I am doing a No Buy Year, where I aim to not buy anything non-essential for a whole year. In addition, one of my goals for the No Buy Year is to declutter my house. Yep, I am not buying things, and I am getting rid of stuff. I want to free up space in my house (and also brain space) to make my life as simple and easy as possible. After all, the theme of this blog is Finding My Simple Life.
I would describe my house as a normal middle-class home, although maybe on the smaller side. I used to have an average-ish amount of clutter. But, over the last few years, I’ve let it get a little bit out of control (from my perspective). Imagine a normal hedge and then imagine if the hedge is not pruned back for a year until it has turned into a messy hedge-tree. I am probably exaggerating now, but, you get the picture about the clutter. Basically, we are at the point where I need to declutter (get rid of stuff) or renovate the house. We would much prefer to declutter than the cost and inconvenience of renovating. I am still open to renovating, but only after I try decluttering first!
Now I am going to state it loudly and clearly – I DON’T ENJOY DECLUTTERING! It is up there with dieting and trying to do sit-ups in terms of painful activities for me. When I first started thinking about decluttering the whole house, I felt overwhelmed and unmotivated. So, I decided to break it into rooms and give myself a four-week challenge where I tackle decluttering a room each week during March.
This first week is decluttering the bathroom. I picked the bathroom because it was the easiest option. Or, at least I thought it would be the easiest option. However, as I gingerly started the process, sorting through every tiny item and questioning whether it brings me joy, I found myself getting drained by the decision-making. (I think it felt worse because I was decluttering at night time, when I am most tired.) It turns out, there’s a term for this: decision fatigue. It’s actually a thing! Decision fatigue, as defined by Wikipedia, refers to the decline in the quality of decisions made by an individual after a prolonged period of decision-making. 1
So, in terms of decluttering and decision-making, I found that basically, each item fell into three different categories:
- Definitely keep – this item is either a need or love.
- Definitely throw out – good riddance.
- Unsure – I’m on the fence if this item should stay.
Option 1 or 2 was fairly easy. Toilet paper was staying. Shampoo was staying. Expired makeup was going. Funky jewellery was going. But, it was the unsure items that caused the most issue because deciding those took a lot of thinking. So, I decided to have a pile for the unsure items where they are put away in a separate location for ‘thinking time’. I only needed a few days. After seeing how the bathroom felt after decluttering, it was hard to justify having most of the items back. Most of the unsure items were either donated or thrown out but some returned to the bathroom. But, it was helpful for me having that separate location for the unsure items to manage decision fatigue.
The most important part of my declutter process was to try to simplify my morning routine. I get ready every day. This is a chunk of my day that is a necessity so I want to be able to get ready in the most simple and efficient way possible.
First, I stowed away items that I didn’t use on a daily basis in less accessible areas. That really helped in removing items that I shouldn’t think about on a daily basis, but will still need (or want) at a later point.
I already had a makeup caddy that I tuck away under the sink after I finish getting ready each morning. I have found the makeup caddy has been super helpful in containing mess. I went through the makeup caddy and disposed of expired or unused items or duplicated items. I then made sure that I had one of everything in my caddy that I use each morning. It is a one-stop for all my frequently used items. To make it into the caddy, it had to be an item that I used on a daily basis.
My jewellery box was much harder. There was a lot in the jewellery box that fell into the ‘unsure items’ category. Basically, if I didn’t plan on wearing the jewellery in the next six months or it didn’t hold sentimental or intrinsic value, the item went in the trash or was donated (I don’t have expensive jewellery taste).
Overall, I am glad I did this activity. My bathroom looks better, but more importantly, it functions much better. Simple and streamlined.
Next week is decluttering the closet. Shudder!
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