My current Decluttering Journey
I call myself a minimalist for many years… I got into the topic thanks to Pinterest somewhere in 2018. It has benefited me a lot during the years, but thanks to online shopping, Ikea and you know it got to a point where I feel stuck with my stuff again.
I´ve decided to go with the theme of experimentation for 2024, but somehow it feels like I need a preparation phase, where I am decluttering, simplifying, and working on toxic mindsets. More or less in that order.
This wasn´t planned. I noticed a few things I want to declutter, just did it… and now I am approx. five weeks into this journey, declutter at least one item every day, but more often than not it´s more.
I am living in a single-room studio apartment, so it feels cluttered and disorganized pretty fast. As a naturally lazy person with a love for the colorful version of minimal aesthetics, I decided that it was time to take action.
As an opposite to common advice, I don´t have a real plan. I go with the flow and have a rough list of stuff I might get rid of and use up (but don´t replace). As the majority of the stuff is worth just a few cents I trash it away and not donate it.
The thing I was starting with was expired food and eating everything that was in the freezer and my fridge until they were empty. I fought my inner demons of food scarcity from my COVID-19 infection in September 2022, when I had to rely on my boyfriend for grocery shopping for a month thanks to health reasons.
As the first items I tossed expired food items (especially tea) and now work more or less through kitchen gadgets, paperwork, clothing, unwanted decorative items, etc.
This is not my first decluttering period in my life. Most likely it won´t be my last. But this is the first time I am working on simplifying my routines, my calendar, my digital system, and hopefully my mindset as well. I am trying to replace random unrelated to-dos more with structured checklists, question whether some house chores are worth doing every (period), etc.
I am allowing myself to take a temporary break from friends who won´t be supportive of this journey as well. This is a period about me, not about others. It was hard for the first two weeks but now I am kinda glad I dared to tell them that I need a few weeks for myself.
I allow myself to take the risk of having to rebuy something in a few months or a year. Or maybe never. So the “just-in-case” excuse for keeping items is less strong these days.
What makes me so confident? I feel like I am in a transformational period in life. A period where I get a deeper understanding concerning my toxic beliefs about productivity, busyness… And roughly know where I want to be in a few years and what kind of person I want to become.
In congruence with that, my impulse shopping tendencies have been reduced by approx. 50% or more. More often than not I am asking myself whether this Ebook or this item will benefit me or just drain energy and make its storage place messier.
I still have a long way ago, but I got to a point where I noticed a difference. Like when I go to Ikea which is like every other month. For years it always ended up spending approx. 50€ more than planned each time. The last time I went there it was approx. 15€. This is a huge step in the right direction for me.
That is decluttering a way I want to go. I am forcing myself to use up things I´ve accumulated (journals, condiments, food, hobby items) and try to make a creative challenge out of that where possible.
As for the mindsets, I don´t have a real plan yet. These days I am understanding the reasons behind better and better, so I call this a first step into the direction of letting them go.
