Decluttering the Spare Room

Wow, isn't that a lovely picture?  Don't you love clutter?  I know I do.

Said no one, ever!

Except maybe hoarders.

I'm not a hoarder.  But maybe I was at some point.  The above picture was about the worst our spare room looked.  This is when I first moved in with my now-husband, from my apartment.  I just had the movers (aka my friends) throw boxes in this room to get them out of the way.  But it may have stayed cluttered for more time than I care to admit.  Even if the clutter got shuffled around, there was still stuff that I didn't really need taking up space in a more or less unusable room.

The years went by (well just a couple years), and the spare room got organized, but was still full of clutter and not really usable.  It also became a catchall for other clutter in the house.  Every time we needed to clear spaces because of a party, all the junk got thrown in this room, and the door closed.  Every time someone gave me something I didn't want to deal with or find a place for yet, it got thrown in here.

While I did get pretty good at contortioning myself in an ungraceful version of some movie star playing a spy and getting through those laser maze thingies, I was tired of having this junk room.  Compound that with people who were comfortable enough to poke fun at it, leading me to silently ask them why they never invited me to THEIR house??  But I digress.

I did end up doing a version of the "clear it all out and evaluate" technique I mentioned yesterday.  I cleared it all out to the living room, except for the closet (which would wait for another day--I'm not insane, mind you).  It took me a sixteen hour day (I'm not joking), working non-stop and almost throwing out my back to go through all the junk. 

I do have some awesome things, and I did keep them.  But now they are actually easy to find and access.  I know where all my stuff is.  I did keep some mementos, too.  But, I suggest you define the word "memento"--or it can easily turn into JUNK.  Mementos shouldn't really take up more than a box. 

The main rule, the golden rule of decluttering is this series of questions (a quick google search yields neat articles like this):

- Do I use this?  (Additionally, if you haven't used it in a year, why is it in your home?)

- Does this bring me joy?

- Does this add beauty to my surroundings?

Once you answer these, you get a better idea with how much actual junk is sitting around just taking up space in your house.  It impedes energy flow, it impedes your movement in your house...  It's just no bueno.

This article also suggests to digitize nostalgia.  This was a HUGE boon for me.  Just take a pic on my smartphone of those awesome shoes I never wear but like to look at, or that coat that has an awesome lining, or that memento from that one awesome trip to wherever.  Maybe some things that bring you joy but are not useful and don't add beauty to your surroundings...  Maybe they would be best kept only in digital form.

The trend toward paring down is gaining steam.  Hopefully I'm not bombarding you with information and links, but here is another one.

Here is a nice write-up about a book you can peruse at Amazon or your local bookstore.  It has some good common sense.  You do want to have a super awesome and clean house that has a really chic Japanese vibe to it, right?

I'll give you a moment to cruise those links.  Done?  Found more links?  Awesome.  Getting inspired?  Where do you start?

I started with this one room.  Just with the boxes in the room, full of stuff I had no idea I owned.  In that sixteen hour day that I believe also made me catch a cold (seriously, this is hard work but worth it), I got TWO CARLOADS of bags of things to donate to my local thrift store (Thrift Town, woohoo!).  The house actually felt lighter.  In the end, that meant I could actually walk into the room and use it as a room. 

Another weekend day was spent whittling down the clutter that rested along the walls (LOTS of stationery) yielded several more bags.  Also, I filled up our empty recycling bin twice--so much stuff I had been hauling around!

Once the bags were out of the house, and the house itself (then car) felt lighter, I could focus on the next step (and the next step--it's addicting!).  I'm in the midst of a clothing declutter, which will be in another post.  Some advice says to start with clothing, but I had been doing that slowly all along.  Clearing out that spare room motivated me to really pare down my clothing.  As I said, I used to be a shopaholic.  Now I have, I just counted, eight purses total.  And one duffel bag for traveling.  I could have less if I wanted--three are in the current rotation.

Lastly, one final thought for you.  You could take it ALL to the thrift store, which is an awesome idea.  Maybe you have something worth a lot, but it's nice to just leave it there for someone to discover.  Or, you can go to eBay or the like and see if what you have is really worth a lot.  Then you have to decide if the effort to sell it is worth your time or not.  I have had luck with places like Crossroads to buy back some of my clothing, but sometimes they don't need what you have.  You decide what to do, but the end goal should be a lighter house, and not being owned by your things.

One final, final point.  When my husband and I were looking for homes to buy in the past few years (the market is too crazy now to do much besides save more money), we felt that we couldn't have smaller than a 3 and 2 because we had so much stuff.  Talk about being owned by our stuff!  How much stuff do you really need, two people who sleep in the same room??  My husband was raised in a 2 and 1 cottage, with his parents and brother.  The fact that half the people need twice the space is ridiculous.  So, give me some more of those garbage bags to fill (and show me the listings for cottages).