Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff

by Dana K. White

I’ve consciously decided to view my home as a place to live instead of a place to store all my great ideas and their attached stuff.

Letting go of my own excuses was harder than getting up and decluttering.

Decluttering is stuff you don’t need leaving your house.

I define clutter as anything I can’t keep under control. If a space in my home consistently gets out of control, I have too much stuff in that space. I have clutter.

I accepted that people with homes that are consistently under control prefer living with regret over living with clutter. I want to be one of those people.

Accept the limitations of the space you have, and declutter enough that your stuff fits comfortably in that space.

So the point of decluttering isn’t to get rid of things you want to keep; it’s to identify those things and then to make space to enjoy those things.

Decluttering Question #1: If I needed this item, where would I look for it first? Take it there right now. The key word is would, which is a question of instinct. No pondering or thinking or analyzing needed. The second part of question #1 is ridiculously important. Take it, right now, to the place where you’d look first.

Decluttering Question #2: If I needed this item, would it ever occur to me that I already had one? This needn’t be asked if question #1 has an answer. If there is no answer to question #1, it’s likely because I wouldn’t look for it because I didn’t even know I had it. If the answer to this question is no, I stick it in the Donate Box.

The container decides how much you can keep. You decide what you keep.

I’m committed to living for now—for the situation and life stage I am in.