There is an idea being discussed lately on minimalism blogs: You don’t have to keep everything you use. Which might seem obvious to some, and ludicrous to others. I already understood this idea – I’ve given away things we sometimes used, but never enough to make their presence worthwhile. I just gave away a sweatshirt that I actually liked, but that didn’t really work with most of what I owned and wasn’t worn enough to justify the space it was taking up on my sweatshirt hanger (as an SFer, I have A LOT of sweatshirts, because I wear them all year long!) So, the idea is one I’m familiar with, but one I think I needed to see written out in black and white.
We are due for a purge. It’s been a long time since we really went through everything, Marie-Kondo style, and got rid of bags and bags of stuff. I definitely went through the kids’ rooms in the fall, before school started, and got rid of a lot of the random learning supplies that were sent home during distance learning (along with other stuff). But it wasn’t a big purge. And I’m not sure I even have a big purge in me, but I know I need to do something because the time between “picked up” and “driving me crazy” has shortened considerably in the past few months. I’m sure Christmas had something to do with it, but I also know that I am guilty of bringing in way more than we need, or can even manage. It’s definitely gotten to the point where I need to go through everything and get rid of a lot of stuff again.
And I have to remind myself, that just because we sometimes use something, doesn’t mean we have to keep it. I think I do keep a fair number of things knowing that we sometimes pull them out and make use of them. But when you live in 1600 square feet, you can’t keep all the things. You just can’t.
Which is fine, because we don’t need to. There is a library close by for books (we have WAY TOO MANY BOOKS), and plenty of fun stuff to do in the city. We were stuck at home for a long time, and we got good use out of a lot of what’s in our house. It’s okay to say goodbye to some of those things now.
{Also my son can really read now and he likes to read and that is amazing and means we don’t need nearly as many toys and all the yays!}
Can you tell I’m talking myself into the idea? I really do need to get rid of a ton of stuff, and my unhappiness at the state of our house is a great motivator. Knowing the house will stay neat for longer is also a powerful incentive.
Next week is our spring break. My husband is going to DC for a work conference for the second half and the week, and the kids and I will be spending most of that time at my parents’ house (I’m realizing I need to spend time down there myself because they won’t always be able to do stuff with us like they can now). That still gives me three weekdays to fill bags and get them out of the house. Even if I just get through my closet and the kids’ rooms, it will be enough to make the last couple months of school more manageable.
So I’m mentally preparing myself for the purge. I may even start filling some bags with things I KNOW I want to get rid of. I think if I start ramping up my momentum now, I’ll get more done during the days I’m dedicating to the culling.
Do you need to mentally prepare to purge stuff? When did you last do a big purge?
We are moving again soon, and this time I have gotten her permission not to keep her toys — none of which she plays with anymore — in her room. So they are going in plastic boxes in the basement of the new house. Better than out it in the open I guess!
I have a hard time getting rid of clothes that don’t fit / are no longer worn. Really hard. Ugh. So many clothes.
Ugh, I’ve started the big purge over the past 2 months but have SOOOO much more to do. Our house is 1,416 sq. ft. and we are currently living through a remodel of the lower ensuite bathroom (to make it work better for our house – the bath will also be accessible off the LVRM as a powder room), and then we are adding a small 360 sq. ft. master suite over the garage. This means we will ultimately have about 1,800 sq. ft. which is still small by a lot of people’s standards, but I’m SOOOOO excited for us all to have our own rooms + a dedicated office space.
The problem (blessing?) is the massive amount of purging that is necessary as we move through this project. The downstairs room has acted as a guest room / office / workout space for 12 years, and the closets and room were FULLLLLLLL of stuff like high school / college memorabilia and other sentimental stuff from my 20s. That was a huge purge (and some stuff moved to a storage unit since the room was stripped to the studs). Then once that room & bathroom remodel is done, my husband and I will move down to that room for the summer and the kids to my parents’ house in MN (after all 4 of us live with my husband’s parents for the month of May while the kids finish school), and DANG…the entire upstairs (currently 2 bed + 1 bath where the 4 of us live) has to be completely emptied out, and I’m only slightly freaking out about that already. It’s definitely forcing a massive purge though!
Last complete ‘every room and garage and every drawer/shelf purge’ …. 18 months ago. Have decreased more on steady basis over the intervening time. One side effect of covid isolation has been VERY limited acquisitions. Also a lot of ‘wearing out’ of clothing with no replacing. Still need to do another complete review and discard event, especially of clothing that is now very over worn.
When you have a full time job purging time is really hard to find.
Your children may find purging hard but also a relief as it opens space and owning less makes it easier to keep things tidy and less dusty. Drawers hide things and toys take up lots of space. Children keep growing and changing, adding is easy and discarding hard.
Thank you for sounding the call and leading the parade.
Please remember to build in reward time for you too!!!!!!!
I love purging. The frustrating thing is it seems to need to be done constantly (especially with kids stuff as they grow out of things + seem to be given a lot of hand-me-downs like clothes and toys that I then have to deal with).
I don’t have to psyche myself up for purging generally (because I like it so much), but I find it hard to balance over-purging the kids things and wanting to allow them independence over their things while recognizing that given a choice they would keep everything forever…which just doesn’t work! So the mental balancing act is the hard part of the process for me.
Working on a spring purge now! Our apartment in SF is about 1200 sq ft with no garage or storage unit and we’re a family of 4. We’re constantly making trips to the Salvation Army and leaving things on the curb. ( The curb swap is one of my favorite parts of living here. Most of our kids stuff was found on the curb and then returns to the curb when we’re done with it.) We simply can’t keep what isn’t regularly used and outgrown clothes and toys go asap. Finished the laundry room purge and now working on the living room closet, which is mostly kids toys and games. I’m having a hard time with my daughter’s artwork. She loves art and is great at it and there is SO MUCH we can’t keep it all. The memorabilia is the hardest part for me. Getting rid of clothes and other household stuff is easy, but things that remind me of my kids when they were littler like the artwork, books…sigh.
Take pictures of the artwork and make a photo book of it, keeping only the top 10 pieces to have! I do this with one if my artsy daughters and she loves her art books!! And it’s fun to swap out a new piece for one of the old ones that jumps into the top 10!
Ooh good idea!