Are you staring your minimalism journey? Are you wondering how to declutter your home and remove the items that don’t add value to your life?

Where do you start?

Maybe you’ve been minimizing for a while but you’d like to get rid of a few more things.

But how?

Hopefully I can help you out today!

As I mentioned in my 7 things that minimalism has taught me post, minimizing your possessions and commitments is a never ending ride.

When you initially start to declutter the things that you don’t need or that add no value, you eventually end up at a point where you are content with what is in your home.

That initial feeling of decluttering is hard to describe. It’s like a feeling of calm washes over you. It’s like you have let go of something that has been holding you down.

And when you declutter the things that are holding you down is like eliminating toxic relationships and habits. There’s a sense of freedom, and lightness.

Every time that I remove an item from our home, I am able to see our possessions more clearly.

I am at the point where I could probably list a large portion of the things that I own off the top of my head.

This wasn’t the case a few years ago.

This is also true when it comes to commitments. Every time I declutter a commitment from our schedule, I free up more time to examine other activities and whether or not they add any value.

“When we clear the physical clutter from our lives, we literally make way for inspiration and ‘good, orderly direction’ to enter”

Julia Cameron

Even though I have gotten rid of a lot of our possessions, I still get that “itch” to declutter more things.

This happens more during the winter since I am in my house more and I have to stare at our stuff every day.

Or it happens when I’m feeling overwhelmed by our stuff, such as kids toys on the kitchen table, all of the time.

It also happens when things seem hectic.

I think I do it as a way to gain control when things feel out of control. But enough with the over-analyzing here and onto the useful stuff.

When I start to feeling the need to declutter, I ask myself a simple question:

If I had to pack up all of my things and move out of my house tomorrow, would I want to take it with me?

Moving is hard!

Getting the boxes to hold everything.

Packing each item to make sure it doesn’t break.

Making sure everything is labelled properly.

Physically moving the boxes.

Unpacking and finding a home for everything in the new place.

Whew! You get the picture.

A lot of time and energy goes into a move. Asking myself whether I would want to take something with me if I were to move tomorrow makes me consider all of that time and energy.

So, when I ask myself this question, if the answer is no, it goes.

And obviously, if it’s a definite yes, it stays.

The maybe items end up in a box in the garage where it may sit for a few weeks. If I haven’t went looking for anything in the box during that time, then it goes as well.

I’ve gotten rid of quite a few items asking myself this question.

For example, I used this question in my most recent book clear our.

Books are a hard thing to move. They are heavy and they take up a lot of room. If I knew that I was not going to read it again or use it for decoration, it went into the discard pile.

I try to do the same thing with clothing. If I really look at each item and imagine the work to pack and unpack each item and then hang it in my new closet, is it really worth it to me to move it?

I must admit, I wish I had thought of this simple little question to declutter stuff during all of the actual moves that I have done.

Instead, I would just pack up all of our stuff, especially my clothing.

At one point, we made 4 moves in 4 years! I would have saved so much time, energy and money.

This rule is kinda like a packing party, which was how Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists originally got rid of most of his possessions.

He packed up all of his belongings, including his underwear, toothbrush and furniture, as if he was moving.

He would only take things out of the boxes as he needed them.

If he hadn’t reached for something after 3 weeks, he sold, donated, or trashed it.

At the end of his experiment, he had only reached for 20% of his belongings, with 80% remaining in the boxes.

Read more about the packing party.

I like the idea of a packing party.

It’s well defined and would certainly help to determine what possessions were the most important in a short amount of time.

I couldn’t commit to a packing party though. I have three other people’s stuff to consider (and I’d definitely have to be the one who had to go find what they need).

So, at this point in my life, pretending I’m moving to decide if I like an item enough to move it with me to another house works.

Go ahead and take a few minutes to implement this question in your life. Select a room or area whose sheer amount of clutter has been bothering you. Look at each item and ask yourself:

If I had to pack up all of my things and move out of my house tomorrow, would I want to take it with me?

If the answer is no, get rid of it.

Yes? Keep it.

Maybe? Set it aside, preferably somewhere out of sight, and reevaluate in a few weeks.

I hope you find this question useful and that it helps you clear out some clutter to make way for the things that really matter.

Do you have any tricks that you use when you’re deciding to get rid of something?

Until next time,