Put it in garbage bags and put them in the trunk now, and drop them off at the donation center while you are out. Post it on Ebay, Craigslist or Facebook now. Call your friends and invite them to come over and take from the pile.
- Let go: I left lots of things at the curb or on my porch. Many, many porchfuls of items I posted to Craiglist on the "honor" system (take what you want, leave what you can in the mailbox). I just wanted these things gone from my house/life, and useful to someone -- and if they left me $1, $5 in my mailbox I was happy. If they chose not to leave the money and took the items anyway, I was still better off!
- Be ruthless. I can't say it enough. WHY are you keeping that? Can you let go of the emotional attachment? I got rid of hundreds of things and I can't say I miss one of them, or wish I had them back. Take a risk and give it away, you probably won't miss it.
... For me, the most important aspects of this process were continually looking around with fresh eyes for clutter, and being really willing to let go of we didn't really use. Imagining things clutter-free, redesigned, redecorated to kept me motivated!
As a "treat" I got to hang a piece of art from the closet in a (newly clutter-free) place of honor, or buy one new piece of practical decor (only if needed!) for each room as they were cleared of unused things.
