I do love to organize, but I am not a minimalist. Not by a long shot. I love having the right thing for the right occasion and I’m a product junkie. Have you seen my Instagram account? I admire true minimalists, but I am simply not wired that way. That said, I do a decent job of managing my “crap”. My desire to have a de-cluttered living space is what drives me to stay on top of it. You’d think someone who was a natural minimalist would be better served to write a blog post on purging. Hear me out. A person (me) who is not naturally inclined offers credibility because I understand the land mines that can sabotage a good purge sesh. Just know, that I am not preaching here, I struggle with some of these things just like everyone else. It’s an on-going journey that I am on with you. Marie Kondo wrote the bible on de-cluttering. It really is the best book I’ve read on purging and worth a read (or listen). I’ve made a list of several things that help me to not only purge, but also to stay de-cluttered.

1. Choose what to save, not what to get rid of.

It’s easy to just graze your closet and look for things to get rid of. It doesn’t work. Pull the stuff out and only put back what you want to keep. It’s surprising how reversing the order makes a big difference. Marie Kondo is the master of this. She suggests doing things by genre and not location. For example, pull out all your sweaters from all locations in your house and make one big pile. Quickly go through each piece and only put back the ones that you 100% can’t live with out. When in doubt, throw it out. This is what happened here. As you can see I have a brown boot issue. I needed to see them all pulled out and together to decide which ones needed to stay.

2. Be in the right frame of mind.

Only have a purge session when you are feeling inspired and fired up about ridding yourself of STUFF. The other day my friend, who is a minimalist, was showing be pictures of her very minimalist closet. Gawd, did it look amazing. It got me all motivated and I went home and immediately started to purge. I got rid of LOADS. I’ve tried to purge when I’m not in that frame of mind and I find myself clinging to things and getting NOWHERE. The hoarder in me wins. Lesson learned- get fired up about being free from STUFF!

Below, are scenes from yesterday’s edition of our multi-day purge session below. As mentioned, I select genres of items and do a couple at a time (thank you Marie Kondo). Yesterday, I started with vases. I had an oddly large volume of vases that I didn’t realize until they were all spread out on my kitchen table. Then, I did other house knickknacks. From there, I moved onto kids toys. (Hot tip (seems obvious, but also maybe not): Only purge toys when your kids are NOT around. They want to get rid of NOTHING even though they haven’t touched them in years). This actually applies to all persons who are not PRO-purging. Keep your support system tight. Luckily, my husband is a natural purger and it helps to have him there reassuring me that our children will not need therapy because I threw out a carnival-won stuffed animal from under a bed who hadn’t seen the light of day in months.

3. It’s okay to let go even if it’s cute, unworn, designer or expensive.

The reason doesn’t matter. If you haven’t worn it- LET IT GO. I have kept things for just about every reason you can think of. Bottom line- I wasn’t wearing it! I kept a designer jacket in my closet for about 7 years once because it had a super fancy label and I got it for 75% off. It was like a trophy or something. I NEVER wore it. Not once. Obviously it was a bad purchase which I was using as excuse to hold it hostage in my closet. In reality, I was just making a bad decision, worse. I ended up consigning the jacket and recouping about half of what I paid for it. You know what? That’s 100% more than what it was making in my closet. And I have that space back. Lesson learned. Another popular reason to keep an unworn item is that “it’s cute”. So what? You can only get rid of UGLY clothes? No way. If you aren’t wearing it, let it be cute on someone else. One great question I learned in an investment class that totally applies to purging is “WOULD I BUY IT TODAY?” If the answer is no- ditch it.

4. Don’t keep back up clothes.

I think we all assign things in our minds to our clothes. Or is that just me? That’s a “go pick up the kids shirt” or those are “late-night grocery store leggings”. I have a weird thing for army green military jackets. I had about 5 of them- all with slight variances. The truth is that I only wore two of them. One is a rain jacket. The other is a light weight shirt/jacket hyrbid. Although I like the others, they never got chosen over the “terrific two”. But they were cute so I saved them. If you have something that you would always wear ahead of the other- ditch it. You will always pick your favorite one. Don’t save the back ups.

5. Don’t try things on.

(Or do so sparingly). We all want to try things on to see if it looks good ON. Here is the deal, even if it does look cute, you already knew that, and you still chose to overlook it. So when you take it off and put it right back on the hanger, you will overlook it again. Ditch it.

6. Keep a basket in your room or a bag in your car.

I have a bag in my closet that I keep for giveaways. Throw things that need “to go” in the bag on an going basis. That way its taken out of the cycle right then and there. Now you don’t run the risk of convincing yourself that maaaaayyyyyybeeee, some day on the third Thursday of a leap year you might want to wear it. Just ditch it already.

7.- Don’t SAVE clothes for a more special occasion

I am guilty of this one. I won’t wear something because its “too cute” or I won’t be seeing anyone who would appreciate it, so I SAVE it for later. First of all, we always run into people when we are dressed like something that’s been RUN over. Two, life is uncertain. Wear the clothes. Burn the candles. There might not be a later. It is appreciated by strangers and they are worth it. Unless you are going to meet Brad Pitt, I’d say everyone is equally worthy of seeing your “good stuff”. Knock ‘em out.

I’m hoping this post got your fired up to ditch some STUFF. If so, now may be a good time for a purge sesh. Cheers to empty hangers!