Thoughts on Decluttering

It’s Just Like Camping – Only Better!


We have been avid campers for years. Beside taking little mini-excursions to the beach or the mountains, we have enjoyed several 3-4 week long camping trips over the past 15 years. One the last long trip, we took my 68-year-old mother-in-law, who had never been camping before in her life. Now that was a fun trip! She had a blast and so did the kids. We left from our home in SC, picked up Gram in TX, then camped across the southwestern United States and wound our way up to Colorado for a family reunion.

One thing I have noticed is that all 8 of us can live quite comfortably out of our 15-passenger van and our homemade storage box that we pull on a small trailer. Why, then, did our 1,900 square foot house seem so packed when we were at home? Obviously, we can live with a lot less “stuff” than we usually have around the house.

I thought of this many times over the 18 months we were out of our house, trying to sell it. We stayed in a missionary apartment for a year, then had to leave there and so stayed with friends and family for 6 months, until we could eventually move back into our home. (It never sold; the person who was trying to buy it couldn’t.) As I inspected each item coming back into the home, I asked myself, “Do I really want to move this item ever again? Will I use it? Will I fix it? Does it have any special meaning for me?”

We certainly accumulated a lot of “things” in 21 years of marriage. I imagine I wouldn’t have this much if we moved more often. But we have lived in the same home for 20 years. One can become quite comfy after that much time.

In our case, it was not just a simple act of moving all our “junk” from one location to another. Because we were living temporarily in various locations, our belongings were placed in a temporary storage area. We had to set up “housekeeping” in temporary areas, knowing each time we would be boxing up our necessities and moving them again. This unusual situation forced me to closely consider each item.

It’s so easy to say, “We need to keep that for the next baby.” After 7 children, however, I’m done. So now the temptation is to say, “I’m keeping this for my grandbabies.” I’m sure you’ve caught yourself looking at a slightly broken utensil, knowing you have a brand new one in the cabinet, and thinking, “Hmm…maybe I should keep this as a spare since it kind of still works.” And then there’s the ever popular situation of needing a specific screwdriver which you can’t find, so you buy a new set. After a few years of that, you’ll be like us, and have screwdrivers coming out the rafters.

A fascinating revelation came to me as I was organizing our storage area. I had lots of the same type of items, only they were in different boxes that had come from different areas of the house. Once all of the same type of thing was in front of me, it was easy to see which ones were old, scratched, or broken and either throw the extras away or give the better ones to Good Will, leaving me with just one of the item to store.

I began to feel a sense of freedom, as that of a burden being lifted off of me, each and every time a box went to the trash bin or the Good Will. I began looking at the boxes not just as one less box to move, but that much less weight to move! Some of the boxes had a lot of paper or other heavy items. Twenty pounds to the dump is twenty less pounds for me to have to find a home for or pick up and move a bunch of times.

Now, here we are, back in our house. And many, many pounds lighter. I no longer have anything stored under the house except a beautiful porcelain sink which I should probably sell since I’m afraid to install it and have it broken by my 4 year old, and a large inflatable swimming pool. That’s it. I used to have boxes galore, bookshelves, bicycles, hoses, and who knows what all stashed under there. I no longer have anything stored in either of my house attics. The attic at the driveway end has come clothing bags and stuffed animal bags that my daughters are storing until they have a home of their own. The attics USED to BOTH be filled with stuff. My barn attic has nothing of mine in it. It used to be almost full. Now, it has “guy” stuff up there – things my sons and husband are collecting, but not ME. My stuff is all either fitting on the main floor or going away. I refuse to “collect” stuff any longer. It’s a very free sense of home ownership – I now feel I own the house, and not the other way around!