Recently, I had a client ask me how you know when what you’re keeping is enough vs. too much. I think that’s an excellent question and one that many people are pondering when they are making decisions about what to let go of during the organizing process. So, let’s just get right to the point, here are three of my ‘rules of thumb’ when tackling those stacks and piles in front of you:
1) Go through through your items in categories to see if there are things that you just don’t like or are in poor condition that you easily make the decision to let go. From there, look again at what you have before you when you have multiples and embrace the motto: “keep the best and get rid of the rest.” Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re going through your kitchen utensils and you create categories by placing items of the same type together. It may look like rubber spatulas in one section, tongs in another stack, etc. You can spread all the tongs out and see how many you have. You may be surprised that you have ten sets! For your first look, see if any are bent, rusted, damaged and let those go. Take a look at what you have left and choose the best ones to keep. The chances are good that you were already reaching for the same ones over and over anyway.
2) The next rule of thumb is to evaluate your storage space. Do you have the space to support storing items that you like and use without displacing something else? If you have the room for storage and what you’re keeping is not causing something else to sit out or spill over, I think it’s generally okay to keep. I think we should always go back at a later date and evaluate what we have again. At a later date you may decide to downsize further. This is a process and you don’t have to have it all dialed in the first time around.
3) Another criteria is to ask yourself if you have enough of whatever it is to do the job at hand? It’s really common for me to see people with stacks and stacks of cleaning rags in their laundry room. How many cleaning rags would you really need at one time? If there’s a bad spill, you’re going to grab towels. If you’re dusting, you’re going to use one, maybe two rags. So do you really need three baskets of cleaning rags or will one suffice?
Look at what you have with a critical eye for whether you want to keep it, whether you have the storage available to keep it and whether you need all of it to get the job done.
