If there’s one thing I love to do, it’s a good purge of my stuff. From clothes to home decor and everything in between, I find a good closet clean-out to be therapeutic. I’m not a sentimental person and verrrry rarely hang onto things “just because”. I have special momentos in the kids’ memory boxes and some things between me and Mike that I’ll save forever, but otherwise I can part ways with just about anything. Where it becomes tricky for me is if I just don’t have a use for an item right now, but I still really love it. I’ll store home decor items for quite awhile, but then I’ll do a big purge and get rid of things I kept in the closet for years.
If you’re needing to do a big reset or just have that one guest room closet that’s sort of haunting you, here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way to staying on top of the “stuff” that fills your home.
- Purge regularly. Whether that’s yearly, monthly, or somewhere in between, stick to a schedule. I purge my closet seasonally, usually once in the spring and once in the fall. Throughout the year, I’ll pull an item from a hanger if I notice I haven’t grabbed for it, too. For home decor items, it’s a little less often. We have a storage closet under our stairs that I keep the bulk of my back-up decor items in. I usually do a big clean out/donation haul when the closet gets so full that I can’t access all the items. It’s a little bit harder for me to get rid of home decor pieces because a really easy way to instantly refresh a room is just swapping out some of those decor elements, so I like to have a little reserve. I will say, I have some home decor items from 10+ years ago that I still use! When I like something, I really commit to it.
- Get rid of the things you know you don’t like. There have been times where I’ve got a piece of clothing or a home decor piece that I really don’t like much, but store it in a closet “just in case” anyway. Don’t do this. Unless it’s an extremely unique piece that you could never replace, just ditch it! It’s going to take up valuable real estate in your storage space.
- Hone in on your style and buy/collect according to it. An easy way to avoid an overflow of stuff is to really zero in on what you like. When you do that, you don’t waste money and storage space with things that you don’t wear/use often.
- Get rid of things you could replace, if necessary. Now this won’t apply to everything, but can apply to some things. Let’s say you have a $10 plant you bought at Target 2 years ago that has been in a storage closet for 6 months. Are you planning to put that plant back out anytime soon? Do you even really like it? If you need more space to store the things you really love and want to keep, ditch the things that you could simply replace should you decide you want to. Higher price point items should be kept (unless you enjoy lighting money on fire), but the little stuff can go! Sure, you may decide that plant would be perfect on that new shelf you buy in 2 more years, but why waste the storage space on it unless you know you’ll use it?
- If it’s hard for you to part ways with something, lock it away and see if you miss it. Again, this won’t apply to everything, but can be a useful tool if you tend to hold onto a lot of things “just in case”. That pile of clothes in your closet you haven’t touched in 4 years but just can’t bring yourself to donate? Put it in a bin, put it in your attic, and forget about it. If you don’t even think about an item in that bin until you see it next time you’re in your attic, it’s time for it to all go! It can sometimes be hard to get rid of things you might use, but more often than not, you won’t miss them!
There’s such a sense of relief that comes from purging the stuff that takes up important real estate in your storage space. Enjoy your purging!
