Cleaning closets... I feel guilty that I bought all these things and some I've never or hardly worn and now I'm selling them for pennies or giving them to good will. I buy things hoping I will look better but it's really the weight that I need to lose that I need to fix, not the clothes.

I moved. LOL. But seriously, we have downsized and I was lucky enough to be able to move the things I wanted, the things I love, the things I USE to this new house and there is no clutter, no jammed full drawers or closets and it is wonderful. The hard part is now going back to the old house and going through what is left and deciding what to do with it. And not giving into the urge to keep bringing more and more of it here. I have been fine here without all that stuff and if it could just disappear, most of it I would never miss. But it is emotional going through it all and I feel guilty letting go of a lot of it. It's a process, but one that needs to get done and quick so we can sell that other house.

I have done baby steps decluttering almost every day, and it makes a huge difference. As a recovering perfectionist, the only way I can do this is to have the philosophy of a journey of a thousand miles starting with a single step, every day. It sounds so simple, but why isn't it? I get overwhelmed with huge ongoing projects that involve lots of layers of choices, emotions, and time commitment, and I get paralyzed and do nothing. The baby step thing is working for me.

Wow.. what a question! This is where I am at presently. Downsizing I call it now not decluttering as my husband and I argue when he says "clutter" and says it is all my stuff and not much of his.
I do not know where to start as I have to do all by myself and there seems not to have much time with Laundry, Dishes and Cooking, Paying Bills and paper work. I so want to get into the boxes, the closets and filing cabinet of papers but I'm so tired just from the regular duties I mentioned. The difficult part is letting go of my parents and brothers items and pictures of my childhood and other family members. Plan to give to their siblings but never get the time to sit down and look and sort them. Well, I guess I have said enough on this. Sorry for going on and on and on....

I have been MIA for about a month or so and I came back yesterday and am here again today so it looks like I am ready to see the familiar names (which are my SYD friends again). There is not a lot of conversation threads going on right now but I did find this declutter one. It tweaked my interest because it has been such a heavy existence in my life. Many many years ago I had an issue with material and craft supplies and thrift store clothing. I was the next best thing to a hoarder. Most of the time they were contained in boxes and not in a complete dissaray (and books, so many books) but I can say the stashes were bigger than me.

It all started to change when I went to library school. I learned that everything has a place and everything has a time limit. So profound for me! To this day, I am affected by what I have learned. Basically, it goes like this. You pick what you want to downsize, weed, get rid of, organize, sort through, decide what you want, keep get rid of and you set perameters around your decision. You decide this before you start. It does not matter what it is. Paperwork, clothes, books, videos, cd's, newspapers, toys, clothes, tools, anything....

Then you give your decision rules. Not too many to start but very definite rules. For books: keep everything from 2015 (your date) onward. It depends on your collection. If you have 500 books (most hoarders of books have a lot of books... you would probably go with a date closer to present. And you round it off so its easy to look, discard move on. They suggested a 5 or 10 year period. Your rule has a 4 point exception. 1/ Is it part of a collection that you are not ready to consider breaking up or giving up. 2/ Is it something that is of great sentimental value to you (grandma gave you this book when you graduated from little school to big school and you hug it when you come across it) lol. 3/ Is it part of a reference collection that you still feel that it needs to remain in your library. 4/ You have not read it yet and you truly feel that out of your 1000 books its one that you will truly make an effort to read. Your interest in reading it is still there. The last one is a tricky one. Because I love the collection of books and reading it is not really my trigger. Finally, if you have a bookcase that needs to filled. You can decide to keep weeding until the bookcase is full and you make that your one and only rule. I did all the steps until I got to the size component. If I do everything else it becomes easier when you are down to the amount of space you have because you "systematically" downsided with steps that makes sense to the person inside that struggles to let go. Also, have a plan for the discards. Keep it simple and find a place that can take what you are giving asap.

Clothes.... Pick a size: Current and one size above and below. See what room you have and then follow all the steps above but use size as your rule. This really works! Your sentimental will cover that favorite "I don't want to get rid off" and that's ok for the first round. I kept three pieces of goal reaching clothes.

Paperwork.... we had to learn our to do a quick purge. Get a garbage bag and you go through whatever your "pile" means to you. You have about 10 seconds per item to decide if its informational. If it is, and its not relevant - garbage. No feelings. Then follow all the same things as the first part. What is your timeframe and must keeps. Make your rules... and then go!

lol.... sorry. If none of this matters or makes sense its all good. But I had to downsize 4 houses to one very small one over the past 15 months and it was so hard even with all the knowledge that I had under my belt. I grieved my houses (I was in the accommodations business) and all my stuff but its coming. i lived in all of them at different times so the houses all contained lots of me and my stuff! It got so hard that I had to stop for a little while. It was all too much for me but I am doing another round now. We accumulate and then we let go - it feels like I got lost around my stuff and the less that is around me now, the more I can be seen. Something like my weight I think. I am at 40lbs lost and have another 40 to go but its the same idea. I can eat and eat and eat everything I want or I can set rules and select a few things that I like and keep my body from all that extra weight ... clutter. Wouldn't be sweet if you could keep a perfectly pristine body and house...and life... Probably it would be boring because we would never have to dig deep to see what we truly are made of and realize that we are not the stuff that we compile and we are not the fat that we store. We are just people trying to survive this thing called life..... Sorry for the really long post. I should copy and blog because I went on a tangent but if it helps anyone I guess it might be worth reading. It sure helped me talong the way! We can all declutter! A drawer, a closet, a house and ourselves! We got this.

Anna, yes it was long However, I read and it was very helpful to me. Things I did not know before you shared and I took note of. Being 73 and somewhat handicap in both feet, I find it can be more difficult when it comes to getting boxes down so have to wait on hubby on the week end. Still, the paper work from files I could do and even clothes (mine at least). I thank you for sharing this info here. Biggest issue is my parents and my brothers' items I was given. Some already have gone out but still have a few left. Emotions can be high then. Again I thank you for sharing.