Yesterday a large moving van went up my street. Every time I see someone moving I think about what it would be like to pack up all my belongings and move to a new home. I’ve lived in this house for over 17 years so it’s been a long time since I went through the moving process.
It always amazes me to see how much trash the person moving has put out for their last pick-up. Why did they wait until they moved to get rid of the broken bookcase or toys? Why do we hold onto things thinking we will fix or need them in our old homes but not in our new home?
Moving gets us in a frame of mind that helps us let go of the clutter. It’s a new start in a new home. We don’t want to bring the clutter with us.
We can use this frame of mind to help us get rid of the clutter in our current home even if we don’t have any plans to move. This is what I call “Decluttering Mind Games”.
We can approach our decluttering with the idea that we are moving soon. When we pretend we are moving we can get in the right frame of mind to let go of the emotional and sometimes irrational reasons we hold onto things.
Look at each item and ask yourself: Is it worth paying money to move this item to a new home? If not, then why am I keeping it?
If it’s not worth moving and you don’t have a legitimate reason to keep it, then let it go. Don’t wait until you really are moving. Too much clutter at that time will only make the move more stressful.
Another mind game to help you declutter is pretending a fire or disaster destroyed all your belongings. I wrote an article called: “How To Decluttering Using A Household Inventory List”. In the article you will learn how to declutter with the “potential disaster” frame of mind plus create an inventory list for insurance purposes. A win-win situation.
Do you play “mind games” to help you get rid of clutter? Please let me know what games you play in the comment section. Thanks.
Janice
Hi Janice!
First of all I do play a game while buying stuff: will I need it and appreciate it for a long time to come?
And I really need to get rid of something – I try to find a recyclabe place for it, not just a trash.
Amtea,
Thanks for the great question to ask yourself when buying stuff. I like to call it “conscious shopping”. Too many times we are on auto-pilot when buying stuff.
I agree with you about trying to recycle as much as possible. Usable items can be given away to charities or Freecycle or sold at garage sales, Ebay, Craigs list, or newspaper ads. Lots of cities have places to recycle certain “trash” items so they can have a second life.
I pretend that I don’t actually own anything in my home, but I can buy whatever I’d like. What would I actually want in my house? How many tiny bottles of hand lotion do I really want?
When we start asking ourselves questions before we buy something then we are doing what I call “conscious shopping”. This helps control the mindless shopping that leads to clutter. I notice that the link for the article “How To Declutter By Using A Household Inventory List” was incorrect in this blog. I’ve updated the article and put it on my website article page. Here is the correct link. https://cutclutterwithscissors.com/how-to-declutter-by-using-a-household-inventory-list/
When we start asking ourselves questions before we buy something then we are doing what I call “conscious shopping”. This helps control the mindless shopping that leads to clutter. I notice that the link for the article “How To Declutter By Using A Household Inventory List” was incorrect in this blog. I’ve updated the article and put it on my website article page. Here is the correct link. https://cutclutterwithscissors.com/how-to-declutter-by-using-a-household-inventory-list/