Have you tried decluttering before and found that, despite the purge, you still have more than you need? There are some things we all have that are obviously junk – you know how to identify and declutter them. But other things survive the decluttering process over and over, continuing to take up space in your home after multiple spring clean-outs. This article describes some bad reasons that you’ve held onto these things. Once you can identify those, it will be easier to recognize which items seem worth hoarding but are, in fact, clutter.
Bad Reasons You Hold Onto Clutter – and How to Shift Your Perspective to Declutter
1. It Was Expensive
We’ve all been there. You see something while shopping and you decide to splurge. Maybe it was a designer piece that turned out not to look that good on you. Or a fancy juicer you were going to use on your health kick one January. It’s hard to admit that you made a mistake and wasted money.
As the Gen Zs would say: Take the L.
I used to use a fantastic foundation from a luxury brand. When they discontinued it, I found another type from the same brand. I paid $50. When it arrived, I excitedly unboxed and applied it. To my dismay, it was thick, orange and smelled like my 98-year-old great aunt’s perfume. Somewhat incredulous that this was so far from what I expected, I wiped it off and decided to revisit it later. I tried it out a few times that week, hoping somehow the lighting had just been off, or I hadn’t shaken the bottle. Nope. It was just a poor-quality product. I complained to a friend that I couldn’t even sell or donate it because it was used. “Just throw it away,” she advised me. “At least then you won’t have to look at it every day and feel bad about an expensive mistake.”
When you keep something you don’t use because it was expensive, you only accomplish two things: 1) taking up valuable space in your home, and 2) ensuring that you will periodically see it and feel regretful. It’s better to admit it was a mistake, cut your losses, and remove it from your life. Clearing it out of your home frees up physical space and also eliminates the unpleasant reminder.
2. It Was a Gift
Gift exchanges can be fraught for minimalists. While we try to avoid consumerism, giving and receiving gifts is an important part of social life. Probably at least twice a year – your birthday and perhaps a winter holiday like Christmas – you receive dozens of products that you didn’t want or ask for.
Eventually I’ll write an article just on how to handle gifts as a minimalist, but here I’ll focus on how to declutter them. You don’t have to keep something forever just because it was a gift. You can receive the gift, appreciate the intent behind it, and then let it go by regifting or donating.
If you’re worried that the gift-giver will notice its absence – think about this: do you remember every gift you’ve ever given? Would you notice if one was missing from your loved one’s home when you visited? Fumio Sasaki put this well in his book, Goodbye Things:
“If you can’t remember how many presents you’ve given, don’t worry about the gifts you’ve gotten.”
When you shift your perspective to look at it this way, it’s clear that there’s no need to keep every gift you’ve ever received.
3. It’s Brand New
I kept things for years, even moving with them, with the rationale that it would be wasteful to give them up because I hadn’t even used them yet. How could I declutter them? They were new with tags or even still in their packaging!
Similar to the “It was expensive” reasoning, it can be hard to admit that you made a mistake.
“It’s brand new” is actually the perfect argument for getting rid of it. You have literally never used it! What does that say about how useful it is in your life?
On top of that, if an item is brand new, you have a great chance of selling it for a fairly good price. So, what are you waiting for?
(And if you want advice for how to sell those things, check out this article: How to Make Money from Your Clutter.)
4. It’s “Aspirational”
My mom once sent me a skirt as a gift. I called her to say thank you, but it was too small. “Well, it can be aspirational,” she said matter-of-factly. I’ve heard something similar from other women of her generation. The thinking goes that you should always be trying to lose weight, so you should keep something too small front and center in your closet as motivation. I couldn’t disagree more. First of all, you don’t need to be any smaller than you are, and it’s not necessarily a noble goal to pursue. Second, it won’t be motivational; it will just make you feel bad every time you open your closet. And even more importantly, you are not going to use it. For that reason alone, it needs to go in the “discard” pile.
