Decluttering May Be Needed

I know I have too much stuff.  I have avoided getting rid of things while priding myself on being able to design and make marvelously efficient storage systems allowing us to store everything that came through the door in our modest home.  I’ve always preferred creative problem solving over making difficult decisions and as such resisted decluttering.  Why make difficult decisions that can be avoided with a new shelf or cabinet?

But…… I knew I needed to change my ways when I brought car loads of stuff into the house after my father passed away.  There was no more space to build more storage space to put the new things into the space along with the old.   Decluttering was finally needed.  

As an engineer and an ergonomist I appreciate and seek to understand systems and how we humans can play our most effective role and limit the errors we might make.  Decluttering includes multiple stages or system elements each with their own challenges and roadblocks that can and often do derail a decluttering project.

I have developed a tool to support the decision process of keeping or letting go of (Release) of a particular item.  As I continue my decluttering process, expect to revise this tool and I may find a need to develop additional tools. (Ideas and input are welcome.)

Below is an outline of high-level aspects of the decluttering process. The tool that I’ve developed applies to element 1a. and is described more below.

Elements:

  1. Sort into “Keep” or “Release” (or toss)
    1. (a.) The keep or release decision has garnered a lot of attention in popular culture. Most notably Marie condos decision rule. Keep it if it Sparks Joy.  And this decision is often challenging, especially for those of us who have found ourselves to be prone to accumulating clutter. (See attached tool which I’ve developed to support this decision process.)
  2. Disposition
    1. (2.a.) Keep: Display/Active Use or Store
      1. (2.a.1) Dispositioning into display or active use can involve decision making often in collaboration with others.
      2. (2.a.2) Storing requires an understanding of and often Improvement of available storage resources and may involve collaboration with others
    2. (2.b) Release: Trash/Recycle or Pass on
      1. (2.b.1) Get item into the appropriate stream of trash or recycling according to its properties, local resources including time available.
      2. (2.b.2Determine how to best pass on through what business or personal connection and set up the necessary logistics to accomplish

The Decluttering Keep/Release tool has 14 questions followed by a button line Keep / Release choice.  Each of the questions can be answered YES/NO/PARTIAL (or NA) The questions can be answered relatively easily and are mostly subjective.  In the prototype I have put the paper checklist in a steel pizza pan and used magnets to mark the answers.  

After answering as many of the 14 questions as you can or choose to answer, looking at the page and the sheet with all the magnet markers provides an easy way to see all the answers in one glance.  This is helpful and reduces the salience or subjective weight of the first and final questions that without the visual summary might have a greater subjective weight. 

What I present here is version one (v1) of a Decluttering decision making support tool to assist in the all important [KEEP] vs. [GET RID OF] decision.  Attached is a picture of it in use along with a link to a PDF of this version 1 document.   As I (or we) use this tool I expect there will be reasons to improve it V2 soon. 

This is my first “Decluttering” post in what I expect to be a series of posts in which I will explore aspects of my decluttering journey that I judge may be interesting or possibly helpful to others on a similar journey.   If you have thoughts on the matter and/or would like to enter into discussion, please do.  (I am new to the blogging thing and will figure out hoe to work with the comments/discussion.) 

DanGottesman@ergovation.com