by Erich Sachs and Kim Brown

One of the activities that we love the most is getting rid of crap. We both love the moment when we realize that we have been keeping something that isn’t useful and that has nothing to do with who we want to be, and then we get rid of it.

We’re doing a lot of this right now and want to share with you a couple of approaches that might be helpful.

If you suspect you might not need something, you almost certainly don’t need it. And by eliminating all the crap you don’t need, you’ll clear space for what’s actually important.

Erich’s Way:

Each week, I spend about 30 minutes cutting up junk around my property into little pieces and throwing it in the garbage can. It’s not a huge time investment, but over the months it has made an enormous change to our property and been a tremendous relief for me. I no longer have to look at it, think about it, wonder what I’m going to do with it. I made a decision once, executed it, and it was gone. It’s one less thing to worry about, one less thing pulling my attention away from the things I am trying to do.

We’ve been ignoring piles of junk from the previous homeowners for so long that that’s all we’ve seen. It’s only now that we’ve slowly and methodically cleared space and we’re starting to see what’s possible for our home and property.

When your workspace or physical environment is cluttered, your attention is under constant attack. By spending a little time each week eliminating the items in your life that no longer belong, you won’t have to use energy to tune them out. You’ll start to bring into the focus all the wonderful things that do belong.

Kim’s Way:

I don’t have a methodical approach to getting rid of stuff. When it comes to getting rid of stuff, I am more intuitive/ driven by madness.

I’m a little bit of a hippie; I used to be a lot more of a hippie. And like most hippie chicks, I burned a lot of candles and incense. But over the years I have done this less and less, though I kept the candles because they used to be a part of how I saw myself and the vibe I imagined for my home. The other day, lying in bed and thinking about nothing, it occurred to me that 99% of my candle burning was the tapers I burn every night at the dinner table. Only once or twice a year do I get out a pillar candle or votive. So why do I have so freakin’ many of them?

And so I hopped out of bed, went directly to my candle stash, and got rid of almost all of them (except two that smell amazing) that weren’t the tapers that I burn at dinner. It was at least 20lbs. of candles and a whole shelf in my laundry room. Done. Gone. Clear.

Erich is getting rid of old windows and construction waste; I am getting rid of our belongings that have, for better or for worse, been a part of our identity for years. Our approaches are different, but the result is the same: we are become more and more who we are as we clear space for ourselves.

Two things:

One. When you build up a good head of steam, this can be both energizing and fun. Let yourself enjoy the process.

Two. Start with unsentimental stuff first. Don’t start by going through photos of your family and friends, that’ll kill you. Start by getting rid of all the stray, partner-less socks that have haunted you for years. The getting-rid-of-stuff muscle take a little strengthening, but I promise it will get stronger.