5. I Used to Love It
Things you used to love can trip you up even if you know how to declutter in theory. You see the item and feel fond memories of when it was useful in your life. That can make it feel impossible to discard, so it ends up surviving each decluttering session.
But a key tenet of minimalism – that extends beyond home organization and physical space – is that you should live in the now. Don’t keep something that was useful to a past version of yourself. Take Marie Kondo’s advice and thank the item for what it meant to you, then find a new home for it and move on.
6. I Bought It While Traveling
This was a big one for me. I love travel and, in the past, I felt compelled to buy something from each destination to remember it by. It felt like if I didn’t bring a souvenir home, I would forget the experience. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, so mostly what I was bringing home was junk. As I took more and more trips, these cheap souvenirs piled up in my apartment. Even when trying to declutter, I would never discard these. After all, I might never return to that destination – I had to hang on to the treasure (read: fridge magnet) that I’d brought back.
When I got serious about minimalism and figuring out how to declutter, I reevaluated my souvenir collection with fresh eyes. I saw the reality: these were not irreplaceable treasures; they were cheap junk. I thought I needed them as reminders of my travels, but photos and sharing stories with those you traveled with are much better ways to relive a trip. You don’t need a reminder of the time that you overpaid for a keychain in a tourist trap.
7. It Could Come in Handy Someday
I used to dedicate an impressive percentage of my storage space to things that “could be useful someday: – extra parts that came with furniture, impractical clothes, spare buttons, ingredients for a recipe I tried once – the list goes on! I’m sure you have some of these, too. You don’t declutter them because you could need them someday. But you can’t identify exactly when they could be useful. I recommend getting rid of these. Unless you can think of a specific situation that’s likely to come up in the near future, just let them go. The only risk is that you may need to buy them again. But the irony I’ve encountered is that by the time I need these things, I’ve forgotten that I kept them, and I buy new ones anyway!
8. It Belonged to a Loved One
It’s incredibly difficult to figure out how to declutter things that used to belong to a loved one. When someone we love passes away, we can feel obligated to keep some of their things as mementos. Or maybe a collection was important to them and, although it’s not to you, it feels disrespectful to sell it. But the counterpoint is similar to what I said above about souvenirs. These objects don’t really represent the person you want to remember. If something has special emotional value or an important memory tied to it, of course you should hang on to it as a keepsake. But the majority of the things you’re storing probably don’t have that value. Sharing memories with other people who loved this person or looking at photos will generally be more meaningful to you than letting stuff they used to own become clutter in your home.
9. I’ve Had It for a Long Time
This one can be filed under the “sunk cost fallacy.” You’ve probably experienced this if you’ve tried decluttering before. You look at something you’ve had for a long time – maybe even since childhood – and automatically put it in the “keep” pile without a thought. Just because you’ve held onto something for years, or let it survive previous decluttering purges, that doesn’t mean that you can’t let it go now. Make sure that for each and every item you’re considering as you declutter, you’re asking yourself if it’s still something you want or need. For more questions to help you narrow down what you actually want in your closet, see this article: How to Declutter Your Wardrobe: 10 Questions to Quit Hoarding Clothes
10. It’s Perfectly Good…for Someone Else
And finally, there are things we keep because they are in perfectly good condition, but…we don’t use them. They don’t fit our lifestyle. For example, you may have clothing pieces that are very nice, but you don’t ever feel the urge or have occasion to wear them. Or you may have kitchen implements that would be really useful…to someone who cooked more often than you do. Giving away something that’s in perfectly good condition, or that could be useful in theory – just not to you, isn’t wasteful. Instead of thinking of it as a “waste,” consider how much you could benefit someone else’s life by donating the item to them. And then it would actually be used! It’s a win-win. For advice on where to donate things that go in this category, see this article: How to Donate Your Clutter: 6 Ideas for Getting Rid of Clutter Fast
What’s Do You Think?
I’d love to hear your experience! Do any of these resonate with you? Can you think of other bad reasons you’ve held onto clutter?