2,000 Things Less

In case anyone was on the edge of his or her seat about my recent move, I am happy to report that it went well! We signed papers on a Friday; we emptied the moving truck and unpacked the kitchen, with the help of generous friends and brand new church contacts, over that weekend; the kids are going to kindergarten and preschool and just loving it; the one-year-old is so not thrilled about the baby gates we finally got put up at both ends of the stairs; single digit numbers of unpacked boxes remain; and we’ve managed to make time to play at several new parks already. I am loving the house we picked. Absolutely cannot complain!

Today I want to talk about how I got rid of 2,000 (yes, two thousand) items from my home before we moved. If there is one thing that moving frequently has taught me, it’s that I do not need all the stuff I once had. Nor do I want all of it badly enough to be willing to pack it and move it and unpack it (or never unpack it and re-move the box anyway) again, and again, and again.

Therefore, back in February, when we first found out that yes, we are moving—before the wait, maybe not, there’s this other position maybe, oh just kidding, they’re on a hiring freeze so never mind, yeah, we really are moving bit of the saga—I began working on decluttering our home. It is much easier to organize and clean up a house for listing photos if there are fewer things in the house. Plus, the whole actual packing and moving of every single thing would be on the horizon soon, too.

The Math

I had this much^^^^ of a pile to give away going, when a friend invited me to join her in the 30 Day Minimalism Game. The gist of the game is that for 30 days you find things in your home to give away, throw away, or give back to their rightful owners. On the first day, you find one thing. On the second day, two things. Third day, three things; tenth day, ten things; twentieth day, twenty things; etc. The official game rules say you have to have the things OUT of your house by midnight that night. Since we were under “shelter in place” orders at the time we were playing the game, we modified that rule to say: your things have to be in the “get rid of” pile (or trash can) by midnight and you may not get things back out of the pile later.

Perfect timing! I am in. My friend created a texting group where those of us playing could text a picture of the day’s items as motivation and validation. We were less concerned about “winning” or following the exact rules, and more concerned about encouraging one another to stick with it and declutter a little bit every day for one month.

I considered deconstructing my already-chosen pile to count the items as a head start on the game, but decided that wasn’t worth the effort. I’m going to guess there were at least 50 items in my pile already.

Instead of the game’s suggested method of finding the exact number of items on a given day, I found as much as I could when I got chances and took my pictures in incremental groupings, so that I would have an appropriate photo to submit to the group text each day. I’m a weirdo who thinks it’s fun to get rid of stuff, but the “game” aspect certainly added to the fun!

Thirty days later, I had gotten rid of 465 items. Some of the things I counted were groups-of-things or sets, so those were counted as one, but in reality were more than one thing: I counted a pile of papers to recycle as one, or a bowl full of beads as one, or a playroom bucket of trash as one, even though they were probably 10-50 “pieces” each. Toward the end of the game, though, I was counting individual pieces, afraid I wouldn’t be able to finish otherwise.

But I did finish!

And then about a month later, we found out again that we were for sure—this time finally for real for sure—going to be moving. And I thought once again about packing and loading and unpacking boxes and boxes and boxes of things. And there were still a few areas of the house I hadn’t even touched during the Game. So I challenged myself to get rid of 500 more things before we moved.

I am most motivated for self-imposed projects at the very beginning. I proposed this new challenge to myself on June 26th. By July 10th (only two weeks later!), I had reached my goal of 500. We didn’t even have our house on the market yet. I knew I still had at least another month before we would move. So I kept keeping tally and I kept going through things. And by the time we moved, my new tally was at 1,178.

So that was more than 50 things plus exactly 465 things plus almost 1200 things. Plus the additional individual pieces that didn’t get counted as individuals….which brings me to my total of approximately 2,000 items GONE from my house, and from my life. I never had to pack them—I did still have to move them, but for the very last time—and I never had to find a place for them in my new home.

The Disclosure

Some of the things we got rid of, we did so with the intention of replacing them. We had a very heavy solid wood dresser in the kids’ bedroom. It was perfect for a kids’ room, honestly: low profile so kids could reach their own drawers, nine drawers so there was plenty of room for two small kids’ clothing, and so heavy it would be impossible for children to pull it over onto themselves, even if they were scaling its drawers. But. The kids’ bedroom is upstairs at our new house, and the stairs include a 90-degree turn. It might have been possible to get that dresser up into their new bedroom, but it wouldn’t have been worth the sweat. We got it for free when we got it; we passed it along to the next family for free, too. We replaced it this week with a new one from IKEA: it went upstairs in the box, it was assembled inside their room, and voila! In this type of case, we got rid of something that was not ideal (in function or aesthetic) for our family, didn’t have to move it across the state, and replaced it with something more ideal for our family, which we will be willing to move with us if needed.

Similarly, we got rid of Justin’s old bachelor pad bar-height table and chairs. We have two dining areas in the new house, so eventually we’ll probably want a new “breakfast area” table setup. For now, we have the kids’ table and chairs there. It serves the breakfast/snack purpose with the added bonus of being 100% wipe-down-able. I do need to reupholster our dining room chairs. They’ve seen a couple toddlers through learning to feed themselves as well as potty training. TMI? Sorry, not sorry.

The How

If you know somewhere in your soul that you need to declutter, too, and the thought of having 2,000 things less excites you, but also overwhelms you (let’s be honest: if someone had challenged me to get rid of 2,000 items from the beginning, I would have laughed in his or her face), allow me to offer a few quick tips. I am no Marie Kondo (did you really think I could go the whole blog post without mentioning her?), but I do have a tiny bit of insight.

First of all, start small. Start with the 30 Day Game. Or make it a 7 Day Game, and only play for a week. If you want to add a second week at the end of the first, keep going! Or if you want to start over for a second week back at Day 1, that will still move 28 things out of your home every week that you commit to it.

Secondly, get an accountability buddy if you can. The text group was so motivating for me. I didn’t want to let them down! Even one friend who is mentally on board with you, to check in with daily or weekly, to celebrate progress with, can be a huge help to keep you moving in the right direction.

Third, revisit problem areas more than once. If you haven’t cleaned out your closet in years, it may take more than one go to pare it down to the level you want. I had to “go through” the kids’ playroom at least three times. I let the big kids help me with the first round or two, but I also had a couple of mom-only rounds. More on that later. Just like how when you start to deep clean, you notice the next layer of deep clean that’s needed; after you get the obvious things out of your problem areas, you can revisit them with fresh eyes to take it to the next level.

I’m not perfect at this, and I’m not trying to be judgey toward anyone who isn’t as close to “minimalist” on the spectrum as I am so far. I just know I find myself happier when I have things organized, and it’s easier to organize all the things when there are fewer things. I can’t find the statistic now, but I once heard that “the average American household” has over half a million things in it. Now, that’s counting every individual piece of every set, etc. But it might have actually been a million, not half. I can’t remember. Either way, I have no interest in living up to that statistic myself! Perhaps you don’t, either!

Tell me in the comments below: What is the hardest thing for you to get rid of, even though you know you don’t need it? Mine is: things other people gave to me or my kids as gifts. There is a perceived obligation to the giver to keep/use whatever it is—even if I (or my kids) don’t love it, and/or it’s not functional for my family—that makes me hold onto those things much longer than I should.