Day 167 Take your time, learn as you go.

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If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that my take on decluttering is ” slow and steady wins the race”. One of the advantages to this approach is that you can start with the easy stuff and as time goes on you become more ruthless and eager to reduce your clutter more and more. The job gets easier as you go because what seemed like hard decisions at first become simpler and comfortable for you.

Betty Jo from Joy With Less has discovered this and she recently wrote about it in her post The Little Things. Here is an excerpt of what Betty Jo wrote..

…I have one room and closet left to declutter. It’s the second bedroom which serves as my office. It also houses my photography equipment, craft and sewing materials, and is a general catch-all. The closet of this room has served as a utility room of sorts with everything from tools to toilet plunger.
I’ve avoided a major tackling of this room because it has felt overwhelming to me. There are so many boxes and containers here with little objects, that I’ve simply stuffed away through the years, and don’t have a clue what is hidden in most of them. Many things here belonged to my husband, so there is the emotional attachment as well. But, I’ve found that decluttering the other areas of my home, and experiencing the liberating results, has made me ruthless and brave, and I refuse to let this room intimidate me any longer!

Like Betty Jo has discovered, decluttering is a process one that gets easier as you go if you give yourself the time to get comfortable with the areas you find challenging. Learn as you go, get ruthless when you are ready and youwill find out how liberating it can be.

ITEM 167 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This vase hasn’t been used for a long time, someone else may use it more than me.Vase

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About Colleen Madsen

Colleen is the founder of 365 Less Things and lives in Newcastle, Australia.

Comments

  1. willow
    June 16, 2010 at 6:15 am

    Wise words, BettyJo!

  2. Betty Jo
    June 17, 2010 at 9:44 am

    Colleen thank you for the mention and link of my blog. I’m almost finished with my first go-round of that room. It will probably take several rounds before I’m satisfied with the declutter job. Each time ’round it gets easier.

  3. Donna
    June 19, 2010 at 1:40 am

    It’s been a busy few days so I’m just getting to this post…

    Colleen – this is all very true! Once you start letting go of stuff and the emotional attachment that goes with it, it becomes easier and easier to declutter. You fall in love with clean spaces, clear walkways, roomy drawers, cabinets, and closets. It’s really intoxicating.

    Betty Jo – crafting clutter is hard (I’m working on that now myself) because you have to battle thoughts that say someday I might work on that project, use that item…Sentimental clutter is even harder and you really have to muster all your strength to harness the emotions attached to the objects. I wish you much success on both fronts.