Deciding to declutter is the first step to a simpler life.

But decluttering is not an easy task. A lot of the times, it is an emotionally draining and unpleasant experience. However, its benefits far outweighs the actual act itself.

Picture, if you will, the following scenarios:

Scenario 1

You can’t find your keys. And you need to be somewhere in 20 minutes.

It’ll take you 15 minutes just to get there. So now you have 5 minutes to find your keys.

But you can’t remember where you put them.

You start looking in pockets and drawers.

But there is so much stuff.

You finally locate them after a second look through the junk drawer. It’s been 10 minutes. Now you’re going to be late.

Scenario 2

It’s Saturday morning and you’re just making a cup of coffee to sit and enjoy.

You look around the kitchen while you wait for the coffee to brew. There is barely any room on the kitchen counters to prepare food and the kitchen table is covered in papers.

Once the coffee is ready, you escape to your living room to escape the mess in the kitchen. But now you’re overwhelmed by the piles of magazines and catalogues that nobody reads, the kid’s toys that are strewn all over the floor and the knickknacks on the mantle that you don’t even remember buying.

You drink your coffee, trying to relax. Instead, you spend the entire time wondering how you ended up with so much stuff.

Scenario 3

It’s been a hectic day at work and you’re looking forward to reading in bed.

So far, you’ve avoided the mess in the kitchen and the living room, yet again.

As you look around the bedroom, all you can see is the pile of clothes on the floor, water glasses and other random crap on the nightstands, the beauty and hygiene products on the dresser.

You go to the dresser to find your pjs where you find more clutter and disorganization.

Do either of these scenarios sound familiar?

In each of these scenarios, you make the decision that you will finally declutter all of your stuff that you no longer need or even like.

You will no longer look around in despair.

A month later, nothing has changed even though you felt so determined in those moments to do something about your physical possessions.

But, why?

Because you’ve found an excuse not to declutter. You’ve found an excuse to continue feeling overwhelmed by all of your stuff.

“The origin of every excuse is the failure to do something.” 

Andy Anderson

Excuses are easier than actions.

Common excuses to not declutter

1. Unsure of where to start

This is one of the biggest hurdles to decluttering. An article in the LA Times reports that the average American home has 300,000 items.

And it isn’t uncommon for some people to rent offsite storage for the things that they can’t fit into their homes.

It’s no wonder that we have no clue about where they should start. That is a lot of stuff.

It’s overwhelming, but not impossible.

Start small. Pick the area of your home where the clutter bothers you the most.

Is your closet causing you the most anxiety?

• Pick a section and go through it.
• For example, go through all of your tops.
• Declutter the ones that you no longer like or the ones that don’t fit properly.
• Donate them if they are in good condition or gift them to a friend that has admired them in the past.
• Once you’ve gone through one section, move on to another one.

Maybe it’s the kitchen table or countertops.

• Gather everything into a pile.
• If there are things that belong elsewhere, such as the kid’s rooms or the garage, return them.
• Go through all of the paper. Separate it based on importance. Recycle what isn’t important (shred anything that contains sensitive information).
• File the important stuff away, either into a designated filing area or electronically.

Do you have a bunch of books that you have no plan to read or reread?

Sometimes we buy a book because it sounds good or it was on sale, but once we get it home, we put it back on a shelf never to be paid attention to again. Read this guide to decluttering books to help you get started.

Or if any of this seems like too much, pick something small like a bathroom or kitchen drawer. Go through the decorations on the fireplace mantle or a shelf. Go through old movies. Get rid of the things that are no longer useful or those that you do not believe to be beautiful.

A small accomplishment can sometimes lead to more momentum to complete the bigger tasks!

2. Emotional attachment

We hold onto things for any number of reasons, one of the main ones being emotional attachment.

It’s hard to let go of items that represented a certain time in our lives or that are linked to specific memories that we have. 

But getting rid of the physical items does not diminish the memory. And holding onto the items do not make that memory stronger.

If there’s an item that you cannot bear to part with, it’s fine to keep it, but be intentional with this process.

• Set aside a defined number of sentimental items or a specific box for sentimental items and keep it contained to that limit.

We have memories of a lot of the items that we have acquired, but we can’t let that stop us from removing the item once it has surpassed its usefulness.

And if it helps you to declutter an item, you can always take a photo to look back on.

3. No time

With everything on our plates these days, it can be hard to find time to do a lot of things.

The sheer task of going through all of our items, in addition to the emotional decision making, can seem like a lot of additional work to take on.

Nothing will ever change if you don’t devote some time to declutter your belongings.

Instead, we end up wasting even more time stressing out about the mess, or the perpetual tidying that happens when we own so much stuff.

To make it seem less of a challenge, do the following steps:

• Set aside a small chunk of time to work on going through your items.
• Put 20-30 minutes on a timer at the end of the day to devote entirely to decluttering.
• Place some boxes or bags in your garage or another designated area to place items that will be donated, sold or trashed.
• When the timer goes off, take the items that you have chosen to declutter and bring them to the designated box for discarding.
• Once the box is filled, take it to your local donation center.

4. Sunk Cost Fallacy

A sunk cost is one that has already been incurred, For example, when we buy a particular item at the store and bring it home. If we do not immediately return that item, the cost cannot be recovered.

Have you ever thought that since you “invested” your money into a certain item, you can’t get rid of it?I know I have.

But this type of thinking ends up causing us to hold onto things far longer that we should. The money has been spent and you cannot get the full cost back anyways.

If this is something that holds you back from discarding an item, you could sell it and recoup some of the cost.

You could also just donate it and rid yourself of the emotional burden of holding onto it, which has significant value in and of itself.

5. Gift guilt/family heirlooms

A number of things that come into our homes are not even items that we have purchased ourselves.

Gifts that we have received from family and friends or things that we have inherited from family members can also make up a significant percentage of the things that we own.

Even if the item is not useful to us, or we don’t particularly like it, we hold onto it because it was gifted. We are worried about hurting the gifter’s feelings if discard it and they notice.

That fear keeps us holding onto things longer than we should, or sending it to a storage facility when it doesn’t fit into our lives.

This happens a lot with family heirlooms, particularly furniture.

If somebody is gifting you something, it is because you mean something to them. They gave you the gift as a way of showing their affection.

It is unlikely that they would want their gift to cause you stress. Once they’ve given you the gift, the act of affection is done and the item is now yours to do with as you please.

Pass it along to somebody whom you know would find value in it. If asked about the gift in the future, let the gifter know that it was no longer of use to you so you passed it along to somebody who needed it.

6. Future need

The thought that an item might be useful in the future can lead to people hold onto items for much longer than is necessary.

But if you haven’t used that item on a regular basis up to this point, the likelihood that you will use it in the future is extremely slim. 

Kitchen gadgets are a useful example here. I remember buying a tool to cut corn off the cob that was really cute. I rarely used it since a knife did the exact same job and got more off the cob.

So when you look at your items while you declutter, really be honest about how much you have used that item. Determine if there is something that can be used in place of that item if you ever needed to.

More often than not, you will realize that the item is redundant or simply not needed at all.

Are either of these excuses holding you back?

If we truly want to avoid doing something, we can always find an excuse.

But if you want to start minimizing your possessions so that you can focus on the things that really matter, and stop managing your clutter, then:

“Don’t make excuses. Make things happen. Make changes. Then make history.”

Doug Hall

What types of excuses have you come up with to keep you from decluttering? How have you gotten past them?

Until next time,