I am still on my 'new year's resolution' I don't usually make them expressly for New Years, i resolve to do things and then start them on the spot, this one just happened to coincide nicely.
I made up my mind to own half as much stuff by the end of the year and i THINK i have made a considerable headway. Since I started I did tackle a few large areas of aggregated clutter i had been deliberately avoiding because i haven't had a 'goal' in mind aside from 'clean' or 'declutter' which are rather loose terms.
HALF seems to be a good number or amount to shoot for. If I have 4 of something i give away 2. If something takes up X amount of space, i try to cut down the space to X/2.
For example my sewing stuff took up more than 2 of those rolling plastic drawer things plus a bin. First I cut it down to one - by freecycling notions or passing along unfinished projects. Then I condensed what was left, I have gotten it down to much less than half its original volume. It helps that i bought a sewing machine trolley and a new smaller container for notions.
I have had many many jobs in my life and many careers, a lot of them simultaneously so i had stockpiled bits and pieces of project material that i would never revisit. One buys a box of supplies, uses some and stores the rest. But I have been freecycling like a maniac..I save everything and list it on the weekend - partial containers that can't be given away, get thrown.
One of the things i don't like are file cabinets..they are just junk drawers..i have been working towards digitizing financial stuff for the last few years, so that cabinet was given away. The 'save' stuff either went into the fireproof box or got pitched. Manuals were thrown in favor of PDF versions. Old software was thrown, old technology was given away or pitched. A LOT of stuff has been donated.
It helps me that I have a dear friend who is taking a lot of my 'too good to throw': a pair of boots, a sleeping bag, some craft materials, some decorative items, plastic containers etc....and if she can't use them she passes them along too. So basically it helps to have support...if i had to hold on to those items until i could find a freecycler or thrift to take them, things would pile up and i would get discouraged. It helps to pass them on to someone who has no emotional attachment to the item and can throw it away if she likes.
I have been working hard these last 3 weeks. I HAD been decluttering for the last few years....I had already gotten my personal things..clothes, toiletries, memory items and such down to a minimum. If i had to I could squeeze them all in to a couple of steamer trunks. But generally i was giving these areas of past careers and unfinished projects a wide berth because i was never certain if i was going to need these things again. Basically it is still a struggle to decide but if i haven't touched something in 4 or 5 years the odds are good i won't.
Last weekend I put the doors back on the office cupboard because the open shelving was always such a mess. I actually emptied the closet next to it and i am going to empty the cupboard:floor to ceiling all 8 shelves this weekend. Most of it has to be sold on the internet. Then i will turn the cupboard into a pantry and the closet will hold my sewing machine trolley and my Craftsman tool box trolley side by side. I'm going to line the closet with pegboard and hang my hiking equipment.
As a motivational tool, I just started using my Tumblr blog as a sort of visual diary of incoming objects, and some of the outgoing ones too. I shoot the picture and load it. On the other end of the scale, any NEW acquisitions need to be considered harshly. If i am spending this much energy getting rid of half, then i can't be bringing in MORE stuff. I don't consider consumables a problem. Most of my money is spent on consumables, food, cleaners, pets foods..and merchandise that i sell or use up for work. So basically if it comes in the house to STAY i am shooting a picture of it and posting the rationalization on the Tumblr blog. I piggy-backed it on my regular blog, which is just be whatever is most pressing on my mind.
I still have a ways to go, but i am feeling a little successful, i can SEE space where they hadn't been any. Whenever i have to make a decision now, it's easier...throw or keep? and if i have to keep it, i only keep HALF.
