
Throughout your life, you’ll hold on to things that have special memories attached to them. Things like posters from when you were a kid, sports attire, concert swag, or trophies you won as a pageant queen or basketball star. As you continue to collect these mementos, you may start to realize that space you once had for them is cluttered.
Decluttering this space does not mean you need to throw away your precious items and the memories they remind you of. Instead, it means you can find a way to keep those items while keeping a clutter-free space. This extra space may give you enough to add new mementos to your collection!
Table of Contents
Steps to declutter your items
Sort through everything –
The first step in decluttering for success is to sort through all your items. Are there things that you no longer know what memories they are supposed to remind you of? If so, they are no longer valuable and can be given away or thrown out.
Classify things –
As you’re sorting through your mementos, you may start to realize you have items of similar characteristics. Such as multiple ribbons or trophies, movie ticket stubs, concert t-shirts or your favorite boy band poster. Pair the items that are similar together so you can either reorganize them or pack them away in storage.
Inherited items –
As you are sorting and classifying your items, you may realize you inherited stuff from people who are no longer living. These items are important to keep because if you no longer want them, you can pass them down through generations or to another family member who may have a better need.
What to do with everything –
Now that you’ve finished classifying, sorting, and deciding what to keep and/or pass on, it’s time to figure out what you will do with the mementos. If you simply no longer have room for them in your place but you don’t want to get rid of them, you can rent a mini storage unit to store a few boxes in. A mini storage unit usually costs an average of $25-50 per month (depending on where you live and the size).
Another thing you can do is reorganize the items. You may realize now that you’ve gotten rid of a few things and/or paired similar items together that you have more room to restore them where they previously were.