We all have an overabundance of things. As I mentioned in the past, at some point in your life you will need to downsize your belongings. Waiting until it becomes a necessity is not a good approach.
Don’t wait until that time comes because you will inevitably need to downsize your belongings at some point. Be proactive, start before it becomes a necessity because if you wait, you may not have the physical or mental capacity to do the job. You want to be able to make decisions about your stuff, you don’t want others to make those decisions for you.
A good approach is to be proactive as mentioned above. There are steps you can take as you go about your daily activities to reduce the size of your belongings. Mindfulness, or being aware of your surroundings, is key to removing excess from your living spaces.
Examples of Mindfulness
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As you look through your closet for something to wear, keep in mind how many clothes you have, specifically how many of one type of clothing. For example, do you have several pairs of black pants that fit you well? But what doesn’t fit? Having 2 or maybe 3 pairs of black pants that fit is enough.
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Keep a basket in or near your closet and when you find an item of clothing that doesn’t fit, is uncomfortable, or you don’t like the way it looks on you, put it in the basket. When the basket is full, take it to your favorite charity to donate.
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When you are preparing a meal and look for a cookware and find several of the same, discard the excess. What I mean by throw away the excess is donate it if it’s in good condition, or put it in the recycle bin if it’s not and recycling is an option for you.
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Personal care items can clutter up storage areas very quickly if contents are not accounted for. In the morning, as you prepare for the day, pay attention to how many bottles of shampoo are taking up space in a closet or in the shower. Sometimes we start using a product and decide we don’t like it, so we buy another one to try. The one we stop using now takes up valuable storage space. When you replace the one that didn’t work, use the one in one out rule and discard the one that didn’t work to free up space.
This is the basis for reducing the size of your belongings every day. Being aware of your surroundings goes a long way in keeping your belongings in proportion to your living spaces. When you reduce the size of your belongings as you go along, when it becomes a necessity, you won’t have as many things to decide your fate.