Revenge Against Stuff

Over the past several months Brandon and I have been going through all our stuff and getting rid of things we no longer need. We moved from a place with almost unlimited storage to a place with very limited storage space. Also we are about to bring two girls into our lives and we figured it would be a good idea to get rid of our unnecessary clutter before they arrive.

It is amazing how much stuff we accumulated and hung on to over the course of our lives. Some of the stuff is important. However a lot of it is just junk. We've eliminated countless boxes of useless things we had been storing. We also were able to find things that were important to us, but we'd forgotten about them amidst all the other stuff we'd been saving. Though this process of decluttering I've come up with a theory about the seven layers of stuff that most homes have. Here they are in case you want to evaluate your own home.

Level 7 - Stuff you will never ever use
This is the easiest level of stuff to identify and the easiest to get rid of. It's just trash. Items include candy wrappers, flyer's for events you never went to, credit card offers, envelopes, etc. Before we moved we got rid of most of this type of junk. I can't tell you how many empty jelly jars we kept on top of the fridge "just in case we needed them."
Level 6 - Stuff pretending to be important
This is stuff that was once important to hang onto, but is now trash. This includes old bills (that you don't need for documentation), notes from high school history, and anything you've hung on to but can't remember why. This type of stuff is harder to identify. It takes some time to sort through. For example, I spent an entire afternoon going through our filing system. As much as I wanted to I couldn't just throw it all away. There were important documents such as my birth certificate that I needed. However, when I found an entire folder full of Brandon's phone bills from 2004 it was a no brainer to get rid of those papers.

Level 5 - Stuff with fake sentimental value

Look around your home. Do you absolutely love everything you see, or are there things that you hang on to out of obligation? The obligation stuff is the next thing you should think about getting rid of. Here is an example. Almost 3 years ago Brandon and I went to a Christmas Party and had a great time. At the party we won some goblets as a white elephant present. The goblets were dark green plastic, and consequently we never found a reason to use them. But because we had such a good time at the party we couldn't get rid of them. After we moved we discovered there was no room to continue to store those goblets. We were able to toss them into the DI box without forgetting the fun we had at the party.

Level 4 - Stuff with sentimental value only because you have hung on to it for so long

Have you ever opened a box and found something that you haven't thought about for years? Something that you thought you had lost, but never regretted losing? Something you could go your whole life without seeing again? And yet just because you found it again you think, "oh this wonderful broken cup/ ugly picture/ half eaten cookie! I've had it all this time - I can't get rid of it now." Guess what. In most cases you can get rid of it and you will sleep just fine. In fact you probably will forget that you ever even found it in the first place. A trick I've used to evaluate this type of stuff is to put it in a trash or DI box for a couple days before throwing or giving it away. That way I can tell myself that I can get it back out of the box if I need it. 9 times out of 10 I forget all about it and it leaves my life for good - just like it should have a decade ago. For example I recently found the fake baby I was supposed to take care of on my stake's handcart trek 8 years ago. I didn't care much for the baby during the trek (it's button eyes fell off the first day and I didn't get around to replacing them with a sharpy marker until day 3) I honestly had no idea I still had this doll until a few weeks ago when I found it with a bunch of my other high school stuff. For a few seconds I was tempted to keep the doll. Maybe my girls would want to play with it. I quickly faced reality. The doll was too big to store until the girls get old enough to play with it, even if I did store it I'm sure the girls will have other dolls to play with, and most of all I was indifferent to this doll. My life would be fine without it. And it is.

This level of stuff also includes stuff you see often. It may take something big to help you realize that you don't care about the object any more. For us it took moving to realize that we no longer cared about Brandon's model airplane. He'd stored it for years in his bedroom, and then our second bedroom. It was okay to have around, but it was showing a lot of signs of age. After we moved we decided that it wasn't worth hanging on to anymore. Here is what we did with it.

Level 3 - Useful Stuff

This is stuff that you hang onto because you are pretty sure you will use it one day. These are things like gift bags and tissue paper, ribbon, shoe laces, scrap wood, etc. The difference between this stuff and trash is that you actually use the stuff you save. Brandon and I have tons of this type of stuff. And trust me, we use it all the time. For instance, we haven't had to buy a gift bag the entire time we've been married. There is a trick to keeping this type of stuff. It can easily go from being a lifesaver to being a hindrance. Make sure you store it in an accessible place and that it is easily identifiable. Brandon uses clear plastic peanut butter and miracle whip jars to store his random screws, nails, and nuts and bolts. That way he can immediately tell what is in each jar. Also you have to periodically go through this type of stuff. I keep scrap paper for making cards. About once a year I go through the scraps and throw away any pieces that are too small to be of any real use.

Level 2 - Everyday Stuff

There is no escaping the fact that you need stuff in your life. You need pots and pans, clothes, blankets, towels, the list goes on and on. Sometimes these things that you absolutely need can turn into clutter if they aren't managed properly. I've spent a lot of time making sure that everything in my home has a home of it's own. For example, Brandon and I were given a lot of blankets when we got married. We also already had a lot of blankets. Up until last year we stored any blanket we weren't using in a big box. Then Brandon made me a beautiful quilt ladder to store the blankets. I love how it simultaneously stores and shows off the blankets.

Level 1 - Important Stuff

Going through all the other layers of stuff should help you identify the important stuff in your life. When you find something that is important make sure you put it somewhere that reflects it's significance. As I went through my high school stuff I found a lot of little things that I cared about. Instead of putting them back in the box I attached loops to them and turned them into Christmas ornaments. Now I will be able to pull them out and enjoy them every December. Also I've spent quite a lot of time sorting out the schoolwork I've kept over the years. I threw away all the notes I took in all my classes- even the ones I liked. Up until now I've been deluding myself that I would one day want to read the notes again - yeah right. Sorting though all my school stuff helped me find the stuff I actually wanted to keep and read. I put all the essays and papers I wrote in a binder labeled school stuff. Now I can easily read through everything from my 9th grade essay on Romeo and Juliet to my 12 grade US history essays to my college Sr Project on the Earned Income Tax Credit.

I'm by no means perfect at dejunking. I still have some boxes that are full of things I can't part with yet. However, I've been able to get rid of a lot of the things I really don't need. And now there is room for the important things.