A year ago I embarked on a journey to declutter our  home — I wrote about that in several posts, Intentional DeCluttering, Tidying: You’re Still You!, and a couple more, beginning with, Eliminating Clutter.  As I mentioned then, I hadn’t heard of Marie Kondo until after I’d begun the arduous project. My family “introduced” me to her program and teased me a bit about getting rid of everything that didn’t spark joy. The idea totally resonated with me and propelled me to keep working at it. And it still does in many ways.

In the decluttering process I had to change some of my self imposed rules from time to time — I had to “give myself permission” to not go through/sort/declutter some things.  I didn’t have or wasn’t ready to take the necessary time to sort through and organize our gazillion pictures (again!), for example.  Nor did I feel like going through bins of notes, letters, cards, mementos from travels, programs, etc.  I also didn’t want to go through our homeschool books/workbooks/materials. I’m sure one of these days I’ll just wake up and, out of the blue, decide to tackle one or all of these three areas!

So, for today I thought  I’d share a list with you that I have in the ongoing quest to simplify our home.  By the way, my simplicity is probably not at all what another woman’s simplicity looks like. Example: I have way, way, way more dishes, cups and glasses than most would think necessary. Same with pans, kitchen gadgets, small appliances, and clocks.  But the daily goals for a tidy home, clean counters, orderly shelves, no piles of laundry, sorted mail/papers, and several other things continue to be met.  Decluttering really and truly has made an enormous difference.  Feel free to copy, add to and personalize this list.

Give yourself permission to reduce or get rid of these things:

• Chipped/broken or disliked  dishes, cups, mugs, glasses
• Kitchen gadgets you NEVER use, don’t like
• Old food {fridge!} {pantry!} {spices!} {coffees/teas!}
• Frozen foods you cannot identify {old or freezer ‘burned’}
• Under sink stuff (Order, consolidate, eliminate)
• All plastic storage containers that don’t have lids. Lids.
  Refrain from buying various types of plastic. Choose one. Stick to it! Always.
• Water bottles you do not use. Leaky ones will keep leaking!
• bread bags/ties and bad paper plates/napkins you NEVER use
• spent birthday candles (Any candles you really don’t like/use)

Closets / shelves / drawers

• Clothes. Clothes you KNOW you’ll NEVER wear
• Old shoes. You know you don’t even ever plan to wear them
  especially if they don’t really fit or are in terrible shape
• Coats, Jackets, Scarves, Belts, Gloves, Hats you NEVER wear/use
• Underthings you KNOW you’ll never wear or that don’t fit you
• Socks, stockings, leggings, etc., you know you’ll never wear
• All socks MISSING mates
• Event t-shirts and/or tote bags with no sentimental meaning
• Glasses (donate) sunglasses, jewelry, wallets, purses
• Old luggage, bags, backpacks you NEVER use
• Make-up and nail polish (esp. old!), toiletries you NEVER use
• Old perfume
• ALL *old* medication, creams, drugs, cough syrup etc.

Books
Magazines
Movies
Electronics
Arts / Crafts / Sewing  {lists for another day!}

And remember… even “baby steps” taken to declutter, simplify, or add order to your home are steps taken!
There’s no score keeper, the steps you (and I) take to simplify or declutter our homes are just for us and our families. There’s freedom in order!
There’s freedom from bondage to meaningless or useless or no longer useful stuff!

I’m on to “round two” or year two of simplifying and decluttering…
Continuing to work on my Super Simple Simplifying Checklist.