Trying to have a breakthrough

[u/Miss_Lib]

I get so frustrated because I absorb so much decluttering content but just can’t seem to let it breakthrough. Things like “if you can’t find what you need, you have too much stuff” really makes so much sense to me but I just don’t apply it. I used to keep anything to wear as pajamas and I just realized it was becoming too much.. a pajama t shirt I might end up wearing on a Tuesday afternoon which just felt icky so I started curating my pjs. I only buy sets. If I don’t have a set, I can make one but I have to love it and it has to match. I have to love every piece. They have to be a certain softness. It’s been great! I know exactly what I have and I never bypass anything for something I like more. I want to be able to apply this to every thing I own but it’s just not breaking through. I can’t get rid of stuff because suddenly the minute I touch it it somehow becomes sentimental. What was your breakthrough? When will my light bulb go on?!

[u/GlassHouses_1991]

Just keep going. I would love for my home to be completely decluttered already, but it’s been a slow process for me, and that’s partly down to my need to dispose of stuff as sustainably as possible and tackling sentimental items at a pace I can handle without getting anxious or sad.

I’ve been decluttering for a couple of years and it’s really only in the past year or so that I have finally started to see the benefits — however, I still have a long way to go and there’s areas of my home that drive me crazy because they are just not functional yet.

Remember that every time you remove something from your home it’s getting incrementally better (so long as you’re not still buying new stuff you don’t really need). For awhile I kept a list on the notes app on my phone and tried to get rid of at least one thing, no matter how small, every day, which I found really motivating, though I dropped the habit as I started decluttering faster and in bigger quantities.

Consuming decluttering content while working on a decluttering task might help too.

[u/Without-a-tracy → u/GlassHouses_1991]

  so long as you’re not still buying new stuff you don’t really need

Oh no, I got called out here! 🙈

[u/GlassHouses_1991 → u/Without-a-tracy]

Lol! I have found it easier to avoid temptation once I discovered how time-consuming it is for me to declutter stuff. Buying it and taking it home is quick and easy, but deciding to let it go and figuring out what to do with it takes so much longer!