The Joy of Less, a Minimalist Living Guide (7 page)

Finally, let’s discuss the Transfer pile. In here belong all those perfectly good items that are no longer good for
you
. Don’t feel guilty about letting them go; set them free, and give them a new lease on life. Above all, resist the urge to hold on to something because you “might need it” someday—if you haven’t needed it yet, you likely never will. If by some chance you did, would you even be able to find it? Would it be in usable condition? Or would you probably run out and buy a shiny new one anyway? If it’s easily obtainable, or replaceable, better to let someone else use it now, than keep it waiting in the wings for a day that may never come.

As you’re sorting, divide the Transfer pile into Give Away and Sell sections. Be generous! Something that’s been sitting in your house, unused and unloved, may bring a great deal of joy to, or fill the genuine need of, someone else. Make their day, and give yourself a pat on the back. Knowing that you’re doing good can make it much easier to part with your stuff. If you don’t have a specific recipient in mind for an item, offer it up on Freecycle. Simply list the things you’re giving away, and interested parties will contact you to retrieve them. Alternatively, give seldom-used items to someone who’ll use them more—like your power saw to a woodworking neighbor, or your sewing machine to a seamstress cousin—with the understanding that you can borrow them if the need arises.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to spend weeks putting your possessions up for adoption. If you don’t have the time or inclination to find them specific homes, charitable organizations accept a wide range of goods. Goodwill, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, religious organizations, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, thrift stores, and senior centers are well-equipped to distribute your donations to those who need them most. Your castoffs can do a world of good in your own community: consider giving books to your local library, office supplies to your children’s school, pet items to an animal shelter, and professional clothing to Dress for Success (www.dressforsuccess.org). You may be able to take a tax deduction for your generosity, so keep a list of donated items and their values, and obtain a receipt from the organization.

Selling your stuff is another effective way to ease separation anxiety. Sometimes, it’s much easier to let something go when you can get some (or all) of your money back. In fact, the cash may bring you more happiness than the item itself! You have a choice of outlets through which to peddle your unwanted wares, from the traditional to the high-tech. If your castoffs are large in quantity and low in value, hold a garage or yard sale, or send them to a consignment shop. To unload more unique, collectible or expensive items, turn to the Internet: try online classifieds like Craigslist or auction sites like eBay. You can even sell used books, CDs, DVDs, video games, and other goods through retail giant Amazon (www.amazon.com).

Great! Now that you’ve set up your sorting system, and you know what goes where, you can get to the business of clearing out some stuff. Focus like a laser beam, and declutter the drawer, closet, or room you chose to Start Over. Have fun with it—put on some upbeat music, dance around your piles, and kiss those castoffs goodbye! Once you’ve assigned every item to a category, those Trash and Transfer piles get a one-way ticket out of the house—and you’re that much closer to living only with your Treasures.

As you sort through your items, stop and question each one headed for your Treasure pile. Nothing gets a free pass! Put on your gatekeeper cap and conduct an entry interview with each item; make sure it has a good
reason
for being part of your household. Just because it’s a stray (the tote bag that followed you home from a business conference), or seeking asylum from another home (the mismatched china your sister unloaded on you), doesn’t grant it clearance. It must be able to make a positive contribution to be considered for residency. Careful screening, after all, is the only way to keep out the riffraff.

You may run into situations where items have strong credentials for staying in your home—but they’re identical (or nearly so) to something else you own. Being a minimalist is about getting rid of the excess, so cull these duplicates from your Treasure pile. How did multiple versions enter your household in the first place? In some cases, they may have been gifts. In others, however, you may have purchased something new, then decided to hang on to the old one. You bought a new TV, and put the old one in the bedroom; you bought a new dining table, and stored its predecessor in the basement; you bought new shoes, and saved the grungy pair for a rainy day.

