Decluttering over 1,000 items in only 30 days

Have you ever looked around your home and decided you just have too much stuff? 

 

Maybe you want to 

• de-clutter before a move
• get rid of stuff so you can clean less
• have people visit without worrying about tidying first
  
• feel less scattered and more at home in your actual home
• leave less for your children or loved ones to deal with when you are gone
• or any number of other things.

Years ago, I inherited a whole lot of stuff from my grandmother. More recently, I inherited a whole lot of stuff from my hoarder uncle. 

 

Dealing my grandmother's things was fairly easy as she had already downsized several times, so there wasn't actually a whole lot to deal with.

 

My uncle, however, was another story. As a hoarder with a three bedroom, built out basement, and large garage, he had a lot of stuff! Most of it was junk, but I still had to go through all of it as I couldn't find a will and was pretty sure he had other documents and possibly money tucked away into weird places (I didn't ever find a will though). It took me a few years to go through all of his stuff! 

 

The experience of going through all of my uncle's stuff was overwhelming and felt never ending! I don't want to leave my child with such a burden when it is my time to die.

 

As I was going through my uncle's things, I decided to go through my own belongings as well. This has been a multi-year process.

Even after a few years, I still had far more than I wanted and decided to really accelerate my de-cluttering.

 

In December of 2022, in just 30 days (I took Christmas day off), I de-cluttered more than 1,000 items! I started tracking the items going in and out of my home (excluding business related things). I started keeping a record of every purchase and every discard. I used a simple notebook with three columns:

• The date
• Green or red color coding (green if I got rid of something, red if I brought something into my home)
• The number and description of items

At the end of every page, I added up the items. By the end of the month, I had de-cluttered over 1,000 items, even after I accounted for the items I added to my home. In the following months, I've continued to de-clutter, though I've slowed down some and had a few periods where I didn't de-clutter at all. 

 

Even if I wasn't actively de-cluttering, I noticed that my shopping habits and my willingness to accept stuff from well meaning friends had changed. I said no more often and window shopped more than I actually made purchases. If I purchase anything now, it's typically something I need (my wallet fell apart and I replaced it, for example) or something I've thought about for a few weeks before purchasing.

Since December, as of writing this post, I've de-cluttered well over 2,500 items!

What has your own de-cluttering journey been like? Or are you wanting to de-clutter but not sure where to start? Or are you trying to de-clutter but friends or family don't understand why? Drop a comment and let me know!