5 things you can do today to clear the clutter

Happy with my house

It’s time to clear the clutter here at Polly’s Pad!

Tucked away on my Kettle List is the simple, but by no means small, desire to ‘Be Happy With My House’. 

This is no mean feat; I have lived in my 1920’s mid terrace for 16 years. In that time I have, pretty much, done nothing to it, apart from filling it with children.

And stuff…so much stuff. It is time to get some of that clutter out.

Happiness, in this context, will mean it is redecorated., that it has functioning heating and will have 80% less stuff in it than it currently does. 

This is precisely why I have been feverishly reading anything and everything that will teach me the ways of those Zen Masters that are known as minimalists. 

So much, have I have read, in fact, that I am declaring myself a pseudo-expert and I have been writing a book on the subject. (Yes, ‘write a book’ is also on the Kettle List. Which also gives me a few years to finish it!).

From all of my extensive research, I have picked up a few tips.

Start your clutter clearing the easy way

So here are 5 things you can get rid of TODAY, that may just set you on the road to a Minimalist Life. Worst case scenario – you’ll have cleared a bit of space, but hey, every little helps.

1 -Duplicate Clutter

This will appear on every list you will come across regarding ‘easy decluttering’. Probably because it is a bit of a no brainer. 

How many of each thing in your house do you actually need?

I used to have to go out every December and buy in more sticky tape and another pair of scissors ready for Christmas. This was because I couldn’t find any in the house. 

A ‘present wrapping tools’ amnesty was called to discover where all of my stuff had gone.

Turns out we have about 9 pairs of scissors. That’s 2.35 pairs per person! 

I wouldn’t mind but I know for a fact that at least 2 people in my house never wrap presents. (2 is also the number of males in my house, but correlation does not imply causation). 

If all of your stuff has a specific place to be, AND (the important bit!) it is put back after it is used, you will only need 1 or 2 of an item.

Even items you expect to have multiples of, such as mugs can get out of hand and add to the clutter. Once you have enough, stop buying them.

When someone suggests them as a present explain you have enough. If you find you have too many, have a cull. Box them up and get rid.

2 – Books

There was a lot of misplaced anger towards Marie Kondo when some book lovers took umbrage to her attitude towards books.

She claimed that she only had 30 in her home and that they were often an area where people could make a number of cuts.

Twitter went wild, claiming she would get their books if she prised them from their cold dead hands. To some, the idea of books being classified as clutter just seems wrong.

It does seem to be very fashionable to joke about spending all of your money on books and having no room in your house for anything else. I have seen people freely admit that they will never read half of the books they own. But they look good.

If you were to swap books for shoes, then the person would be accused of being vacuous and having wasted their money. But books seem to get a free pass.

Admit it. You have some books on your shelf you have no intention of reading but they look good. Or you may have ones you have read, and won’t read again. For some reason, people have a huge problem with discarding books.

Why not go through them?

Are they on a subject you are not interested in anymore or are they out of date? This is especially relevant for science type books, or ones telling you how to use computer programs that are older than you are. 

Is your shelf so stuffed with books that you cannot even really get to them?

Consider why you are keeping hold of them; if it’s your aesthetic and you are trying to create a ‘brainy’ vibe, then, by all means, keep them.  But how many books are you really going to read over the next year or two?

If you bought it months ago, actually think about why you haven’t made the time to read it yet. Once you have read it, consider if you really need to keep it.

I feel I may have come across as slightly anti-book here. My book collection was very out of hand, but I needed to be realistic. There were plenty of books there that I would never read again, so they were sent off to the charity shop.

I can honestly say that I have yet to regret getting rid of any of them.

3 – Old Photos

Don’t worry! I am not about to suggest you bin your precious baby or graduation pics!

But, if you are, like me, of a certain age you will remember the old days. You took 36 pictures, took the film to be developed and hoped 50% were passable.

Much like with books, there seems to be an unwritten law about throwing away photos. No matter how blurry and bad they are.

I have photos of people from the holidays past, whose names I cannot recall. They are all sat in a Kodak envelope in a drawer that I have not even looked at for 20 or more years. Why am I keeping them? 

There are so many online options; you could potentially scan all of your pictures and store them in multiple places. This way they would be safer than just relying on the ‘hard’ copy that could be lost in a flood/Fire/Alien attack. 

Actually, consider how often you look at those old pictures you couldn’t possibly part with.

4 – Clothes

Clothes often appear on the ‘easy to declutter’ lists. Don’t worry, I am not suggesting you get rid of half your wardrobe Not everyone can cope with the sartorial equivalent of rationing just yet. (When you’re ready for that there is going to be a series of Capsule Wardrobe posts).

Why not have a look, and see if you can find things you know you don’t wear?

Maybe because they are stained, or buttons are missing, or there is a tear in it, or it needs taking up/down/in. You brush over these clothes every day; never wearing them, yet still allowing them to take up space in your life and wardrobe. 

By keeping these clothes they are constantly reminding you that: you haven’t cleaned the stain or replaced the button, repaired the tear, or taken it up/down/in. 

Are you going to let a piece of material have that power over you?

It is living rent-free in your wardrobe and doing no work. Even if you choose to go out and replace it with another item, at least you will wear that. Why would you give house room (wardrobe room?) to an item that is not pulling its weight? If you are not going to wear it, get rid.

5 – Unwanted gifts that clutter up your home

This seems to be a recurring theme.

Guilt can make you keep clutter you don’t want such as photos, or clothes that you paid a lot of money for but never wear. Another example of this is gifts, or ‘heirlooms’.

Have you ever been given a terrible present that you have kept? Maybe even displaying it or wearing it when the person visits so as not to look ungrateful?

You might have the ugliest ornament in the world, but you can’t part with it. It belonged to Great Auntie Ethel, and she is dead now.

Bestowing emotions on to your possessions is one thing. Becoming buried in other people’s crap because you don’t want to offend people is another.  If you meekly accept things you don’t want the ‘gifter’ will assume that you like them. They will continue to give you things you don’t want. 

Have a word, politely, that you are trying to create a different, more minimalist vibe. Explain that while grateful, you don’t need any more candles/sequined cushions/penguin ornaments.  Then purge your home of any of the things you were keeping for the wrong reasons.

Make it YOUR home, filled with stuff YOU have chosen.

These are your first steps

Decluttering is a marathon, not a sprint, especially when the amount of stuff involved is an entire house full.  So look at this exercise as a ‘warm-up’.

You may not want to sign up for a full race, but you could have a go at getting rid of just a few things that clutter up your home and then see how that makes you feel.

I am willing to bet, slightly better and a bit freer. (Especially if it means you don’t have great aunt Ethel’s ugly painting staring you anymore!)

Wondering what you should do with your clutter once you have it bagged up? Check out this post.

Want to know what charity shops definitely don’t want? Check here!

If you are ready to take your minimalism to the extreme, perhaps you would enjoy the book Goodbye Things by Fumio Sasaki, which I discuss here.