It truly is true!

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Just click on any of the images to take you to that book!

Are you about to start your clear-out for the new year? Did you know that this is the busiest week for people to start the year of decluttering?

For the past few years I have been in declutter mode. I have read so many minimalist and decluttering books that it would make your head spin. I will post a list of some of them below. A few were amazing, others were complete flops and I suppose that it depends on what you are looking for to determine which is which.

One of the things I have learned is that the urge to keep something because I might need it later isn’t valid. I have seriously gotten rid of thousands of things over the past four years and there is not a single thing that I wish I had back. I will say that there have been days when I have wished that I had sold a thing instead of sending it on to the Salvation Army, but in the great scheme of things, there is nothing that I wished I still had cluttering up my house. And if there were to be something that I wished back – guess what, I guarantee that I can find it at a thrift store!

I’ll put up a post this week of our year of donating to show what we have decluttered this year. I always tell myself that I’m going to post it week by week and I never do it, so maybe this is the year I get it right!

As a side note, I have to say that even with my love of yard sales, flea markets and thrift stores I have learned to be VERY picky about what actually comes home with me. This is a rule that I abide by religiously now, otherwise my house would definitely look like a version of hoarders. I have to love it, it has to useful for me or someone in my family and it has to have a purpose. The purpose can be to look pretty, but a purpose, still.

My very favorite of the books is Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. There is so much information packed in this little volume that makes it a must read in my opinion. Here’s the caveat: it does have some oddities to it. You have to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. For example, I do not thank my purse every time I come home and I also do not empty it and place it on a shelf.

But, I also understand the premise behind what I would call the odd tendencies. If you were to do that every single time you came into your home it would make you much more mindful of your things.

One of the main points that I have discovered for myself over these past four years though is this: The less stuff I have in my home, the easier it is to keep clean. That’s all the wisdom I have for you today.

Here are just a few of the books that I have purchased and read over the past year.