Hope no one minds me jumping in in the middle, so to speak. 
I turned 60 this year, and am making some major and long-overdue changes, and one of those was a resolution to get control of the contents of my house. This summer, I decided on two guiding principles: First, that someday my D is going to have to deal with every single item in this place, and so the first question I ask about any item is āDo I want to force her to decide what to do with this someday?ā Second, that the stuff has piled up day by day, item by item, and that it is going out the same way it came in. So rather than a series of big cleanouts, Iāve incorporated it into my daily life.
I decided to start with the two biggest problem areas, the office and our bedroom where stuff tends to go and never come out. So every single day since August I have been doing the following:
- Get rid of one item of clothing/accessory/jewelry.
- Get rid of one other visible item cluttering up the bedroom.
- Get rid of one visible item in the office.
- Go through one file in the file cabinet and purge as much as possible.
When Iām done with the file cabinet, Iāll turn my attention to the drawers and shelves, one at a time. When Iām done with items 1 and 2, Iāll turn my attention to the linen closet and then the coat closet. Etc.
Sometimes Iāll get rid of, say, 3 shirts instead of one, or go through two files instead of one. But Iām steadfastly resisting the occasional temptation to purge an entire file cabinet drawer at a sitting, for example. The biggest risk I have is burnout. Thatās the one thing that will stop me dead in my tracks, probably forever.
Most days, it takes 10 minutes, if that. It seems like a ridiculously silly way to clean out 35 years worth of stuff, but itās working for me. In the past week, both the dresser and nightstand got cleared, and that felt like a huge victory. The file cabinet is about 2/3 done, and the more I do, the easier it is to file papers lying on the desk and elsewhere. So the whole thing is not overwhelming at all, but Iāve reached the stage where it is reinforcing.
Itās also liberating, and the thought process is starting to carry over to other rooms where Iām not yet āofficiallyā decluttering. If I open the kitchen utensil drawer and happen to see a gadget that I havenāt used in 10 years, Iāll just take it right to the Goodwill bag. No agonizing decision-making, and especially no āI might need it someday.ā That phrase might be the most important thing Iām purging!
My Goodwill bag for tomorrow is sitting by the front door, as one usually is on Friday night. Tonight, itās mostly filled with fabric. I opened a big Rubbermaid box and found all this fabric and a few patterns, scraps, spools of thread, and I remembered something I havenāt thought about in years: Dās āIām going to be a fashion designerā phase. And this is where my thinking is starting to change: Instead of āIād better keep this in case she wants it somedayā I thought āSheās no longer a seamstress, and sheās been away from home for 6 years and never once mentioned it, so letās find a new home for it.ā
Itās going to take a couple of years, at least, but thatās OK. Steady progress is what works best for me, and my house is getting a little better every day.