Here’s a stunning statistic: In the United States right now, there are more self-storage facilities (about 50,000) than there are McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger Kings, Starbucks, and Walmarts combined. We are clearly a nation that has more stuff than we need or are using. And whether we want to downsize our housing arrangement to a smaller place or just declutter our environment, or even offload our excesses so our children won’t be forced to deal with it when we are gone, there’s no getting around it: for ourselves, for our children and for our environment we need to get rid of much of what we have. Unfortunately, this comes at a moment in history when we have never had so many products so affordable and so easily accessible. Yet there’s hope, as a recent survey from the website Neighbor found that 78 % of respondents realize they have more possessions than they need. We’ve previously discussed ways to clean the clutter and ditch the items you no longer use. To read our prior recommendations, click here.

According to the Washington Post, there are practical strategies to both rid yourself of unneeded or unwanted possessions and restrain yourself from buying more. Beyond the Marie Kondo mantra of determining whether a possession brings you joy, the Post advises you to examine your environment, see what you have, what you need, what you like, and what you can part with. Experts recognize that you do have to prepare yourself mentally to part ways with certain items that may hold some nostalgia or may represent certain aspects of your life. But be patient with yourself by recognizing that getting started is the hardest part: it’s difficult to accept that an item that may once have had value or meaning no longer does. But there are upsides to your efforts to downsize your possessions: You may gain financially, your environment may feel lighter, and the burden on your loved ones may be less going forward. As another recent article, this one from the New York Times, posited, it seems the pandemic has been a catalyst for people to realize this need to purge. And while professionals like Matt Paxton advise that downsizing and disposing of your possessions can be exhausting, you need to take the time and take deliberative action to accomplish what is necessary. For more insights from Paxton, you may want to pick up his new book, Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff: Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward with Your Life (but buy the electronic version- so you’ll have one less item to have to eventually give away).

Unfortunately, the practical act of actually getting rid of or giving away your items may not be so easy in this day and age. In a humorous but nonetheless valuable article from the New Yorker, writer Patricia Marx takes you from small knickknacks to large pieces of furniture as she navigates the best ways to sell, give away or throw away your unwanted possessions. As she makes clear, “Saying goodbye is easy. Finding new homes for your stuff is the challenge.” Her advice ranges from creating good stories when you describe the items you want to sell or give away to insisting that anyone wanting your assortment of free items must agree to take them all. She lists useful websites for selling or giving away books, places to recycle or hand off your old electronics, the best junk removal companies, and even suggests looking at the website NeverLikedItAnyway, a platform for getting rid of items from relationships that ended in a break-up (“A place to sell the breakup baggage cluttering your life…”). 

If you find this decluttering and disposing to be challenging, take heart from the words of the famous British designer William Morris, who once said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Certainly, that’s a starting point for disposing of your unnecessary items!