Decluttering

[Jingthing]

I reckon this is an issue mostly only for longer term expats. 

As I'm one of those and a condo owner that has a fair bit of space, I feel burdened by way too much clutter.

It's mostly hidden inside covered storage areas so not shocking to visitors but within those it's really quite bad.

You might know the feeling. You don't own the stuff. The stuff is owning you. You don't really know exactly what you even have (as there's so much of it). 

While not a candidate for a hoarders reality tv show, I'm aware I have a problem and so far have not found an efficient way to fix it.

My internet algorithm feeds my new decluttering philosophies and plans every day, but so far none has really inspired me to the point where I think it would actually work for me.

I have concluded that there is no one size fits all decluttering theory, and that most likely you need to develop one that works specifically for your situation.

That said, I did see one that piqued my interest enough to consider trying it.

Remove (to the trash, sale, or donation) 10 items every day.  Like for a month and then see how it looks then. Maybe several months! Any item, big or small.  No need to concentrate on a particular area. No grand strategy. Just find 10 items. Any items. Anywhere.

It's still hard. Any declutter means you'll be tossing some things that you really will need later and will need to buy again.

What's worked for you, if anything?

 

[newnative]

      Your thread is very timely for my spouse and myself.  We have been talking about clutter, and just having too much stuff, as this week we are moving from one house to another one.  We finally finished the move today, just in time for the closing on the house we are selling tomorrow.

     We did some looking back on our earlier years here, when we first arrived in Pattaya in 2010, poor as church mice.  For a number of years, we managed to live in a series of 48 sqm studio condos at various View Talay projects, ending at VT7.  Those years, we had exactly one armoire that we both shared, as well as a desk cabinet that had some storage drawers.   Somehow we managed to get everything we had into those two pieces of furniture, plus a couple of antique Korean chests we brought from the US.

     Fast-forward to today, where we have been living in a large 4-bedroom, 5-bath house, with the master bedroom alone having 4 armoires, each about the size of the one armoire we had at the View Talays.  Plus a separate armoire for a home office.  Somehow, we have managed to fill them, and also partially fill two other armoires in the guest bedrooms.  

     We have been moving, on average, at least once a year as we sold a condo, or a house, and moved to another one.  In theory, this should have kept us light and nimble, possession-wise.  One lean mean moving machine.

    If only that were true.  Instead, we seem to have more stuff with every move.  It's been said the nature abhors a vacuum.  That seems to also apply to us--our clutter has expanded to fill the vacuum of our available storage.  If we build it, we will fill it.

    What I hate most is we keep dragging around from move to move all sorts of what I consider totally useless stuff, including some construction stuff which I'm not even sure what the usage is.   Me: "Can't we throw this out? "  Spouse: "No, we might need it."  Never mind that we have moved "X" item four or five times, waiting, in vain, for that 'need' to finally show up.

    I do like your idea of removing ten items a day.   We always say we will sort through all our stuff once we get moved, and, of course, never get around to it.  This time, however, we are temporarily moving to a smaller house so that might force us to actually do some decluttering.  We'll see.  

[novacova]

Personally the only method that works is decisively rid of stuff that has gone dormant, for every increment of procrastination leads to an exponential increase of junk.