I have been on my decluttering pilgrimage for over six years now.  You can read the first post I wrote about it here.  Part of my process is to limit what I actually bring into our home.  If I am careful about what comes in, I don’t have to ask myself hard questions later about whether or not I need to keep it.

I have found that I need firm boundaries when it comes to questioning myself about the things in our home.  There are so many questions that I could ask myself to determine if something needs to stay or go.  All you have to do is type declutter into a search engine and you’ll find a plethora of questions and answers to choose from.  Over 41,000,000 as of this morning when I checked.  That creates overwhelm for me.  I need focus.  Only then can I actually make a decision so that I won’t just stuff this thing back into a drawer to deal with later.

So now, when I declutter our house I literally only have two questions that I ask myself.

1.  Do I truly love this item?

I really make myself stop and honestly contemplate whatever the item is.  I want to make my house into a sanctuary,  a place where we are happy and comfortable.  If I am surrounding all of us with things that are just things  that isn’t going to happen.

Rule number 1:  if it’s going to stay, I have to love it.

2.  Do I love this item enough to clean it?

This is a big one you guys.  I don’t love to clean.  I know people who truly do, but I’m not one of them.  I am however, slowly changing my mindset so that I can enjoy the process of cleaning my home and the results; but it’s a sloooww process.  Side note:  I have found that if I use cleaning products that I actually enjoy smelling, I am MUCH more likely to clean.  But, that’s another story entirely.

Looking through my house, I noticed that I have more knick knacks now than I’ve ever had before and they are giving me serious anxiety.  No one is going to clean those things but me.  They are mine.  But, the mental cost of having all of those things is greater than my enjoyment of them.  Does that make sense to anyone but me?

I am slowly going through them all, deciding if they truly do bring about happiness, and does that happiness make me want to clean them every week.  I have to say, most of the time the answer is no.  I’ve culled my book collection way down and people, you know my love of books.  I bring a lot of them home each month, but those are what I like to call “readers”.  They are going to be read and passed on to someone else who can enjoy them.  There are very few that I add to my bookshelves to keep.

The next collection at my house that I’m going to go through is my collection of milk glass.  I have a deep passion for milk glass, but the more I seriously ask myself do I love every piece that I have, I already know the answer is going to be no.  There are some pieces that I know I’ll probably never part with – such as my vintage milk glass dental tray.  That thing makes me happy every time I look at it.  I have no idea why, but that doesn’t matter.  Psst:  I bought it at a yard sale for $10.00.  The woman said it was her Grandmother’s and it was in its original box!   Apparently she didn’t share her Grandmother’s and my passion for milk glass.

So.  What are your parameters?  How do you decide what stays and what has to go?

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