Expert Article
Less is More
A guide to decluttering as a family
After attending a full day of online classes, you walk out of your room to enjoy some family time. As the door opens, you see five pairs of shoes scattered across the living room, a pile of unread magazines on the desk, Amazon boxes stacked in the corner of the room, and a mountain of clothes on the sofa. You see your family walking around, but no one seems to care. Your mind tells you it’s time to clean up, but your body says the opposite, “maybe tomorrow…”
These are all situations that my family and I had encountered. Even worst, on top of our lack of motivation to clean, we enjoy the never-ending process of investing in more personal properties. One plus one equals two, and piles on top of multiple piles quickly amount to mountains of clutters. Sooner or later I realized that changes are necessary.
Decluttering alone is difficult because giving way possessions may be equivalent to giving up memories of the past. Decluttering as a family is even more challenging since even communicating the need for decluttering takes up time and energy. The complication behind the seemingly painless job of decluttering makes it an activity worth some thought and planning.
Analyze your housemate
Know yourself and know your enemies. Get yourself a favor and know what to expect before you start.
Here is a tip for you: list out the people in your house, their cleaning habit, potential reasons that may stop or prompt them to declutter, and their willingness to cooperate. For example:
▌Family habit and decluttering
↬ Mom/Difficulty to communicate: ★★★★☆
• Clean, but has little knowledge about decluttering.
• Tired of organizing and cleaning.
• Purchases things impulsively because she never remembers where keeps her stuff.
• Thinks throwing things away is wasteful.
After the list has been created, you should have a preliminary understanding of your family’s habit and cooperativeness. If the willingness to cooperate is low, be prepared to hit some obstacles when it comes to persuading your family to declutter. If everyone has a high willingness to cooperate, then you are set to be successful.
Communicate
Communication is key; this is especially true when you are planning for a huge decluttering activity. Not to mention, throwing away your housemate’s belongings without their consent is an act that can cause unnecessary conflict.
Many factors affect this seemingly straightforward process of decluttering. Purging can be difficult for people who think getting rid of usable items is wasteful. So, provide reasons for them to declutter is another way to tackle a lack of incentive to clean.
2. Maximize value in an item: Often time it is the emotional attachment that makes people reject the notion of decluttering. Let your housemate know that organizing and donating unused items can provide the item a new purpose and allow it to create a lasting impact on those in need. By emphasizing the significance of this act, you can help them deal with the emotional attachments they have to their belongings.
3. Tidiness and environment: Cluttering can cause health complications since spaces in the clutters provide an ideal environment for pests to thrive. Unless they are insect-lovers, make your family aware of the clutter’s attractiveness to pests may incentivize them to dispose of unwanted items, and reduce clutters.
Division of labor
Start tackling the items in the common area by separating them based on possession. We prefer making our own decision to keep or dispose of the items. While making this decision, it is important to evaluate your current need rather than assessing your need based on the value of the item. This is the most difficult step, but you can certainly reduce the clutters if you follow Marie Kondo’s suggestion: “everything you keep should spark joy.”
Once the items are categorized into the disposal and hold category, distribute the roles for disposing of, recycling, selling, and donating of items. This division of labor allows every member to stay responsible during the process.
Communicate Regularly
As the process comes to an end, it is time to reflect on your lifestyle. Decluttering is an ongoing process and you can keep clutter away through continuous communication with your family. If the cause of hoarding is impulsive consumption, then reminding each other to get what you need instead of what you want can be a quick fix for the problem. On top of that, words of affirmation can be a huge force to keep up with the decluttering habit. Make sure to compliment each other for their hard work so they feel rewarded in this process.
“Less is More” is the spirit of decluttering. Less does not mean lacking but means having the right amount. You can have total control over your space and money by being conscious of your consuming habit and assessing your personal needs. So why wait? Start decluttering today to focus on what matters.
Worked Cited
Davis, Donna J. "Simplify: Eliminate Stress and Fatigue through Simple Living". DJD Communications,
2013.
Felman, Adam. “Hoard No More: The Art of Throwing Stuff Away.” Greatist, Greatist, 1 Sept. 2020.
Hetzer, Linda, and Janet Hulstrand. "Moving On: a Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home." BookBaby, 2013.
Kondo, Marie. "Tidy Up Your Home with Marie Kondo!" Youtube, KonMari Media Inc., 4 Nov. 2017.
As a former freshman living in a dorm with seven other guys, I can say that this article would have been very useful had you written it a few years back (not sure how compliant my roommates would have been though). Perhaps one thing you could consider changing is to use more active voice. I noticed that you used a lot of past-tense throughout the article and maybe altering the sentence structures such that it uses more present-tense could help. Also, I just wanted to point out that the bullet point format under Analyse Your Housemate is a little misformatted (I believe this could be due to a copy past error from word).
ReplyDeleteA side note: I'm glad you mentioned Marie Kondo because she was the first person I thought of when I read your title.
Wow, I love your conception of a decluttering plan and can only imagine what your house must look like! Actually, there is a lot to love about your article. The pictures compliment your words and your headlines are perfect.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate how you lay the theoretical foundation of "reasons" in your first step. It has to make sense logically if you're going to get roommate buy-in. Communication is key and it's great that it's the centerpiece of Steps 3 and 5!
Some of the grammar needs to fixed, but those are easy to solve problems. We can talk about it at length later. Nicely done Emily and I hope Taiwan is pleasant!
Hi Emily, thank you for sharing! This year I am living in a house with 12 other guys and it is rather messy. Hopefully I can take some of these strategies and implement them in my own home so we can have a clean, tidy living area.
ReplyDeleteI particularly enjoyed reading about the division of labor segment because it is fair; the people who do not have as much personal clutter do not have to go through as much. Also, the rule ensures no one will accidentally throw away someone else's belonging that they wanted to keep.
With respect to grammar there are only a few minor errors that need to be fixed. Besides that, great work!