Category Archives: Small-House Living

The Hazards of Decluttering Mania

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, My Books, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Lately I’m noticing that some people (including a few “decluttering experts”) have taken the concept of decluttering to such an extreme that they’re actually recommending that you buy systems to store your belongings in so that everything is color- and shape-coordinated. And of course these “systems” cost plenty of money.

I’m afraid the decluttering trend is turning into a mania. It’s one thing to reduce your possessions to a manageable level so that you can live in an orderly, uncluttered home. It’s another thing to require everything to fit in pre-purchased, matching-color containers and shelving. We’re talking entire walls of shelving with matching storage containers that fit into their appointed slots with barely any room to spare.

Does anyone else think this is all getting a little, um, OCD?

Many of us were forced to declutter because of a financial reversal that led to downsizing our life by moving into smaller quarters. So we don’t have the kind of money that a big, coordinated storage system costs.

Take this pantry, for example. Just the rack on the door with its little accouterments costs nearly $130 on sale (reg. $184—eek!)

Then there are the goodies that go on the shelves. By goodies, I don’t mean food, of course: just the matching containers that you put the food in! Here’s a starter set for “only” $168.

When you go from weeding out the old stuff in your pantry and putting the rest of its contents in neat rows to buying hundreds of dollars’ worth of containers and shelves, not to mention pouring food out of the store packages into matching plastic containers, you are officially part of a mania.

And does it occur to anyone that by buying all these containers and shelves that go together, that you are actually adding clutter to your house? You’re also feeding your urge to accumulate, which is what you got you into trouble in the first place.

If you reduce your belongings to only what you find useful and beautiful (a theme I thoroughly explore in The Sentimental Person’s Guide to Decluttering), you won’t need coordinated storage systems. You won’t need to ruin a perfectly good wooden door by screwing an elaborate shelving system into it. And you’ll save a lot of money, too.

Update: I Still Love My Small House

By Claire Posted in Debt-Free, downsizing, My Books, Personal, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , ,

So it’s been seven years since we bought our small house after living in two large rental houses (and a five-bedroom two-story for many years before that). You live differently in a small house than in a large one, and it took me a while to figure that out. (I included what I learned in my eBook Secrets of Small-House Living, written a few years after we moved here.)

Now I’m used to living in a small house, but it has not become routine for me. I still love only having two bathroom sinks to clean instead of four. I greatly appreciate being able to plug the vacuum in the middle of the house and do all the vacuuming without once unplugging it, much less lugging it up and down steps as I did for many years.

Perhaps the thing I love best about my small house is that I don’t have to spend too much time or money on it, which frees up both things to be used for other pursuits. Every bit of time I don’t spend caring for a larger house can be spent reading, writing, gardening, or sewing. Every dollar I don’t spend on this house can be saved, or spent on travel. And we’re not talking about just a few bucks. The property taxes on this house are 1/3 of what we once paid on our large house. Now that’s quite a bit of savings!

There are downsides of living in a small house, but they’re quite minor. I’m aware that a couple of relatives are appalled by the fact that we gave up our lovely huge house for something that can best be described as modest. Oh, well, I gave up caring what they thought long ago.

Another negative is that sometimes I feel cooped up, especially now that it’s winter. But I’m solving that in two ways: I’ve turned a spare bedroom into a reading room, so that I have somewhere to sit and read besides the living room, and I’m making more of an effort to go for walks (all bundled up, of course) and meet friends for coffee now and then. These are things that I should have done long ago, because they are both quite enjoyable, and I find that afterwards, I return to my little house with a new sense of appreciation along the lines of “Be It Ever So Humble, There’s No Place Like Home.”

How to Get Over Decluttering Regret

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Debt-Free, downsizing, Personal, Small-House Living Tagged , , ,

It’s been seven years since we completed our massive decluttering effort, and six years since our grandchildren began arriving. What this means is that from time to time, I find myself wishing I still had something I got rid of, usually something that a grandchild would have liked or that one of my adult children who is now a parent wishes I had saved.

This is tough. That regret is painful. I can picture the item so clearly in my mind, but it’s long gone.

The most recent example is educational toys. I once had a fine collection, curated over many years of raising a large family. But I let go of most of it when we moved to the small house we live in now. There just wasn’t any room for it.

According to her pediatrician, one of our grandchildren may be gifted. This child has a very active mind and body and needs to be kept busy; her response to boredom is to get into trouble. Her parents have discovered that keeping her occupied with challenging puzzles and other activities is the key to saving their collective sanity.

I understand completely, and wistfully imagine how nice it would be to give them all those great educational toys we once had. But they’re gone.

I’ve begun to see, however, that it’s a complete waste of time to regret this, and particularly to dwell on it. It’s not as though there are no other educational toys left in the world. Rather than mourn the loss of what we had, I’ve been taking that energy and putting it into finding new educational toys for my tiny tornado, as I fondly call my very active granddaughter.

I’ve been checking out thrift stores and garage sales, and what I’ve discovered is that many kids are given educational toys, but few use them. So I’m finding very nice puzzles, games and other toys in like-new condition for mere pennies. Sometimes the packages are still sealed!

I buy these things and keep them at home until I see my grandchild. Until that happens, they take up space in my little house, so I’m glad to get them out of here. And, of course, my grandchild and her folks are thrilled with them.

There are no strings to these gifts, no emotional attachment involved. They can keep them or get rid of them once she’s bored with them. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m just happy to help out.

This is a new attitude for me. If I’d kept all of my kids’ educational toys, I’d be saying things like, “Give it back to me when she’s tired of it in case another grandchild needs it,” or “Don’t let her rip that, it was yours when you were little.” I would want that collection to be preserved.

But it’s gone. These “new” items are serving a purpose for a time and then they will be gone, too. That’s OK. There’s a lot of freedom in doing things this way, and the end result is that my house stays uncluttered. So much for decluttering regret!