Isn’t predicting the future the biggest wish for those of us who struggle with clutter?
But it isn’t (technically) possible.
So my default answer to the question, “Will I need this someday?” was always maybe.
And my house filled up with maybes.
But 55-90% of the time, those maybes should have been nos.
Over the past eight years, I’ve decluttered a ba-jillion maybes, and I’m excited to say that I have learned to (sortof) predict the future (somewhat).
Not precisely or exactly or perfectly or always. But I can usually, in a vague way that lets me relax and let go of stuff, predict whether or not my home and life will be better or worse for having kept something that once would have seemed impossible to not keep.
Like this:
This non-life-altering, but strangely-automatic-to-keep, totally reusable gift card box.
As I was decluttering last weekend, I came across it. It’s small and cute and was in perfect condition. And I will almost surely give someone a gift card within the next few months. So I headed to the box in my closet where I keep gift wrapping stuff.
Because if I was looking for a gift card box, that’s where I’d look first.
But then I hesitated. Because even though the answer to my first decluttering question was so automatic that I didn’t even have to ask the question, my future answer to the second decluttering question came to me equally clearly.
I knew, without a much doubt, that if I were to run across this box in a future decluttering project, my answer to if I needed this, would it ever occur to me that I already had one would be no.
I predicted the future, and identified this item as clutter before it ever gained a place in my home.
I know that a gift box is not a life-altering decision, but it’s one small item that would have definitely been a maybe in the past along with fifty-thousand other definite maybes. All those little maybes together added up to one very cluttered and overwhelming home.
So I choose to see each moment of predicting the future as a win. Because every item that leaves my home (any item that leaves my home) is a decluttering win.
But how did I predict the future?
I decluttered. Again and again. And answered the second decluttering question again and again.
And again.
And all that decluttering in my past, all those decisions and realizations about the mass of things that cluttered my home and made life harder to live, allowed me to more realistically predict the future of the things that are coming into my home.
It works on stuff that’s harder than gift boxes, eventually, but even just working on the piddly stuff makes a huge difference.
Keep decluttering. You’ll gain this super power, too.
I had ‘A Moment’ yesterday as i was sorting through my mom and dad’s things. (I’ve kind of inherited all the photos/genealogy type items and boy! I’ve had several hours of feeling overwhelmed at how to organize them.)
So yesterday, I put my best foot forward (tush, really, since I was seated) and began going through ANOTHER cute little basket full of STUFF.
This one had greeting cards. Nice greeting cards. BEAUTIFUL greeting cards. And Mom had them all sorted according to OCCASION.
So, I sorted through them myself, to make sure none of Mom or Dad’s important items got lost among them.
1. COULD I have used these greeting cards? Yup.
2. WOULD I have saved gobs of MONEY by just using THESE ones up? YUP.
3. WOULD having these cards on hand save me a lot of time and help me NOT procrastinate in dropping a line to someone? YUP!!!!
DID I KEEP THEM? NOPE.
Why not?
Well, as much as I love sending a little ‘happy’ to other people, I actually prefer to MAKE my own card and give them My Own Little Touch. I always kind of feel disconnected from the card, if I don’t make up my own…because I KNOW, I’m able enough to come up with ‘cute’ little phrases, and artistic enough to be able to make something to fit the recipients personality.
That was reason #1.
#2. I would have HAD to keep a container, because there were maybe 70 cards in this collection. I can’t STAND having too many containers taking up space on a desk (or a drawer) at which I like to write at.
So! I’ve made a huge step of achievement in making that decision and I’m so proud of myself!!!!
🙂
BRAVO, Susan! Thanks for sharing your thinking process, too!
Congratulations, Susan!
That second decluttering question is the one that gets me. I WANT to remember that I have stuff that is perfectly useable (like gift card boxes), but I don’t. And I sometimes get lost in WHY I don’t remember — WHY it doesn’t occur to me — that I already have one, instead of just accepting the reality that I don’t for that particular thing, for whatever reason. It doesn’t occur to me, so bye bye gift card box.
I also am working on giving myself permission to get it wrong sometimes. Sometimes I’m going to get rid of it (I think Dana calls it decluttering regret), and realize later that I actually do need it, and then I’ll have to buy another one. But it’s not the end of the world! I heard somewhere if I can get another one in under 20 minutes (looking at you, Amazon) for under $20, then it’s probably worth the risk. I haven’t always been in the stage of life where I was comfortable with that, but today I am. Thankfully!!
Thanks for the promise of gaining that super power! That’s the carrot this bunny really needs!!