Hellobee

Kristin’s decluttering series inspired me so much I immediately purchased the book she recommended, The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Living Guide, and started applying the principles to our lives. Often we hold onto things we don’t need because they still work perfectly fine, we might need them one day, or we have a sentimental attachment. The book really helped me think about which items to get rid of in each room of our home. And because we were planning on moving to a smaller apartment shortly after Kristin wrote her first post in the series, we were in a great position to jumpstart decluttering, and adopting a more minimalist lifestyle.

New York apartments are notoriously small with limited closet space. Add in all the stuff that comes with two young children and two adults working at home, and our apartment always felt cluttered no matter how much we cleaned. There have already been many great posts written on the why of living a more minimalist lifestyle, so I thought I would focus on the what we got rid of.

Decluttering is an ever ongoing process for me, that often takes multiple passes for a single space. For instance I’ve been through my wardrobe 3 times in the past 3 months, and I get more brutal with each pass. I find that I’m much less attached to an item than I previously thought when I think about it a second or third time. Decluttering becomes easier and easier as time goes on, and it’s actually addicting! So far we’ve sold, donated, and gave away at least 40% of our possessions. I don’t miss a single item, and I’m still not done! I tried to only keep things that were truly useful now (not someday in the future), or that we appreciated enough to keep out on display. This is a partial list of what we got rid of:

– Television – With Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime, we were rarely even turning on our tv anymore. Factor in the high cost of cable, and getting rid of our tv was a pretty easy decision. We haven’t had a tv for almost 3 months now, and I honestly don’t even think about it.

– Electronics – With no tv, we also said goodbye to our DVD player and our Nintendo Wii. We also had some random electronics that were no longer being used like routers and old cell phones that we dropped off at an electronics recycling center.

– Makeup – I had a ton of makeup from when I used to attend frequent wedding events and receive gift bags, but as a work at home mom, I found myself wearing makeup once or twice a month. So I gave away the vast majority of my makeup to another young mom who needed help looking older and more professional in her job. I used probably 10% of my products 99% of the time, so I don’t miss it at all.

– Clothes/Shoes – I’ve blogged about this previously here, but this was the easiest place for me to get started because there were many things in my wardrobe that no longer fit my lifestyle. Now I try to only add versatile pieces rather than trendy or one-use pieces (like cocktail dresses) to my wardrobe — items that I will wear over and over again.

– Kids’ Clothes – I tend to dress them in the same things over and over when they go to school. Some things in their wardrobe never get touched, but I kept them just in case. With how fast kids grow, it didn’t really make sense to hold onto those clothes so I sold them all. Both Charlie and Olive have also had a big growth spurt recently, so I really need to go through their entire wardrobe again soon!

– Towels – The Joy of Less mentions how we hold onto things like towels after we buy replacements for them, simply because they are still useful. But that defeats of purpose of replacing the item in the first place. 2 towels per person was more than enough for our family (I’d been planning on going down to 1 towel per person!), especially given how frequently we do laundry, so I donated all of our extra linens.

– Linens – All of our sheet sets came with flat sheets that we never use. But I still held onto all of them because it felt wasteful to get rid of them, even though they did nothing but take up space in our closet. So I donated all of our extra sheets.

– Entertaining-ware – In our pre-kid days, we entertained pretty regularly and accumulated a decent amount of servingware over the years. It did come in handy when we hosted large get togethers. But it’s been over 4 years since we had a big party, and post kids we’ve never had more than a couple of people over. Those items were just taking up space in our kitchen cabinets so I sold everything from platters to a cheeseboard to a punchbowl.

– China – We had a pretty set of china but we never used them. Our plain white Corelle dishes are perfectly fine for everyday use and for entertaining. They’re inexpensive and they never break.

– Mugs – We had a bunch of random mugs that we received free from events but held onto them because they were “useful.” We just kept a couple of our favorites and gave the rest away. Having less dishes means we have to do dishes more frequently, but I prefer it that way.

– Kitchen Appliances – It seems like most people have kitchen appliances they never use. For us it was a food processor and a coffee maker. Most of the dishes I cooked didn’t require a food processor, and we don’t drink a lot of coffee so our French Press sufficed.

– Pantry – My pantry was too full and unorganized, and I’d often forget what I had in there and then buy duplicates. Now I go to the market more frequently, but I don’t buy duplicates and I don’t find expired food. Isn’t it amazing how long ago some foods have expired when you clean out your pantry or fridge?!

– Toys – As the kids get older, we realize more and more just how few toys they really need. The less toys they have, the more they actually play with them. I wouldn’t have believed it when the kids were younger, but it is very much true for us with a 2 year old and 4 year old. I sold almost any toy that didn’t get regular play, and the kids don’t miss them at all.

– Furniture –  Mr. Bee and I each had two desks in our last apartment, which meant that we had 4 desks total! We certainly didn’t need two desks each, but we had the space for it so I guess we felt like we had to fill it up. It’s amazing how removing even just one small piece of furniture can dramatically transform a room, and each piece we got rid of felt like a weight lifted off my shoulder. We sold as much furniture as we could, and donated the rest to the Salvation Army.

– Wrapping Paper – I had a big stash of wrapping paper for different occasions, as well as a big collection of letterpress cards from my wedding days. I sold everything (who knew that wrapping paper and cards would get so many responses!), and I will only keep one roll of multi-purpose kraft paper that I can embellish in so many different ways and use for any occasion.

– Abandoned Hobbies – I used to love scrapbooking, and saved many mementos to scrapbook “one day.” But with each passing year the number of pictures I had to sort through just grew, and honestly I knew that I would never get around to it. So I got rid of all my scrapbooking supplies.

– Books – Mr. Bee is one of the most voracious bookworms I know, and he’s accumulated thousands upon thousands of books in the time we’ve been together. We actually got rid of half of them before our last move, but we still had enough to fill 8 bookcases. Now that he reads all his books on the kindle, new book clutter isn’t as much of a problem. Before we moved into our current apartment, Mr. Bee sold 80% of his books and only kept the reference books that he would need to read again. I also recently went through our children’s books and got rid of any that the kids no longer enjoyed reading.

– Magazines – I cancelled all of our magazine subscriptions, except for my guilty pleasures US Weekly and Entertainment Weekly. Even though I could read digital copies of those magazines, I still enjoy flipping through a magazine (I often read them on the subway), and I give them all to a friend once we’re done. We had accumulated too many subscriptions that were either free or that we signed up for because they were the cost of a single issue.

– Paper – When you work from home and have your own company, you accumulate obscene amounts of paper. I try to reduce paper clutter by getting online statements when I can, but paper is an ongoing battle, especially when you work from home!

– Digital Clutter – I unsubscribed to virtually all newsletters, store emails, etc. They only provided temptation to buy more things anyway. Out of sight, out of mind. I also have been doing a much better job of deleting all my picture outtakes (so tough to delete even bad pictures of your little one!) so that my digital clutter is kept to a minimum.

– Office Supplies – For some reason they seem to multiply on their own! I had enough paper clips to last me a lifetime, and so many dried out pens that I’d never even used. I also had things like index cards that I must have needed once upon a time, but no longer needed. Those were all given away to people who would actually use them.

.  .  .  .  .

Less stuff = less stress. Owning less stuff also makes you want less stuff, so it’s easier to maintain a more minimalist life. I don’t know that I’ll ever be the hard-core minimalist that I aspire to be, but I’ve made huge changes to my life that I fully intend to maintain for life.

What areas of your home could use some decluttering?