Have you ever felt overwhelmed by stuff? Wish you could just throw it all out and start over again? Need to downsize for a move? Want to stop paying for offsite storage? I know how that feels. I’ve been considering a move for years and every time I think about the logistics, I feel completely overwhelmed. So I decided to start simplifying.
One of the challenges of decluttering is that our stuff is so intertwined with our beliefs about ourselves. Part of doing a major declutter is learning to let go of versions of yourself that you no longer are or that you will never become. It’s like that episode of How I Met Your Mother, in which the gang is struggling to delete old contacts from their phones. It’s hard because deleting the number means having to let go of the hope that they’ll get back together with an ex or play in a funk band. I, too, have struggled with this over the years, to the extent that I have old musical instruments that I simply haven’t been able to part with because I still want to believe I’ll be a musician again someday. I knew I needed to let go of some possibilities to make way for new ones.
The Challenge
So last month, I decided to undertake a 30-day decluttering challenge. There are lots of those floating around the internet. One that called to me was a challenge wherein you declutter 1 item the first day, 2 items the second day, 3 the third day, and so on. On the last day, you declutter 30 items.
I completed this challenge in reverse. Instead of starting with 1 item and adding another one each day, I started with 30 items on the first day and decreased it each day. The reason I made this change was that I assumed that finding items to declutter would get progressively more difficult. I wanted to be able to end the challenge with the fewest number of items to find. This turned out to be a great decision.
To recap my experience with this challenge, here we go!
Days 1-2
The first two days are really easy. I feel motivated and choosing 30 or 29 items is simple. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit, like a bunch of books I’ve already been thinking about donating, expired hair care products, and a pile of dry pens.
Days 3-7
I’m surprised to run into some friction on Day 3, when I have to start looking in less obvious places, like a box of costumes. But I also find a stack of CDs and DVDs to donate. On Day 4, I start looking through cupboards in the kitchen. By Day 7, I’m digging through boxes beneath my bed. But still, I have a lot of places I can look, so the first week goes pretty smoothly and I’m feeling good about the challenge.
Week 1 Items Decluttered: 189
Average Time Spent per Day: 25 minutes
Days 8-14
I tackle boxes in the garage this week with great enthusiasm. I go through my jewelry boxes, a file of old papers. A box of keepsakes unearths unneeded stuff: old school ID cards, loyalty cards for stores I don’t shop at anymore, transit cards from my travels. It’s easier than I expected to let go of some memories, like old programs from plays/concerts I’ve attended. I don’t throw it all out, though. I manage to keep some keepsakes that still mean something to me while throwing out the ones that don’t carry such good memories.
Then I start looking through the boxes beneath my bed for a second time. It’s easier this go-around to let go of things by asking myself, “When was the last time I used this?” and “Do I think I will need this in the next six months?” By the end of the week, I’m worried I’ll run out of places to look.
Week 2 Items Decluttered: 140
Average Time Spent per Day: 18 minutes
Days 15-21
It got difficult. I have an intimidating pile of donations in the corner of one room that I’m now realizing I’ll have to organize eventually. And I become inconsistent with how I count items. I started off counting “pile of mail” as 1 item, but now I’m counting each piece of mail separately because it’s gotten so difficult. It feels like a challenge. In the early days, I set aside 10 books at a time to donate, but now I’m finding 1 per day. I’ve even had to read a couple of books to decide if I want to keep them.
Week 3 Items Decluttered: 91
Average Time Spent per Day: 12 minutes
Days 22-28
I do a second pass through many of the places I’d started with. And it’s tough, despite the smaller number of items I need to choose each day, never more than 10 anymore. I give away a brand new apron someone gifted me. Though I love the pattern, I already have one and don’t need another. I give away some clothes that I’ve known I want to donate eventually. I thought I might wear them one more time…But they’re summer clothes, so why hold onto them for another year? It’s autumn now. I throw out some socks that are a little too tight.
The 4-minute average isn’t entirely accurate. I find myself wondering as I go about my day whether something I notice should be decluttered. Finding the item later doesn’t take any time. It’s hard and then it’s easy again for the last few days.
Week 4 Items Decluttered: 42
Average Time Spent per Day: 4 minutes
Days 29-30
These last two days are easy. Day 29, I choose 2 sharpies to give to my mom, who actually uses them. On Day 30, I choose one last book to donate. It takes me 2 minutes each day.
Was This Challenge Successful?
I decluttered 465 items over one month, which is definitely a success. And I never spent more than 35 minutes on any given day to identify items to donate, so it didn’t even take up that much time.
Despite the many gains I made through this challenge, I must in all honestly add that I still feel like I have too much. Of the categories of things I can probably whittle down even more:
Books:
I went through a period during which I bought all the books I read. Some were used books, some new, but I obviously spent a lot of money on books and they were taking up four boxes beneath my bed and three large bookshelves. (I now try as much as possible to read from the library.) I’m all for having a home library and owning copies of the books I love, but I have lots of books I don’t even like and would never read again. Even after the 30-day declutter, during which I set aside 79 books for donation, there’s a whole shelf of books I’ve set aside as “maybe” donations. I’ll need to re-read these and decide if they’re worth keeping.
Food Containers:
I once had this vision of myself putting together lovely boxed lunches for myself (for work), so I collected some really cool containers. I gave away other kitchen items pretty ruthlessly during this challenge, but somehow the food containers were beyond my willpower. In the near future, I’ll need to consider which ones I actually use regularly and how many I realistically need for one workweek.
Clothes:
I know I have a lot of clothes that I don’t love. But I also don’t want to give all those away and then have to rapidly replace them because that’s not financially or environmentally responsible. But I will slowly try to replace worn clothes with clothes that fit my style a little better. For that reason, the 30-day declutter challenge didn’t touch my wardrobe too much, though I did give away some accessories that I can do without.
What Next?
The next challenge will be getting all this stuff out of my house! Some old things I just threw away or recycled, but I set aside multiple piles of stuff to donate. And I have some e-waste and hazardous waste that needs to be responsibly disposed of.
After that, I have some ideas for more specific decluttering challenges. For example, a “wear your closet” challenge to figure out what clothes I actually like wearing enough to keep. Or a “watch my DVDs” challenge to decide if any of my DVD collection is worth holding onto. I have so much stuff that I never touch but can’t seem to let go of, so using it for a change might help me decide.
What do you think? Would you ever try this 30-day decluttering challenge? If you’ve tried other decluttering challenges, how did they go?
