From trash to treasure: decluttering to make room for your passions
Deciding what is trash and what is treasure is one of the hardest parts of physical decluttering. The little voice in the back of your head whispering “We should keep that. You’ll need it as soon as you throw it away!” or “It’ll fit once we get back to the gym!”
Traditional organizing rules say that if you haven’t used an item in more than a year, you should dispose of it. This saves things such as Christmas decorations and gardening tools from needing to be replaced each year. A slightly modified approach may suit those of us who are inspired by touching our items during the decluttering process to reconnect with unfinished projects. It’s hard to toss or give away an item (even though we know we should) when we’ve just been reminded of the great idea we started out with. Traditional organizing has three categories to choose from during the decluttering process: Keep, Toss, and Give Away. I suggest the addition of a category known as “Keep If.” Keep If covers things that are works in process.
This is not to say that you can put everything on project status and keep the items as they are. That’s where the “If” comes in. Gather your half-finished projects and lay them out where you can see them. For each item, ask yourself the following questions:
1) Are you still interested in the project? If you started the project as a long-forgotten birthday gift for someone you don’t speak to any more, or realized you’ll never need to speak Finnish in a social or work setting, it might be time to let it go.
2) Do you have all the tools you need to finish the project? If not, do you have the resources to acquire them? Trade, borrowing, and rental are all economical options that can get you what you need without a investment of money or space in your closet.
3) Do you have the time to complete the project in the next 60 days? If not, why not? Is the project too large? Can it be broken down into smaller projects?
At this stage, you should have a good idea as to whether or not you really want to complete the project. If you’ve decided it’s not going to happen in a reasonable time frame, donate the unfinished project and the related supplies to Goodwill or Habitat For Humanity. Make room for a new idea or just a bit of open space in your home.
On the other hand, if the project has reignited your interest, take the time to gather up all the tools and materials you will need to finish it. For a craft, this might include the fabric, pattern, notions, measuring tools and scissors. Place all the items in the same container and put them in your work area. Now make a date with yourself for some time in the next week to get cracking. Make it an If/Then proposition: IF I work on this project on Tuesday night, THEN it stays. IF I don’t work on it on Tuesday night, THEN I donate the materials on Wednesday morning. It’s a built-in deadline that will inspire you to tackle what really matters. Set a reminder in your cell phone letting you know the day before that you have a date with your project, and another a couple of hours before your start time so you have time to clear the decks for action. If acquiring tools or materials is your stumbling block to finishing the project, use your project time to make phone calls or send emails tracking down the gear you need. For example, if your project involves learning a language, post online seeking a practice partner or visit the BBC website for free interactive lessons. Though you may not be making direct progress on the project, you are still taking a step in the right direction.
Mark your project appointments on your calendar so you can see them. Check them off in bright colours on days you keep your commitment to yourself and your passions. You will find that seeing those checkmarks will give you a boost of energy on lacklustre days- being able to say, “I’m making a lot of progress,” and prove it to yourself is essential for defeating negative self-talk that can derail any project.
Having a houseful of unfinished projects is inspiring for some people. Those items are chock-full of possibility, and the idea of what might be gets your motor running. If you are one of these types, get yourself a set of decorative boxes, a large wall calendar, and have at it! Keep everything necessary for each project in it’s own box, and use the calendar to schedule work times for each. Make sure you are hitting each project at least once a month- this will help to make sure you can pick up right where you left off. For more complex tasks, leave a note in the box detailing the next step to take. Even if you can only spare fifteen minutes a week for an individual project it adds up: when you have all the tools and materials you need at hand that fifteen minutes is a productive time. At the average adult typing speed of 40 words per minute, that’s 31200 words a year, which is a great start to that novel you’ve been working on since college!
The key to decluttering is not hiding the unfinished items in your life, it’s getting the right groupings to facilitate progress. Making a start (or a middle!) is always a step in the right direction. Those half-finished projects really might be treasure after all.
Traditional organizing rules say that if you haven’t used an item in more than a year, you should dispose of it. This saves things such as Christmas decorations and gardening tools from needing to be replaced each year. A slightly modified approach may suit those of us who are inspired by touching our items during the decluttering process to reconnect with unfinished projects. It’s hard to toss or give away an item (even though we know we should) when we’ve just been reminded of the great idea we started out with. Traditional organizing has three categories to choose from during the decluttering process: Keep, Toss, and Give Away. I suggest the addition of a category known as “Keep If.” Keep If covers things that are works in process.
This is not to say that you can put everything on project status and keep the items as they are. That’s where the “If” comes in. Gather your half-finished projects and lay them out where you can see them. For each item, ask yourself the following questions:
1) Are you still interested in the project? If you started the project as a long-forgotten birthday gift for someone you don’t speak to any more, or realized you’ll never need to speak Finnish in a social or work setting, it might be time to let it go.
2) Do you have all the tools you need to finish the project? If not, do you have the resources to acquire them? Trade, borrowing, and rental are all economical options that can get you what you need without a investment of money or space in your closet.
3) Do you have the time to complete the project in the next 60 days? If not, why not? Is the project too large? Can it be broken down into smaller projects?
At this stage, you should have a good idea as to whether or not you really want to complete the project. If you’ve decided it’s not going to happen in a reasonable time frame, donate the unfinished project and the related supplies to Goodwill or Habitat For Humanity. Make room for a new idea or just a bit of open space in your home.
On the other hand, if the project has reignited your interest, take the time to gather up all the tools and materials you will need to finish it. For a craft, this might include the fabric, pattern, notions, measuring tools and scissors. Place all the items in the same container and put them in your work area. Now make a date with yourself for some time in the next week to get cracking. Make it an If/Then proposition: IF I work on this project on Tuesday night, THEN it stays. IF I don’t work on it on Tuesday night, THEN I donate the materials on Wednesday morning. It’s a built-in deadline that will inspire you to tackle what really matters. Set a reminder in your cell phone letting you know the day before that you have a date with your project, and another a couple of hours before your start time so you have time to clear the decks for action. If acquiring tools or materials is your stumbling block to finishing the project, use your project time to make phone calls or send emails tracking down the gear you need. For example, if your project involves learning a language, post online seeking a practice partner or visit the BBC website for free interactive lessons. Though you may not be making direct progress on the project, you are still taking a step in the right direction.
Mark your project appointments on your calendar so you can see them. Check them off in bright colours on days you keep your commitment to yourself and your passions. You will find that seeing those checkmarks will give you a boost of energy on lacklustre days- being able to say, “I’m making a lot of progress,” and prove it to yourself is essential for defeating negative self-talk that can derail any project.
Having a houseful of unfinished projects is inspiring for some people. Those items are chock-full of possibility, and the idea of what might be gets your motor running. If you are one of these types, get yourself a set of decorative boxes, a large wall calendar, and have at it! Keep everything necessary for each project in it’s own box, and use the calendar to schedule work times for each. Make sure you are hitting each project at least once a month- this will help to make sure you can pick up right where you left off. For more complex tasks, leave a note in the box detailing the next step to take. Even if you can only spare fifteen minutes a week for an individual project it adds up: when you have all the tools and materials you need at hand that fifteen minutes is a productive time. At the average adult typing speed of 40 words per minute, that’s 31200 words a year, which is a great start to that novel you’ve been working on since college!
The key to decluttering is not hiding the unfinished items in your life, it’s getting the right groupings to facilitate progress. Making a start (or a middle!) is always a step in the right direction. Those half-finished projects really might be treasure after all.