Let Go of Your Stuff
Alum News
Published September 13, 2016
BEGIN WITH THE WHY. “Do you want to have fewer things to put away so you feel less stressed?” Delap asks. “Do you want to feel like you have less to take care of because stuff requires attention, and you prefer to have experiences?” Knowing why you’re doing something can also make it easier to make the individual decisions to keep or toss.
MAKE YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE. Put a decluttering date on your calendar—plan to spend no more than two or three hours at a time—to give yourself the best chance of following through.
FIND A COMPELLING STARTING POINT. “You might decide to start with the thing you find most frustrating or the thing that seems easiest,” Delap says. “It can be as small as cleaning the junk drawer in your kitchen.”
DON’T FINISH BEFORE YOU’RE FINISHED. At the end of each session, immediately put things in the car and drive them to wherever they’re going, whether that’s Goodwill or the dump. “Otherwise,” Delap says, “things stay in your car for a long time and you still haven’t really let go of them.”
MAKE MAINTENANCE EASY. “Always have a donations bag available in a closet. Let go of stuff as soon as it’s lost its function or value. When you buy a new appliance, let go of the existing one as soon as possible,” she says. “ You will find it just takes minutes to declutter this way.”
ONLINE: professional-organizer.com
A Mindset for Minalism
Elena Rivellino ’96, who lives in a 130-square-foot tiny house in Asheville, N.C., keeps a strict watch on her possessions. “You develop a mindset when you live in a small space: If you acquire X, you have to get rid of Y. It’s a requirement for someone in a tiny house, but I think that can be a valuable idea for anyone,” Rivellino says. “I remember getting a tote bag and a mug when I was back at Smith for Reunion. I actually kept them. I use the tote constantly as a grocery bag. And the mug worked out pretty serendipitously, too, because one of my Airbnb renters accidentally broke one of my mugs. I had precisely one available hook and was happy to be able to replace the broken mug with a mug that
had meaning to me.”
This story appears in the Fall 2016 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.
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