Read Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight Online
Authors: Peter Walsh
Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight (69 page)
If you come across belongings that upset you, remind you of hard times, or make you feel like a person you don't want to be anymore,
now
's the time to get rid of them. You're hopefully well on your way to being a healthier, more organized, more mentally awake person. Why keep this stuff around if it's going to interfere with the terrific progress you have going?
If you can't manage to throw away malignant items just yet, set them aside and do it as your final task of the program.
Task 3:
DECLUTTER ONE ZONE AT A TIME UNTIL YOU'RE FINISHED
Pick a box, a corner, a portion of a storage area, or any other defined space that you can work through in one session, and get busy sorting and tossing stuff out. I like the idea of getting into the routine of pulling out one box of stuff each night before you eat dinner, then spending the evening doing a bigger sweep.
The usual rules you've been following elsewhere in your home apply here. In general, only keep items that:
Are useful to you or that you know will be useful in the near future. The likelihood that you'll use stuff in storage is probably lower than for the stuff you found in the living spaces of your home. For example, if you encounter a box of Christmas decorations, keep the ones you actually use and let go of the ones you know you won't put up again. If a $5 string of lights doesn't work when you plug it in, discard it.
Help you reach your current goals. Even if something was important to you a year ago, your needs and expectations may have shifted during this program. Is this still something you want?
Clearly label anything you're holding on to. Once you put an item into a box and put that box into the attic or basement, you'll quickly forget what's in it without a very descriptive label.
Special items warrant special consideration, such as:
Heirlooms.
I can hear it already: “Peter, I can't get rid of
any
of this stuff my mother gave me. All of it represents the legacy she left behind.” Here's the response I give people when they tell me that: “When you think that
everything's
important, then
nothing
becomes important.” You have a sea of objects in which nothing stands out as meaningful.
In these situations, shift your task to finding the four treasures that are hidden among all this stuff you inherited. Find the four things that make your heart sing. Perhaps it's the four:
Nicest collectible figurines your grandmother gave you over your lifetime
Pieces of jewelry your mother wore the most often
Paintings your father made that have the most artistic value
Give those four favorite items a place of special honor in your home. Frame them. Display them. Wear them. When you look at them, savor the emotional
response you get. Those feelings may be stronger because they're not watered down by the not-so-great stuff you kept. Now give yourself permission to let the rest of the items go.
Of course, if you scan this pile of hand-me-downs and realize “I don't really see anything here I'd actually want to use or display in my home,” then that's a good sign that it's time to pass these possessions on to someone else.
THINGS AREN'T PEOPLE
So you're digging around in your basement and you find, let's say, an ugly sweater that your mother gave you years ago. Don't get confused: This thing is
not
your mother. It's an ugly sweater.
When you get rid of it, you're not laughing in your mother's face or rejecting her love or wasting her money. All you're doing is taking a thing you own out of your house because you don't need it.
The things that people give you are
not
those people. You can keep loving these people even as you pass along the things they give you.
Mementos of your life.
The same is true here. Pick out small, meaningful items like your yearbooks or your class ring and put them somewhere in your home where you can look at them more easily.
If you have a box of newspaper clippings of your high school sports career, pick out the best ones, frame them, put them on display or put them into a scrapbook, and let the rest go. If you're too embarrassed to make a big deal of your teenage athletic accomplishments, that's another sign that this stuff isn't worth saving.
If you still have an old wedding dress, do you really need to save it? Yes, it was likely expensive and commemorates a big day in your life. But are you planning on wearing it if you get married again? That's maybe
not
the best way to start a new marriage. Are you saving it for your daughter? What if she doesn't want it years from now? Will you want her to feel guilty for turning it down? What if it gets mice-eaten or water-stained in a few years?
Sell it or donate it, and someone could be making happy memories with it right now instead. Or you could make a decorative pillow for your bed from the dress. Whatever you do, ensure that the dress is treated with the respect it deserves, which doesn't mean leaving it in your basement for decades to come.
Your kids' belongings.
If you're keeping your kids' baby clothes, homework assignments, toys, and books for them to enjoy looking at later or to give to their own kids a few decades from now, you may want to rethink your plan.
There's no guarantee that they'll ever get more than a moment of mild enjoyment from looking at this stuff. They may want to provide their own kids with
new
treasured possessions, rather than musty toys and books that have been sitting in a cardboard box for most of their lives.
Designate one bin or tote for each of your children. Clearly label it and then pick a few items that will carry the most sentimental value over the yearsâone or two items of baby clothing, a special blanket or rattle, some early art masterpieces and stellar school reportsâto place in this “memory box.” Then part with the rest.
Bulk consumer goods.
If you've been storing giant jars of pickles or eight dozen rolls of toilet paper from the bulk-goods store, and your stockpile is
simply taking up too much room, it's time to shrink it down. If you're not going to use something in the next 3 to 6 months, but it's still good, pass it on to someone who will, whether friends or a food bank.
If an item is past its expiration date, throw it out. It's wise to look for a bargain, but piling up vast reserves of food and personal goods that attract vermin and go bad before you can use them isn't a practical use of your home's space. The zombie apocalypse isn't happening anytime soon, and I guarantee that if it does, you'll have bigger problems than finding toilet paper!
LESS IS MORE
Annie Leonard, the founder of the Story of Stuff Project, travels a lot. On a trip to Nepal, she bought a beautiful pair of earrings that immediately became a treasured possession.
“They were so pretty! They were just $2 in Nepal, but when I wore them, people complimented them all the time. So when I went back, I bought 10 pairs, each with a different color stone in them. But all of a sudden, I didn't care about them as much. When I had one pair, I treasured them. When I had 10 pairs, they got lost, I didn't know where they went, and I stopped paying attention to them.”
It's a basic principle in the field of decluttering: When you have a massive trove of similar items, you're not going to value each one very much. I see this all the time. When homes are cluttered with many similar items, the significance of any specific item diminishes dramatically. We're all familiar with the expression “quality, not quantity,” and there's an aspect of that here. More is seldom better. And in my experience, “more” usually dulls the senses to the beauty and uniqueness that makes things special.
So make your home a place where you value quality rather than quantity. Keeping fewer sentimental items will make them more special to you.