The collection of china from your beloved grandmother, your mother’s large gift of personally crocheted doilies, table runners and piano cover, your father’s library of Readers’ Digest spanning five decades – all these things that you keep in your home have sentimental value. You look at them with great fondness. However, you have no practical use for them.
You keep them because of all the memories they hold that connect you to the irreplaceable personalities in your life. But unfortunately, they leave your home feeling disorganized and incredibly cramped. Not only that, these emotionally charged possessions somewhat prevent you from achieving your idea of the perfect home, with space to think and be yourself.
According to organization experts, it’s wonderful that there are things that remind you of the wonderful times and the people responsible for them. However, they are just things, and what is more important are the memories you have in your heart and mind. These will never go away.
If these things are holding you back from the life you deem ideal, let them go.
Letting go is not going to be easy but do not let the difficulty of the task stop you, Instead, keep your goals in clear view. When you are ready, follow the steps for purging your home of sentimental clutter provided below.
Step 1: Give yourself time.
It helps to set a schedule for the purge, especially if you are getting rid of items that belonged to someone who recently passed on. Give yourself time to grieve and to prepare for the day when you need to let go of the items with great memories attached to them.
Step 2: Prepare boxes to store the clutter.
The boxes will help you get organized. Label them according to what you want to do with the items, as well as, what they are for. Prepare boxes for the items to give away to loved ones, donate, throw, and store.
Step 3: Get a helping hand.
This is particularly important if there are a lot of items to get rid of. A sibling who is tech-savvy may not only help with packing but can take pictures of the sentimental items as well. On top of that, it’s always beneficial to have someone who can help you determine the true value of certain things so you can decide more easily on the appropriate action to take with them.
Step 4: Find a storage solution.
There will still be some items that you simply will not be ready to get rid of yet. Put them in a self-storage facility and just leave them there for a bit. It’s better to keep them out of sight, for over time, you will realize if you can or cannot live without them.
Step 5: Save the best.
The best items to keep are those that can represent many memories. For example, the small collection of letters from a departed loved one is always worth keeping. Or, from the collection of china from your Nannie, just keep the cup and teapot that she always used for her afternoon tea. These fewer items will still do an effective job of reminding you of a beloved person.
Step 6: Consider repurposing a few items.
Identify the current needs of your home and identify how some of the sentimental items can fill those needs. For example, if you have been thinking about getting small pots for the cute little succulents you want to deck out your kitchen windows with, how about repurposing the old canisters your mom collected?
Step 7: Make clearing out sentimental clutter a continuous process.
You will not accomplish everything in one go. Let life happen and allow it to redefine what’s truly important to you. The items you have kept for now may cease to have a different value in a year or so. When that happens, you can decide to purge even more and think clearly about what to actually do with the things you will be decluttering from your home.
Purge Complete...Well, Almost
When you have completed all these seven steps, wrap up the process by cleaning your home and enjoying the usable space you have regained. For this, you can hire a home cleaning service that will not only clean your home but also refresh the items that you have decided to keep from the purge.
AUTHOR BIO
Chris Humphrey is the General Manager of Easytruck Moving & Storage. In 2013, the company combined their expertise in professional moving services and storage to create an entirely new approach to the business – and mobile storage was born! Easytruck now operates over 30,000 sq.ft. of air-conditioned facilities in three convenient locations in Dubai and is the only Mobile Storage operator in the UAE.
