My Decluttering Journey Part 1

Many people who live in the same small space over a long time will relate to this: at some point, there won't be enough space. After you, you keep amassing more and more stuff.  It doesn't help that among the many things I started purchasing were board games - and I have acquired a whole lot of them in the last decade - and these all take up a heck of lot of space.

The challenge I now faced was that with so much stuff at home, I didn't have enough space to look through and sort all my stuff to determine what items I should keep and which ones I should get rid of. While I have made some attempts in the past to do this, I could only ever get rid of a fraction of what I have at home.

I felt that the only way I could really, truly declutter was to rent a storage space. I could move out a large chunk of my stuff there as I slowly decluttered. It isn't cheap but this was really my best option if I wanted to have a much better, more relaxed, and safer environment at home without accidentally throwing out something I want to keep. I did some research online and I asked some friends and I decided to get a small storage unit at Loc&Stor (I will write more about this in my next post). With this storage rental, I have now started my most ambitious attempt at decluttering in my life to date.

My Loc&Stor storage space rental

Once I got my storage unit, I moved a lot of my stuff into it immediately. As soon as I did this, I felt the extra space at home. Great! For the first time, I felt like I could actually make a significant dent in my decluttering efforts.

I started to toss stuff out that I knew I didn't need and that didn't have any sentimental value. And boy did I have tons of it. I also finally found my set of screwdrivers that I had been looking for years. I found a large stack of brown envelopes and folders that I had set aside many years ago because I felt that I would be able to still use them. Over time, I forgot I still had those. In fact, when I needed envelopes and folders recently, I bought some haha. If there is anything I learned from this, it is that if you can't use something soon, no matter how useful it may be, you may as well toss is out or give it to someone who needs it because over time, you will almost certainly forget you have them.

I also let go of a lot of my clothes. This was hard because a lot of clothes I have, I still like and I still wear. Like the orange collared shirt that I bought from Uniqlo in Tokyo which is a bit too tight for me now as I have gained a lot of weight since my Japan trip. However, the need to make more space at home was a lot more important and if I gave my clothes away, other people would benefit. So I did. (I actually gave that orange shirt to my brother who is thinner than me and I already saw him wear it!)

My fearless forecast is that my decluttering journey will take several months, not only because I have lots of stuff but also because for some of the activities I need to do, I need loads of time. But I am really motivated to finally do this well. Wish me luck!