The Counterintuitive First Step In Decluttering Anything

The first step in decluttering may not be your first instinct or thought. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they decide to declutter is that they take a “dumping and sorting” approach. This is probably the number one reason for becoming overwhelmed and paralyzed when decluttering.

Think about it- what do you feel when you step into a room and are greeted by a giant pile of clutter? Does it make you feel motivated and encouraged to complete the task? Or stressed and overwhelmed- like you might need a big pot of coffee just to look at the thing? This is exactly why the first step in decluttering is to select. Choose what you want to keep first. Hopefully, you choose what fits in with your overall vision and goal for the space that you’re clearing. In any case, you’ll save tons of time and frustration when you take this counterintuitive approach.

Why The First Step In Decluttering Is To Select.

Scan through the items and rather than making decisions about where these belongings are going to go  (which donation center, selling method, storage facility, etc.) focus only on deciding what to keep. When you choose what to keep as the first step in decluttering you overcome some of the following pitfalls.

Pitfall #1

Let’s say that your dining room has become an interim storage facility where the whole family dumps their jackets, bags, and random pocket pieces.  There are boxes of old documents and papers shoved in a box in the corner and random miscellaneous items strewn about all of the surfaces.

Your first response would likely be to go into the room grab the first item that you see and let your brain go wild on all of the details of this thing- where should you store it; why is it here; how can you get rid of it; etc. By the time you’ve done this with 5 or so items, you’re tired, overwhelmed, and ready to stop. Very little progress is made this way. If anything, the Clutter ends up reorganized and relocated to another corner of the room.

Instead, scan through the room with a box in hand and select only the items you intend to keep. Be particularly ruthless with this first scan. You don’t want to keep everything just because you have trouble letting things go. This selecting process is the most difficult part of the process mentally, but it’s actually quite simple. It stays, it goes in the box.

Pitfall #2

Don’t become a drawer scraper. You might be tempted to begin by scraping everything off the table minus a few display pieces. When you do this you’re attempting to decorate as you declutter. This is another mistake because the items that are scraped off will likely be collected somewhere else and stored rather than discarded.

Once selected items are boxed, the remaining job is easy and will be discarded; it’s just a matter of deciding where. In fact, this process could be as simple as taking a garbage bag and tossing every remaining item into it. Voila.

This is the exact same method I used in my recent home move. We boxed the belongings we chose to keep and paid no attention to the rest until the boxes were stacked and ready to go. Afterward, it was so easy to go back through and scoop up what was left.

Rejecting Is Important.

Selecting is an act of rejection. When you select the things you chose to keep everything that remains is, by default, rejected.  This makes the discarding process that much easier. Rejecting is an important part of life and it’s something that we literally do every single day.

The same reason it is important to say no and have boundaries in relationships is why you need to reject and say no to stuff.

Every decision you’ve ever made has been a decision to reject another option. If you chose to get a degree in Communications you thereby rejected a degree in Zoology. When you wake up and choose to go back to sleep you’re selecting the option of rest over additional income.

To excel at rejection is to excel at decision making which is an excellent skill to practice and develop. This is exactly how you curate a selective line of belongings and products rather than a hodgepodge of random pieces. One reason minimalism is so popular right now is that we have an innate need to reject things.

Take this same scenario of selecting and rejecting and apply it in a different context. What if you chose your career path by process of elimination instead of thoughtful selection? Hmm, no I have no interest in being a doctor or an artist…I guess I’ll major in sociology.

What if you decided on your significant other the same way? Well, this one’s a jerk, and that one’s too whiney…I suppose this other person will do.

Yes, the first step in decluttering is to select but that doesn’t mean you’re obligated to select things that you’re lukewarm about. See what it feels like to opt for nothing at all over meh items that you probably don’t really want or need. Respect the selection process.