It is interesting to me that very few people want clutter in their life (both tangible and intangible), yet it tends to manifest insidiously even for vigilant minimalists and requires the periodic clean-out to bring a space back into the desired state.
What is your insidious clutter that constantly tries to creep in? How do you manage it?
For me it’s papers (bills and stuff waiting to be scanned) and children’s toys (family just loves to buy my kids more and more junk). For my wife, it’s stuff like lotions, shampoo, soaps, etc.
Our basic strategy is to give all this kind of stuff a designated amount of space they are allowed to take up, and once that space is full, stuff must leave before new can come in. We have a folder for mail/papers, bins for the kids toys (that have to be put away each day), and a basket for my wife’s products.
Toys for sure. Both my spouse and mother-in-law love to buy toys for my kid. I try to be understanding. They didn’t grow up with much so to them, it’s important. Thankfully, I’ve been able to declutter some and they’re not excessive with gift giving.
Well for me it’s mostly tech gear and gadgets. I work a lot on optimising my lifestyle, my habits, my routines. I am also always on the lookout for a product from a brand that meets my requirements and with which I can fully identify. As long as I haven’t found something that I can stand by 100% or as soon as I see something as fundamentally better, I’m ready to buy something new.
For example, I was looking for a perfume that I could really identify with. I searched, tested and finally found what I wanted. I don’t have to buy another one or look for a new one because I am satisfied and have crossed this item off my (almost endless) to-do list.
However, there are still many unresolved issues. For example, just recently I switched to a few clothing shops where I buy all my clothes, sometimes several copies of one model instead of going from shop to shop trying things on. But the same principle goes for services I use, places I go, people I interact with.
The clutter that accumulates is then attempts that didn’t quite work out or that didn’t suit me. This also applies to my digital services, by the way. I constantly delete accounts from services I don’t use, delete bookmarks, mails, … and delete everything that can’t stay 100%.
Clothes are probably my biggest challenge. I hate clothes shopping and tend to use two different strategies:
If I find something I like, buy several more of the same type (i.e. several pairs of pants in the same color). When this works well, I’m set for a couple years on a reliable staple. More often than not, it seems like random variations in construction or differences in how each piece shrinks or ages ends up in me not liking the duplicates as much as the original, and I end up with clothes that I don’t wear.
Lately I’ve been relying more on thrifting or buying used online, but the selection for male clothing seems to pale in company’s female, so it can be a challenge to find decent options. My success rate in finding used clothes i like is lower than new, but with used clothes i can turn around and sell them myself without taking much of a loss.
I think my dream is to have my own personal “Steve Jobs”-esque staple style, and just wear the same thing every day, but personally I’ve found that goal to be impossible!
I manage the insidious growth aspect by strictly limiting the amount of clothing I let myself own, and selling/donating clothes when I need to buy more.
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files / digital decluttering probably
