My New Decluttering Strategy

I don't know how things are in your household, but around here, decluttering is a constant.  Things accumulate, and what was once useful turns into junk, and suddenly I feel like I'm drowning in the stuff. Time to declutter some more...

Sometimes it's easy for me to declutter.  I get in these moods where I just want to see the stuff leave, and I fill bag after bag of items to donate or throw away.  With each item tossed, my spirit feels a little lighter.

But sometimes it's not so easy.  My sentimental side rears its head at the first mention of getting rid of something and tries to convince me that I should keep it.  "But you might need it someday!  But that special person gave it to you!  But it's been passed down in your family!"

Recently I've discovered a new question to ask myself as I declutter:  if I were moving, would I take that item with me?  If not, maybe I should get rid of it now.  It's not that I've got a moving truck showing up here in a few weeks forcing me to make these kinds of decisions, but I have been moving.  Moving my parents, that is.  :)  Their transition from the little house on the east side of the parking lot to the building (formerly my dad's office) on the west side of the parking lot has been ongoing for a number of weeks; and although the weight of that falls on their shoulders, I am glad to help out and only wish I could do more, more quickly.  I've come to the realization that every so often, I should help someone move, just so I would be inspired to come home and start sorting through my own stuff.  It's quite the effective motivator.  ;-)

This book is one of the items that didn't pass the "if I were moving, would I take this with me?" test.  I got it years ago in a used bookstore, long before I had children.

 

As soon as I opened it to the "D" section, I was sold.  See why?

My name. I never see my name anywhere!  But there it was.  Amazing!  I'm a real person now!  ;-)

That book sat on my shelf for years; and every once in a while, I pulled it off the shelf, opened it up, and started scanning.  When it took us so long to choose a name for Tobin, I did more than scan; I scoured the boy section.  And you know where we found Tobin's name?  Jeff discovered it on the internet.  :)

Now it's time to say goodbye to that book and let it be passed along to someone else's eager hands to pore over in searching for just the right name for a special child.  You might assume by this that I'm done having kids.  Well, who knows?  I certainly don't.  But even if we do have another child, we already have names picked out--a boy's name and a girl's name--so I guess I won't be needing to look at that book anymore.

Goodbye, book.  Hello, room on my shelf.