Decluttering has paid off!

I started decluttering back in 2017 after reading Marie Kondo. I did one big initial declutter, but unlike her claims that it is a one time event and then you’re done, I found it was just the catalyst to be more aware of the amount of stuff I had and to get rid of old items that I had been holding onto out of guilt.

I found Dana K. White’s podcast and books, and her methods were the biggest help to keep working on my house. Sometimes I did huge decluttering marathons and other times I just got rid of a box of stuff here and there. Progress and only progress… for awhile.

Then during Covid, I managed to let stuff creep back in because I was online shopping to fill the time and fight off depression. I realized I needed to stop bringing stuff in if I ever was going to make lasting change in our house. I started making myself wait 2 weeks before I bought anything I thought I needed. Most of the time I ended up not buying it after the waiting period, and every time I did that, I wrote the item and its cost in a list on my phone to keep a tally of money I almost spent but didn’t. It was really motivating to see that this one strategy was saving me hundreds of dollars and preventing more stuff from entering our house.

Last summer, I did another huge decluttering marathon and then kept it up through the year. I’d put on a Slob Comes Clean podcast and get to work.

Now my spouse and I are moving on a relatively short timeline, and as I’ve been packing, I just keep thanking my past self for decluttering so much to get to this point. Packing seems doable and not completely overwhelming! We are moving to a house with half the square footage, and I’m relieved that I don’t have to make any hard decisions about what to bring and what to get rid off, because I did all the heavy lifting, both physically and mentally, beforehand.

I hope my story encourages others who have been at this for a long time— keep going! And if you feel like you aren’t making enough progress, evaluate what you are bringing into your house. Otherwise it’s like bailing water from a sinking ship.

Tl;dr— I’ve been working on decluttering for 7 years and I finally feel like the fruits of my labor have really paid off. Downsizing in a move and packing is so much easier.