Love it or use it? The simple way to declutter
Photo art by Evie Shaffer/Unsplash
I’m still not a tidy person, which I’ve accepted about myself. Tidying, thinking about tidying, wishing my home looked like a magazine spread, takes up a lot of my time. To be honest, I’ve been trying to achieve Tidy-dom seriously for at least 5 years. Am I better? Yes. Do I still have much to do? Absolutely.
Some weekends I spend my time tidying, as in cleaning. Now, I’m ready to start decluttering again. Removing what needs to be tidied, so maybe one day, I can live in that magazine spread. Maybe.
Start small, start anywhere
I am literally starting in one corner of the kitchen and decluttering, similar to the KonMari method. However, I’m not going by category. I’m just starting.
The question I’ve started asking myself is: Do I love this or use this?
My decluttering recipe
I make a tiny pile of things (as opposed to pulling everything out)
I pick up each item and ask, Love it or use it?
If neither, then it goes into the trash or donate bag.
If I’m keeping it, but it’s not where it should be, I take it to where it lives.
And if it doesn’t have a place to live, I make one for it.
Then I take a break, and repeat the process.
Simple still takes time
While the recipe is “simple,” obviously it’s not easy for many of us. I spent the weekend working my way from the corner of one counter to half of another, primarily because I had to deal with paper: magazines, cards, tax info, insurance info, etc. Paper is a drag. I even have a pretty file box with pretty dividers and folders. It makes it less of a drag, but I still hate having to deal with them (obviously).
Why do I have a stack of papers? Because during my daily cleaning sessions, rather than deal with the papers, I just made a pile. A neat and tidy pile! So, that’s s why I made it a rule for these decluttering sessions. If I’m keeping something, I have to put it away in the moment.