I recently read two books that inspired me to tackle the clutter around our house in a thorough, maintain-able way.
The first was The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. Now, I’m not planning on dying anytime soon, but in the book, she writes that you shouldn’t wait until you’re contemplating death to part with the things that aren’t serving you. Maybe you’re undergoing another life change like divorce, downsizing, or (in our case) contemplating an international move. Whatever the case, life is lighter and freer without the unused excess.
The other book was The Day the World Stops Shopping. It is a fantastic read that inspired significant personal reflection for me and my relation to things. It feels like a foundational book for anti-consumerism in the same way that The Omnivore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food were foundational books for the anti-big ag/sustainable ag movements.
There’s so much packed into the latter book that I don’t have space to dive too deeply into anything here. But it covers everything from planned obsolescence, to how we define necessities vs luxuries, to fast fashion, to superfluous energy consumption, to voluntary simplicity, to economic depression, to the old tradition of sabbath day… anything and everything related to consumerism.
11/10, would highly, highly recommend!
Getting Down to Business
But this post isn’t about book reviews–it’s about the first 100 things I got rid of. Somehow hitting 100 items was absurdly easy, and I feel like I’ve barely started. I considered myself a minimalist prior to this project, but I don’t think I really am, looking at the ridiculous of stuff in our house…
Anyways, without further ado. Here’s the crap! (I tried to give away or sell stuff of value that was still usable, rest assured. Buy Nothing groups are the best! And expired food/medication isn’t included, because duh, I should get rid of that stuff anyways.)
- Craft supplies from our wedding in 2018: a large and a small chalkboard, liquid chalk pens, rose stencils, chalkboard paper and bridesmaid gift bags
- Broken easel
- Doubles of baby clothes from a wonky Carter’s order: 5 onesies, 3 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, 1 outfit, 1 toddler shirt, a pair of duck booties
- An old pair of curtains
- Several disposable face masks that tie behind the head (unacceptable here…)
- 3 green plastic bowls
- Pack of alcohol wipes
- 2 bottles of hand sanitizer
- Fabric bag
- Tick removing device
- Lampshade and lamp base that didn’t match (???)
- Rusted camping cookery set
- Several old clothes: a swimsuit, 4 shirts, 2 skirts, a sports bra, a threadbare pair of socks, and a sweater
- Bottle of nail polish (I hate having painted nails)
- Broken FitBit
- Broken Wink thermometer
- Herbal tincture that we won’t use
- Baby nail file
- Single earring
- Rubber head massager
- Set of 6 IKEA glasses (60)
- 2 champagne glasses (we don’t drink!)
- Mini flower vase
- 2 plastic baby toys
- 3 polyester play scarves
- Jumprope
- Candle
- 2 pairs of kids leggings
- 2 kids’ t-shirts
- Kids’ pajama bodysuit
- 2 curling irons
- Hair straightener
- Rusted pan
- Crappy bluetooth speaker
- Clip-on lamp
- 2 sets of baby girl washcloths
- Pair of baby girl shoes
- Board book
- 2018 planner
- Mini notebook
- Themed wedding stickers
- Cat stickers
- Pink fabric swatches
- Various knitting supplies
- Adult meditative coloring book
- 4 cardboard treat boxes
- Small window decoration
- Glass tumbler, missing a piece
Alright, 98 items. Two unlisted items are pending pickup from people in my local Buy Nothing group 🙂
And this was some of the easiest stuff. Mostly stuff I know I’ll never use again because it’s broken, gross, I’ve never once used it or I don’t even know where it came from.
Reflections on Letting Go
Even still, at this level of decluttering, it can be surprisingly difficult to come face-to-face with an object that represents one of two people. A person you used to be, who you aren’t anymore and perhaps miss or are simply nostalgic for–or a person you wanted to be, but that person never materialized and for whatever reason, never will.
I consider myself to be someone with relatively little emotional attachment to stuff. But even I run across items that, although no longer used or potentially useful, are hard to part with. I struggle to lay those things–and pieces of myself–to rest.
Decluttering can be very therapeutic in that way. When I discover items that inspire an emotional reaction at the thought of parting with them, I try to take it as an invitation to reflect. Why is it hard to throw or give this away? What conflict that hasn’t been resolved or what part of an old life that isn’t serving me, do I still need to work through and let go of?
Anyhow, those are my thoughts on decluttering for today. I’ll be back with more soon, and my thoughts on seasonal capsule wardrobes as well.
xx Claire
P.S. Sorry I did not have time to record this as an audio file in my own voice today–here are the text-to-speech versions (part 1 and 2), and I will try to record and improve the quality when I can!!