I don’t know about you, but I love the promise of spring! New life springs up, there’s more color to the world, and it starts to warm up again outside. March is a great time to get into minimalism and get your declutter on!
Last year we had the Go Minimalist in March challenge and if you’re interested you should definitely check out that post as well as the accompanying YouTube videos on minimalism! There’s a whole playlist of helpful minimalist themed videos.
This week the focus is on decluttering, which is one of my favorite things about minimalism – purging your home and life of unnecessary stuff!
WHY YOU SHOULD GET YOUR DECLUTTER ON NOW
Most of the world has been home more often than not the last year. You might be sick of your surroundings or feeling slightly overwhelmed by, well… stuff. Now is the time to do something about it! Get your declutter on and go through your house (and if necessary your schedule – prioritizing your time is important too) considering how much use you get out of everything. If you don’t use it, don’t need it, don’t like it enough to keep it, then don’t.
It can be worth the effort if you have nicer items such as furniture or designer clothes to try selling them online through sites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. I’ve gotten to the point where I give what I can to friends who can use it and donate the rest. Below is the end result of my last round of decluttering. This is just what was donated; a few bags and ride on toys had already been delivered to a friend to use or donate.
Items donated included:
- twenty-six children’s books
- unopened crayons,
- several unsharpened #2 pencils with holiday designs
- Christmas and fall decor (because less is more obviously) I didn’t use last year
- all the Potato Heads (kids stopped playing with them)
- flannel sheets that don’t fit our Purple mattress
- a bedskirt
- more toys that hadn’t been played with but were in great shape
- unused Christmas and Valentine’s day cards I don’t plan to pull out and use again
- miscellaneous clothing items
- a winter coat I haven’t worn in years
In short, four cardboard boxes and two kitchen trash bags of plain old stuff we no longer needed are no longer cluttering our closets, cabinets, and toy boxes simply because I took the time to go through the house over the course of the week. And I didn’t even go through the entire house.
OTHER AWESOME MINIMALIST ACTIVITIES YOU SHOULD CONSIDER IN MARCH
A while back I wrote a post called The Minimalist’s Spring To-Do List. That is a great one to go back and re-read! You should really consider decluttering prior to spring cleaning; it’ll take much less time to clean if you have less to clean. And that’s not just true when it comes to spring cleaning – it’s true all year!
I mentioned it early, but do be sure to minimize your commitments as well. Life is slowly getting back to a new sort of normal. Our daughter is playing softball for the first time this summer. Practice starts next week. Our son has just started gymnastics. One activity per child is plenty for us right now.
My husband works basically seven days a week. I do not work outside of the home. I run this blog (fairly regularly again recently) and help maintain the church website as well as do a little freelance accounting work. Anything new is weighed against our priorities.
Ana of Goatdog Simple, a blogging friend, and fellow minimalist wrote this great guest post for me on Minimalism And Scheduling Our Time. Be sure to check it out!
You also want to be sure to check and double-check your budget! This is a great place to minimize excess when necessary. It’s the only way to really maximize your savings goals; if you never reevaluate your spending, your lifestyle is apt to increase when your incomes. Your savings, not so much. So get your declutter on when it comes to your budget as well!
KEEP IT SIMPLE, BE CONSISTENT, AND KEEP YOUR DECLUTTER ON
Don’t worry about organizing everything in your home with expensive color-coordinated containers – just yet at least. Take the time to declutter regularly; your organizational needs will decrease. It can save you time (cleaning and locating needed items kept) and money (no storage rental and fewer totes and baskets) just getting your declutter on every few months.
I don’t do massive declutter sessions very often now; our possessions have been pared down to a manageable level. All I typically do now is keep a cardboard box in the laundry room and toss in items to donate when I come across them. When the seasons change, the kids start to outgrow everything, or I feel a little overwhelmed with stuff I simply do a more thorough declutter.
I’ll be back next week with more frugal, minimalist advice! Until then stay frugal and get your declutter on!
Thanks for the mention! Isn’t it amazing how we’re constantly putting stuff into the donate box? Kids outgrow clothing and toys so quickly that there’s always a pile ready to go. I have some spring cleaning and decluttering to do soon.
Oh my gosh, it’s never-ending! The hubby just finished building the drawers on our storage bed and commented how heavy my nightstand was last night when he moved it. Looks like I found my next declutter project. And as soon as I have the kids wardrobes covered someone hits a growth spurt or destroys most of their stuff!
I built up a huge pile of stuff I wanted to get rid of that I was hoping to donate. I only rent a single room, so it took up a lot of space. So much space, that I couldn’t wash my clothes as I had no space to dry them. As the lockdown dragged and the months ticked on by living like this, I eventually gave it and took it to the local dumb to be dealt with. So if you’re going to declutter, make sure you have an exist strategy
You raise a good point there!