Empowered to Declutter! Closets

In this series, I am prioritizing living in peace by way of decluttering. We've covered why I started this journey in my first post Empowered to Declutter! and we started with the easy "yes" and "no" decisions in the Bathroom. Next, I continued with Allie Casazza's method found in her book Declutter Like a Mother, and this time we're tackling the closets.

One thing Allie C. says over and over is to set the intent for the space. I think this is so important when it comes to closets, because every single one of the closets in our house eventually become "catch all" spaces. My daughter's bedroom closet has some of my husband's snowmobiling gear and pieces of some shelves I took apart taking up space. My youngest son's closet has my oldest son's memory box in it. Don't even get me started on what's in the closet my husband and I share...

The main takeaway here is to store only the things you want in that closet. If a closet seems to be hiding a bunch of random stuff, set the intent for that closet and take out what doesn't belong. If you're left with a pile of random stuff, get rid of the trash, decide what you are going to donate and put it in your donate spot, and take everything you're keeping to it's proper place immediately.

For me, closets tend to be the home for sentimental items.

Sentimental items are simply objects that can be an emotional trigger for the meaning you've given them. The object itself isn't special. But if everything is sentimental, then nothing actually is. Honor sentimentality! Letting go of items that have memories attached to them doesn't mean you're letting go of those memories. (Read that again.) Keep things that are *worth* the space. DISPLAY! USE THEM!

Allie C. posed this question in her book, Declutter Like A Mother: "Don't you think your mom/grandma would want you to use that China set instead of letting it collect dust?" Actually, no! I don't think my mom would want me to use the China that was passed down from my great grandma Carrie! But it's mine now, and I'm trying to change generational clutter. Honestly, I'd rather leave behind more photos than stuff for my kids. So I plan on using the China and if we end up breaking a plate or a tea cup, then at least we took it out of the closet.

Pictured: my great grandma's China that I've never seen anyone actually use.

Here's something I never thought I would say... in the middle of cleaning out my second closet of the day, I got sad. When I'm done decluttering, I won't have to declutter anymore. What is wrong with me?! Do I enjoy decluttering?? Yes. I think I do. For me, I've been sifting through "stuff" for as long as I can remember. Literally. My mom shoved boxes full of printed pictures under my baby crib. Full of those free double prints you could get from the drugstore. Decluttering my whole house meant I wouldn't spend my time going through all of my "stuff" and actually spend my time enjoying our space.

I don't know how to do that...

When I was a kid, I remember my mom running around the house cleaning. All the time. We would be on the couch watching The Mummy on FX with my dad (core memory) and every time she fluttered through the room one of us would say, "you should sit and watch this with us." To which she replied, "I will when I'm done with [insert chore here]." Even now I catch myself saying that to my own kids. "Hey mom! Can you play mouse trap with us?" "Yep! As soon as I'm done cleaning out this closet!" Cue the generational curse of clutter.

Having less is uncharted territory for me. One thing I've learned from all the books, blogs, YouTube videos, and podcasts about decluttering is that I'll never be done with it. I'll need to form habits to take in less stuff and continually go through spaces to maintain "less." But this first big step of attacking my whole house has me seeing the bigger picture: I'm choosing time doing things that matter over having more stuff. That's nothing to be sad about.

XO, Courtney