Learn how to overcome common excuses and declutter your home with the help of organizing expert Kim Krogh. This article provides practical tips and advice on letting go of sentimental items, dealing with gifts, and making space.
The beginning of a new year is the ideal time to harness those feelings of guilty excess and summon the resolve to lighten up. As I sort through my own home, I have a whole arsenal of excuses to avoid letting go of what should go. To fuel my momentum, I ran my top 10 reasons for not letting go by organizing expert Kim Krogh, owner of Elephant Organizing, of Orlando, and asked her to bust through my resistance. 1. But I might need it someday.
How long has it been since you wore or used it? Five years? 10? If it’s been a long time, chances are you won’t need it. In the unlikely event you will, ask what your price threshold to replace it is — $10, $50, $100? If you can replace it for under your pain point, let it go. Chances are also good, if you really need that never-used juicer, you can borrow it from a friend.A gift is yours to do with what you want. If you don’t like or use it, then it’s just taking up space. Regift, toss, donate or otherwise pass it on. “You have my permission to let go along with the needless guilt,” Krogh said.“These are loaded items,” said Krogh, who confesses she struggles with them, too. If you find yourself saying, “I don’t really need this item, but it came from someone important to me,” then ask what good it’s doing buried in a closet or under a bed. You’re not honoring your mother’s wedding dress or your grandma’s mink stole, if it’s sitting in a box. Consider repurposing items. Or donate them. Krogh had been dragging around vintage clothes from early 1900. She finally donated them to a high school theater department that needed costumes. “Now grandma’s clothes live on on stage.”So? That doesn’t mean it’s worth much now. Lots of people believe their china, crystal and chandeliers — “all of which I have and love,” Krogh said — are worth more than they are, but millennials don’t want that stuff. To confirm true market value of an item, look up “sold” (not listed) prices of similar items online in the used marketplace. If it is worth it to you to try to sell, then sell it. The quickest place is through an auction house, estate sale or consignment store. Take a percentage and be done with it. Don’t let stuff you don’t need or use take up space just because you think it has value.This is a lazy excuse. Are you really going to vet potential buyers? By waiting for that perfect recipient, you’ve created an unnecessary hurdle. Let the item go and find its place in the world.“Uhh, probably not,” Krogh said. If you think they might want something, ask them in a clear, non-manipulative way. Tell them you want to get rid of some things, but you don’t want to get rid of anything they want. Assure them they will not hurt your feelings. Give them a deadline to get it or you’ll donate it. Don’t become their storage unit.Krogh hasn’t met anyone in her 15-plus years of organizing who has felt remorse from letting go. But if you change your mind after a piece is gone for good, the world will not come to an end.Delaying decisions is the reason you’re in the pickle you’re in. Wouldn’t you rather decide the fate of these items than burden your kids or spouse with them?Space is finite. “I can organize all day long, but I can’t make more space,” Krogh said. If you don’t create a habit of regularly letting go, your things will just keep piling up.The hardest items to part with are those that have sentimental value, particularly heirlooms. “We can’t keep everything. Start there,” said Krogh, who gradually downsized her parents from a 5,000-square-foot home into assisted living. Ask family members if they want anything. Then make executive decisions about what can go. “I can’t keep it all and don’t want it all,” she said. Realism needs to surpass sentiment.“As an organizer, I’m not a minimalist,” Krogh said, as we wound down our lively back and forth. “I am a normal person, but I know everything in my house, and whenever any item is old or tired or not useful it goes.
Decluttering Organizing Sentimental Items Letting Go Home Purge Gift Giving Downsizing
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