I recently read a NYT article about hoarding. The article's author reviewed a book entitled "The Hoarder in You." The author of the book is a psychotherapist who specializes in treating people with anxiety, OCD and hoarding. She is a frequent guest on the TV show "Hoarders." Now, I am not a hoarder. I actually enjoy throwing things away. But I do have trouble with clutter. A lot of clutter. The book is basically a how-to for decluttering your home (not just for hoarders)... What to get rid of, what to keep, how to start, how to maintain. This book sparked a fire in me. I suddenly looked around my house and saw stuff, everywhere. My first thought was to light the whole thing on fire. But reason prevailed and I set up a plan to declutter the entire house. I started in my closet--Goodbye clothes that don't fit anymore, that are 10 years old, that I will probably never wear again. Goodbye shoes with 4" heels that I used to wear clubbing and shoes that no longer fit my expanded-with-each-pregnancy feet. Then we hit the basement. Hard. The kids went through their toys to find things that would make good Christmas presents for kids who don't have enough these holidays (we donated everything). When Alan and I bought our house, we went into accumulation mode. We filled our house so full, it is appalling. We used to love garage sales, free stuff from the side of the road, Goodwill. But there's just too much. WAY TOO MUCH. Especially after reading this book. So we spent an entire weekend cleaning out the basement. Goodbye middle school yearbooks, notes from friends in 7th grade, pottery from elementary school, t-shirts from 4th grade soccer teams, trophies, cards, pictures of Leonardo di Caprio and oodles of NKOTB memorabilia.
I'm so proud of us. We now have empty shelves in the closets and open space around the room. I've since decluttered our linen closet, which was so full the door wouldn't shut, but now has floor space and empty shelf space. I've also done our entry closet, china hutches, and bedroom dresser. It feels SO good. And it was a wonderful lesson for the kids to find an entire display of our stuff at the front of Goodwill. They knew that their hard work and sacrifices to let go of some of their things will benefit others. HURRAY! I highly recommend that book...
Shots of
just a portion of what we donated, threw away or recycled:
Awesome! Good for you! I got giddy while reading this post. I love decluttering, throwing things away, organizing, etc. It just makes me happy! And thanks for the heads up about the book. I love that show and I love Dr. Robin, she's usually my favorite of the psychologists that come on. Now I need to go declutter my house, my linen closet sounds like it was similar to yours!
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