Other things are only sold in excessive quantities: paperclips, rubber bands, and bobby pins come to mind. When you purchase such things, you usually end up with a lifetime supply of them. Still others—like pens, buttons, and safety pins—seem to multiply of their own accord. The extras end up in the back of a drawer until the end of time, no questions asked. But let’s shake things up: if you can’t envision yourself ever using a thousand paperclips, or a hundred safety pins, retain a reasonable amount and pass along the rest. If you only need a handful, why hang on to a bucketful?

Once you’ve dealt with the duplicates, it’s time to scrutinize the remaining candidates. As you consider each one, ask what it’s used for and how often you use it (if you can’t answer those two questions, it shouldn’t be anywhere near your Treasure pile!). Have you used it in the past year? Do you expect to use it in the near future? Does it make your life easier, more beautiful, or more pleasurable? How? Do you have something similar? Is it hard to maintain or clean, and if so, is it worth the effort? Would it be difficult or expensive to replace? Would you take it with you if you were moving? How would your life change if you didn’t own it?

Finally, no matter what the other answers, always be sure to ask this question: what is more valuable to you—the item, or the space it occupies?

If you’re having difficulty making decisions, recruit an objective friend to provide assistance. Explaining to someone else the reason why you’re keeping something can be difficult, illuminating…and sometimes a little embarrassing! What seems perfectly legitimate in your head can sound ridiculous when spoken aloud. (“I might need this feather boa if I moonlight as a cabaret singer.”) Furthermore, when there’s a third party present, your pride will kick in—and you’ll be much less likely to squirrel away something old and ratty. Don’t enlist the help of a packrat or sentimental type, though; unless, of course, you can get them to cart away some of your rejects.

During this process, you’ll find plenty of good reasons for keeping something: you use it often, it makes your life easier, you find it beautiful, it would be difficult to replace, it’s multi-functional, it saves you time, it’s a cherished part of your heritage or family. A not-so-good reason, on the other hand, is that it “might be worth something.” This excuse can bring your decluttering to a screeching halt, and compel you to continue providing refuge to useless items. If this happens, get thee on the Internet and do some research. Almost everything imaginable has been auctioned on eBay, from antique jewelry to kitschy cookie jars—making it a wonderful reference with which to value your items. (It’s probably where you’d end up selling them anyway.)

Chances are, most of your clutter is
not
fetching a fortune. But don’t despair—celebrate! You’re no longer obligated to provide it with long-term, climate-controlled storage in the (false) hope that it may fund your retirement. You’re free to let it go; and if the need ever arises for it, look how inexpensively you can acquire it. Once in awhile, however, one of your Treasures may live up to its title—giving you the opportunity to pocket some serious cash. If you don’t need it, and don’t love it, why not go for it? Take some snaps and put it up for auction. You’ll have the photographs for memories, some extra dough in your wallet, and some extra space in your house.

As we determine what belongs in our Treasure piles, we should keep the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) in mind. In this context, it means we use 20 percent of our stuff 80 percent of the time. Read that again, closely:
we use 20 percent of our stuff 80 percent of the time
. That means we could get by with just a fifth of our current possessions, and hardly notice a difference. Woo-hoo! This is going to be easier than we thought! If we rarely use most of our stuff, we should have no problem paring down to the essentials. All we have to do is identify our “20 percent,” and we’ll be well on our way to becoming minimalists.

A place for everything, and everything in its place. Memorize this mantra, repeat it often, sing it out loud, say it in your sleep—it’s one of the most important minimalist principles. When each thing you own has a designated spot (ideally in a drawer, cupboard, or container), stray items won’t wander your household and congregate as clutter. With this system in place, you can easily spy something that doesn’t belong—and immediately escort it out of your home.

When assigning a place to each item, consider where, and how often, you use it. Think of your house in terms of zones. On the broadest level, your house is divided into rooms, including the kitchen zone, bathroom zone, bedroom zone, and family room zone. Each of these can then be broken up into smaller zones: within the kitchen, you have cleaning, preparation, and eating zones; within the bathroom, grooming and bathing zones; within the family room, television, hobby, and computer zones. An item’s ideal place depends on the zone in which you use it, and how accessible it needs to be.

