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A Decluttering Guide for Sensitive People
When it’s hard to let go…
If you want to declutter your life but get overwhelmed in the process, you might be a sensitive declutterer.
If your dream is to get all those boxes out of the basement and the attic but you keep getting sidetracked by family mementos and personal keepsakes that you end up stuffing everything back in the box and procrastinating, you are probably a sensitive declutterer.
If you’re wondering how others can sweep through the basement and toss boxes, unopened, to the curb while you feel the need to touch and handle every item before deciding its fate, you’re definitely a sensitive declutterer.
So what is one to do? Are you destined to live with boxes of birthday cards, oodles of children’s drawings, and every photo you have snapped over the years?
No! There is a way for us sensitive types to declutter. It will take longer and you will probably have to do it in stages but you can do it!
Don’t feel bad that you are sensitive and have saved your mom’s old hankies or aprons or that you can’t bear to part with grandma’s cookie cutters and mixing bowl.
Don’t beat yourself up because you still have the baptism gown your daughter wore or your son’s first pair of cowboy boots.
It’s okay to be sentimental. That’s the way you are wired. What’s not okay is to be smothered by material objects or trapped in the past to a degree that it impacts your happiness today or your ability to move on.
It took me three downsizing and decluttering attempts before I finally was able to pare down to the things I needed, loved, and wanted to keep without feeling like I was sacrificing any of the special items I cherished.
I managed to make my way from a 4,200 square foot home with a loaded basement to a 2,200 square foot home with limited storage to a 1,100 square foot apartment and finally to an 880 square foot tiny home.
