So, I previously posted about transitioning into what I call my Phase #2 of Minimalism and mentioned how I intended to write about the process I go through to clean out my spaces. Today I am going to be doing that, and I’m going to take you through the three steps I go through.
Step #1:
Identify. Identify what you want to go through, whether that’s a room, a box or a building. This helps you to start with a clear idea of what you are going to be doing and helps if you have a specific timeframe to work in. If you only have thirty minutes, choose a single box or pile. If you have a few hours, choose a room. If you have multiple days, break up the project for each day.
Step #2:
Sort. Now you’ve identified what you want to go through, go through it. I like to go through my things and separate the items into four categories:
- Trash
- Donate
- Sell
- Keep
When I’m deciding what to put in which category I ask myself the following questions:
- Does this add value (not monetary) to my life? Do I use it regularly?
If yes to one or both, I put it in the ‘keep’ category. If no, I ask myself the next question:
- Does this have any monetary value?
If yes, I put it in the ‘sell’ category. If no, I ask myself the next question:
- Could somebody else find value (not monetary) in this?
If yes, I put it in the ‘donate’ category. If no, I put it in the trash category.
Step #3:
The next, and final step is to actually follow through with the actions related to each category. So making sure to trash the items I put in the ‘trash’ category, donate the items in the ‘donate’ category and sell the items in the ‘sell’ category, as well as giving each item in the ‘keep’ category a place. There’s no point in sorting your belongings in the effort to minimise and then keep them, with the only difference being that you’ve categorised what you want to do with them.
I’ve done a video of me actually going through and detailing this process which you can watch here. I hope this helps you to efficiently simplify your spaces.
briellewartocha 