Decluttering | Step 1 | What's needed and what's not

An abundance of (unneeded) stuff, working my way through all the items

Some days ago, I wrote about making some changes and today I'm actually starting to sort out the items that can go. I was thinking about what the best approach for me would be to do so because there isn't an answer that will suit everyone I think. I may change this approach later on, but for now, I'm starting to go through all the stuff we have room by room, and then divide them into boxes. The items that we will probably need/keep, will remain in their normal place and all the other items I will divide into these boxes to start with:

• clothes
• shoes
• toys
• other

Sorting only

At first, I'm not taking into account that some items will be donated and others will be listed on marketplaces to earn (hopefully) a few extra bucks that go towards the savings for our future car.

Although it's very tempting to start taking pictures with a few moving boxes filled with stuff, I decided to only do this for the box filled with shoes. Why this one? Simply because I know pretty sure that I won't find any other shoes in other rooms to add to this box.

Fun fact: I forgot about 1 box filled with shoes that I put in a closet when we moved in, so in the end, I had double the amount of shoes. Haha.

Simplified living

It would be inefficient to start taking pictures while there will be items added another day. I prefer having one folder for each box so that I can find back the items in the box and online while in the selling process. Simplified living also means being efficient with your time, so this will make sure I won't spend time on this task unless I need to.

I honestly feel that there is plenty of room for improvement to be more efficient with my time, I value my time and I'm always very pleased when I have been using it to the max.

It gets worse before it gets better

Man, what did I get myself into was a question that came to mind a few times in the past days. One bedroom had 10 boxes in there with items that still needed to be processed to see if it was sellable, to be donated, or maybe thrown out.

First, it's more chaos and then it gets better, so I told myself. Keep going. Today I finally took the time to sort out the 2 boxes with shoes and skates. I sorted them by size and made advertisements in groups (by size) instead of all in one or singles. I remember that that was the biggest pain listing them, people don't read and by using only one size per listing, I can easily find back the info myself instead of having to open the boxes all the time.

This was probably the easy part

Sorting shoes is a lot easier and done quicker compared to going through clothes (in all different sizes and seasons), so tomorrow I will have a bit more work, I reckon. Let's hope today I can sell a few of the items in the box with shoes, as earning a bit of cash is a great motivation to complete the task.

I know that in the clothing boxes, a bigger part of the collection will be donated, but I still need to sort it out a bit to make it easier to distribute them.

I'm calling it a day (when it comes to decluttering), once I worked my way through the boxes I will write an update post again.

What about you?

Are you someone that holds on to clothes/shoes/other items for a longer period even if you know there's a chance you may not use them again? Or are you someone that parts with their stuff easier?

I came to the realization that it's not really the stuff I can't part with, but more the fact that there is noise in our home from the owner, which looks messy, and therefore I have trouble keeping our stuff tidy around these items. It's easier to ignore for some reason. Thankfully, my beloved boyfriend said he will bring the items waiting in the hallway (since August) to the owner if he won't pick it up himself soon.

It won't cover all the clutter of the owner, but it's a start.

Thanks for reading! If you have some input or want to share your thoughts, please leave a comment below!

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