Even though I haven’t posted in awhile but I have certainly been busy!
A few weeks ago, I shared my plan to get rid of all of my accumulated crafting clutter to make room for the nursery. After getting waylaid by severe storms and then a sweet week at the beach, I am finally ready to report on my progress.
I did it!
I cleared everything. And not only that – I didn’t just find new spots for it; I am letting go of about 90% of it. Let me tell you – it was so hard letting go of things. Especially in the beginning. Every item I came to, I had a little conversation in my head. Something like, “Oh, this one could be so cool. I have the best idea of how to use it. No one would have the vision for it that I do.” Not exactly the way to get rid of stuff. In the beginning I had to refer to my list of questions A LOT to remind myself to let things go.
But after that, it started to get easier and easier. And I came up with some simple guidelines that really kept me on track.
- Remember why you decided to declutter in the first place. I had to get rid of stuff or my baby would be living in a room full of junk. You may have felt like you were drowning in stuff or perhaps your husband suddenly felt the desire to actually fit his car in the garage again. Whatever the reason, remind yourself of it often.
- Make three piles to help sort things – Keep, Sell/Donate, and Not Sure. I put things I was really not sure I could get rid of in their own pile. I tried to keep this pile really small but it actually helped me get rid of more stuff and move much faster. I put things in the pile for a day or two and more often than not, when I went back to reconsider, I realized I really didn’t need them.
- And finally – Use it or Lose it. This eventually became my mantra. When I came to something cool that I was having a hard time letting go, I asked myself if I would be using it in the next three months. If the answer was no – it had to go.
And I am so happy with the results. The only things in the room now are the crib (which my wonderful friends helped me put together) and some things in the closet that I am planning to use in the room.
I felt so good about letting so much stuff go, I just kept going. I cleaned out every cabinet, closet, and drawer in the house. Plus – craziest of all – the basement.
Which means….I will be having the biggest, most awesome yard sale ever at my house here in Virginia this Friday and Saturday. I will post lots more info about the sale Wednesday, plus I have another fun announcement to share.
I think I am on a bit of a decluttering high. Anyone else out there know the feeling? Any other decluttering success stories to share? Any great tips for holding a killer yard sale?
nicolepj13 says
good luck on the sale! i recently did a major declutter and massive yard sale. It was a lot of work, but well worth the $700 i made!!!
Angela says
my daughter also found it really easy to let go of stuff when she knew she was pregnant. It somehow focussed her mind and also she no longer needed all her 1000’s of books as I think the baby filled her needs more. I am presently trying to find a focus for my craft working and so I am going to pare down my stuff and if I need something, well a big craft store has opened up 10 minutes walk away. Wish me luck, I have had some stuff for over 16 years!!!!
Carrie says
Good luck Angela! It is hard to let go of stuff – it is so easy to think every item might be just the thing you need for some project in the future. The good thing is I have only ended up wishing I had kept a handful of things that I cleared out…and they were all easily replaced for just a couple of bucks at the craft store.
Phoebe says
Hi I realize this was written a long time ago and maybe no one will be notified of my comment but I wanted to thank you for renewing my trust in the use of a “maybe” pile! I’ve definitely had luck in the past with letting things chill in a temporary maybe pile for a few days then realizing I’m actually kinda over them but I have a large and intimidating amount of stuff to get rid of currently so I’m super happy to have found your posts which are very reassuring.
On the off-hand chance you do see this and have time to ponder and reply, I wonder if you have any thoughts on the following: one problem I seem to usually run into after decluttering craft/project things is that as I’m trying to work on remaining or new projects it’s initially at least much more difficult because when I run into puzzles or roadblocks I don’t have 1000s of random things lying about that I don’t care too much about and so can freely experiment with to find solutions. Does this happen to you? If so do you have any tips got avoiding this or figuring out how to work with it?
Hope that makes sense! Sorry for my run-on sentences!
Carrie says
Hi Phoebe, even though this post is old, I do still read the comments! And I agree – a maybe pile is so helpful in clarifying how you really feel about an item! And I think I understand your question too. When you have lots of little bits and pieces, it’s a lot more likely you will have something that will work for whatever project you are working on next. And like you said, you have things that aren’t that important to experiment with. For me, I just try to strike a balance between keeping the things that I think will truly be useful and not keeping EVERYTHING. A lot of times I ask myself how long I have had something. If I’ve had it for a year or more and haven’t found a use for it yet, I think it makes sense to get rid of it. I also consider if it is something that is easy to replace if I do end up needing it in the future. If it’s easy and inexpensive to find again if I end up needing it, then it isn’t such a big deal to get rid of it for now. Even though I wrote this a long time ago, it is still an ongoing process for sure!