Is the item in question used daily, weekly, monthly, once a year, or less? The answer determines whether it belongs in your Inner Circle, Outer Circle, or Deep Storage.

Stand in one of your zones and stretch your arms out around you. This area defines your Inner Circle, the space to keep frequently used items—like your toothpaste, dishwashing liquid, checkbook, and underwear—within easy reach. You want to be able to access such things without bending, stretching, struggling, or moving other things out of the way to retrieve them. This not only makes them easy to find and access, it makes them easy to put away. Remember the Pareto principle? Well, your Inner Circle should hold the 20 percent of things you use 80 percent of the time.

Your Outer Circle is a little more difficult to reach, and should be reserved for things that are used less often. It includes higher and lower shelves, out-of-the-way closets, upper cabinets, and under the bed. Use these places to store backups of toiletries and cleaning supplies, infrequently worn clothing, wrapping paper and ribbons, specialty pots and cooking supplies, and the myriad other things that aren’t part of your regular routine. A good rule of thumb: if it’s used less than once a week, but more than once a year, your Outer Circle is where it belongs.

Deep Storage is typically outside of your living space, and includes attics, basements, and garages. This is where to stash your spare parts, seasonal decorations, old paperwork and tax returns, and other things you use once a year or less. However, don’t make Deep Storage a catch-all for everything that doesn’t fit in your house; try to keep it lean. If you never use or look at the item in question, and it’s not a financial or legal document that must be kept indefinitely, out it goes. Sometimes the best place for something is somebody else’s house!

Keep in mind that “a place for everything” applies to decorative items as well. If an item is truly special to you, establish a proper and prominent place to display it. It doesn’t deserve to be pushed aside, around, and out of the way, or to fight for position in a crowd of clutter. And it certainly shouldn’t be stuffed in a box in the basement! The whole point of a decorative item is to be able to
see
it; so if you’re storing any such things (other than seasonal items) out of sight, it’s time to question why you’re keeping them at all.

Once you’ve designated a place for everything, don’t forget about the second part: always return everything to its place. What’s the use of having assigned seats, when everything’s lounging all over the house? To this end, it helps to label shelves, drawers, and boxes with their appropriate contents. Then everyone will know exactly where to put something after they’ve finished using it—and you’ll be less likely to find the corkscrew holed up in the sock drawer, or the stapler getting cozy with the baking supplies.

Get yourself, and your family members, into the habit of putting things away. A neat household gives clutter fewer places to hide. Hang up your clothes (or put them in the hamper) after you undress, rather than piling them on the floor or chair. Put spices, condiments, and utensils back where they belong, instead of leaving them out on the counter. Keep shoes in a designated spot, rather than scattered throughout the house. Return books to their shelves, and magazines to their rack. Encourage children to pick up their toys, and put them away, when playtime is over.

In fact, whenever you leave a room, collect any stray items and return them to their rightful place. This simple habit takes only a few minutes out of your day, but makes a huge difference in your household. Clutter is a social creature; it’s never alone for long. Let a few pieces hang out in your living room, one thing leads to another, and before long they’re hosting a full-fledged party! If things are regularly returned to their spots, however, stray items never get settled. It’s like a game of musical chairs: when the melody stops (or the day’s activities are over), anything stranded without a spot doesn’t get to stay.

Now I know that some of you with less-than-adequate storage space are probably crying foul. How can you be expected to put everything in its place, when you don’t have enough places to put them? Don’t despair—
you’re the lucky ones!
The more space we have to put things, the more things we tend to keep—things we don’t always need. Those with walk-in closets and extra cupboards must summon up extra motivation to declutter; while you, on the other hand, get the benefit of a little tough love. Having less space is an asset, not a liability, and puts you on the fast track to becoming a minimalist.