Hack To Help If You Struggle To Throw Stuff Away
Now that spring has sprung, it’s the ideal time to tackle that spring cleaning around the house, which for many insists on going through things to throw away. For many…
To most people this may not be the most “fun” of the snow day activities but when else are you going to do it? You have the time so might as well do something productive.
ShutterstockNow that spring has sprung, it’s the ideal time to tackle that spring cleaning around the house, which for many insists on going through things to throw away. For many of us, that means cleaning out our closets and getting rid of things that have been hidden in the back just collecting dust. But for some, that task isn’t just a chore they don’t want to deal with, it’s the whole idea of giving up items that are hard for them.
Author Jandra Sutton is one of them and she says over the years, she’s tried various decluttering techniques, including Marie Kondo’s KonMari method, which has you ditch things that don’t “spark joy.” And while that works for some things, Sutton still found herself struggling to let go of items she thought she’d use or wear one day.
So she came up with a fix that works for her - a middle step between keeping and discarding things.
- Instead of forcing herself to get rid of things, Sutton added a third category to her closet cleanout - items she hides.
- It’s for the things she’s not ready to ditch or donate but isn’t sure she wants to keep.
- Those things go in the “hide pile” until her next cleanout.
- And because she’s hiding these items from view, she doesn’t feel the guilt of not using or wearing everything and she’s not constantly reminding herself that she bought something she doesn't use.
- Then a couple of times a year, she revisits the pile and if she hasn’t used the items since the last cleanout, Sutton says that proves it’s something she doesn’t need and she can easily get rid of it.
This is something I am going to try! I just moved into a new place and when I was moving out I got rid of a lot of things...so I thought. Now that I'm moving in and unpacking I feel like I have more stuff. So I'll be using this to get rid of even more!
