How Decluttering Made Me a Braver Writer

By Stacey Manganelli

I probably didn’t look like someone who needed to declutter (before having kids). I wasn’t a hoarder, I told myself. I had no problem regularly throwing things away or donating them.

But the self-deception ran deep. Every few years I donated massive quantities of possessions—books read once, clothes worn once (or not at all), art and craft projects abandoned halfway through—only for them to creep back in. I was hoarding, just with bouts of purging thrown in.

My o...