- Have you ever been decluttering and thought, you know?
I just don't think this is right for me.
I just can't do it.
Maybe I'm cursed.
I will never be able to declutter
and I will just have to live
with this extra stuff my whole life.
Now let's get into some common scenarios
and how to overcome them.
This video is sponsored by the Simplify Your Home course.
And I will talk more about that in a little bit,
but if this is your first time here, my name is Robyn.
I help overwhelmed people simplify their lives
through organization, productivity,
and creating an environment where they can thrive.
Now, grab your tea and let's go.
(upbeat music)
So you've decided you're going to make a change.
You are going to declutter.
You're going to get rid of that excess stuff
that is holding you back, taking time away from your family,
interfering with your creativity,
your productivity, your peace.
So you start decluttering,
but soon you run into some problems.
In fact, over and over again, you run into these problems.
One common problem is decluttering storage rooms.
Oh, the drama that can occur in a storage room.
You're motivated but you just keep coming across items
and keep thinking, I might be able to use this one day.
The dreaded just in case items,
these are things that you are holding on to
just in case you can use them one day.
The thing is very rarely do we use these items.
I mean, I'm just guessing,
but I would say it's less than 5% of the time.
And let's be honest, it's probably less than 1% of the time.
Now the problem is people often decide to keep things.
They just can't bear the idea of decluttering them
on the off chance that they might need them one day.
Now, I have a couple of thoughts on this.
Number one, you can always consider lending and borrowing.
Certain things you just don't need,
you don't use them all the time,
you may use them occasionally.
I always talk about my priced bolt cutters
that I bought for only $20 to make a trellis.
I don't use these all that often, but every once in a while,
we find a use for them around our property.
Now I have these and if any of my friends or family
want to borrow them, we have them at the ready
and I am, like, happy to lend them out.
But maybe there is something that a family member has
that they want to lend you so that you don't have to buy it.
Now just make sure that you keep good records
of who has what and return things
in better condition than before.
And also have things that you can lend out as well.
Once we lent out a pressure washer to a friend
and it came back in terrible condition.
It was in such good condition before
and it came back in terrible condition.
So just be really careful.
Also keep in mind the 20/20 rule, which I absolutely love
and I know I talk about it all the time.
Ryan Nicodemus from The Minimalist talks about it.
And basically, if you can replace something
for less than $20 in less than 20 minutes,
then consider decluttering it.
A lot of people comment that they don't think
that this is right or appropriate,
but the thing is consider
how often you're actually using these things,
not very often.
Usually, you're not.
Like, remember it's probably like 1% of the time.
So yeah, it may seem wasteful but for the most part,
you're wasting your space by having
all of this extra stuff around.
If you donate things and somebody else can use it
and maybe you have to repurpose or repurchase the odd thing,
ultimately it's up to you.
If $20 is too much, I get that.
I totally do lower it, lower it to $5.
The kitchen is another area that can cause some issues.
We can have a lot of things in there.
You might have a lot more than you need
and you don't even realize just how much you have.
And then when you're decluttering it, you're just like,
oh my gosh, this is just a monster.
There's just so much to do.
Have you ever been cooking and thought,
hmm, which of my 12 spatulas will I use?
No, I bet you haven't.
You have your favorites,
just like you have your favorite pot
and your favorite burner.
The joys of being an adult.
If you haven't used something in the last year or so,
you probably don't need it.
So come on, let it go.
Another thing people struggle with
is appliances, small appliances.
Maybe you love your rice cooker and you use it all the time.
I know I use this example a lot, but the thing is,
there are people who love it and they use it,
and I think that's great.
But if you don't use it,
I don't know if you should keep it.
You probably shouldn't.
Maybe you have an instant pot or something else
that can do the same thing.
Maybe you just always make rice on the stove.
Maybe consider decluttering the rice cooker.
The thing is we can feel
like it is so hard to declutter things
because we have spent money on them.
And if you think about it,
that doesn't really make any sense.
Yes, maybe you spent money on things and you regret it.
But remember that the next time you are shopping,
it's what you are buying
that is contributing to your clutter.
Now, a huge part of simplifying and minimizing your life
is making the right purchasing decisions.
I don't think you should punish yourself by keeping things
that are no longer serving you in your house.
Just to let them go and make better choices in the future.
The same thing goes for gifts.
A lot of people also say I can't declutter gifts.
I think you can.
If someone gives you something
and it is no longer serving you,
I think you should declutter it.
There may be the odd person who was mad at you for that,
but I don't know if they should be.
Do you really want to give somebody something
and have them holding onto it
even though they don't really like it and always thinking,
well, Robyn gave me this, but I have to keep it
'cause I don't want her to be mad at me.
Probably not.
I certainly would not want somebody keeping something
that I gave them.
You decide what works for you.
Now, before I get to my last cursed decluttering pitfall,
let me tell you about the Simplify Your Home course.
Now, this is a whole home decluttering course.
There are 23 plus prerecorded lessons,
but I will also be doing live coaching sessions
for my students each week.
There will be a tour my house.
And not only do we talk about decluttering,
but we also talk about why you have clutter
in the first place, why it is so hard to part with things
and why clutter is bad for you.
We'll then move into my proven decluttering system
and how to declutter every room in your house,
starting with the easiest and then moving
to the more challenging rooms.
We also will tackle dealing with family,
kids and sentimental items.
And the last module covers moving forward, shopping,
like we just talked about, and maintenance decluttering.
This is a true A to zed, 'cause I'm Canadian,
A to zed course.
There are also two great bonus courses,
a simplified kitchen course to set it up
for maximum functionality and the simplified kids course,
so you can get your kids right on track early.
Now, registration is only open for a short time.
So head over to minimalisthome.ca/simplify
or click the link below to register today.
Have you ever been decluttering your office and thought,
oh man, paperwork.
It is no wonder, clutter ultimately is decisions
that we haven't made.
And paper is so frustrating
because it literally is so many decisions
and we often just don't know
what is worth keeping and what isn't.
Each piece of paper is literally a decision
that you need to make.
But don't give up, it is so good
to get your paper under control.
One thing though,
you need to check in with your own country
or government on how long to keep tax documents
or other important items.
In Canada, we, last I checked,
have to keep our tax documents for six years.
What should you keep?
Well, you should keep your wills, your power of attorney,
property deeds, life insurance, pension plans.
Keep these in a really safe place.
There are other important things like birth certificates,
divorce, child custody orders.
I keep all of mine in a binder with different sections.
What should you declutter?
I say declutter anything that can be replaced
or is available online or that you don't need anymore.
Now, you can also scan things that you're not sure about
and store them in a folder on your phone or computer.
You can also download a lot of things and store them
on a file in your computer as well
if you're concerned about, you know,
some system going down or something,
but the less paper you actually have, the better.
So for more info on the easy way to go minimalist,
check out this video here and I will see you next time.
Thanks for watching, bye.
(uplifting music)