One of the best things about blogging and social networking is meeting and connecting with amazing people.
Recently, I started reading TheSimplerLife and connected with Sam. He writes about the benefits of living a simpler life.
Enjoy his guest post and subscribe to his blog.
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It’s amazing how much I can read about simplicity and still not absorb the key lessons. I’ve read about the basics of decluttering numerous times. The advice is always the same, create one pile of stuff you know you’re going to keep, one pile of stuff you know you’re going to throw away/donate/recycle, and one pile of stuff you aren’t sure about. For some reason, my own decluttering efforts always resulted in two piles, the “keepers” and the “toss it.” I never seemed to have a third “ambiguous” pile. That is, until last week.
I already have a fairly simple wardrobe, but I decided to try to pare it down a little bit more. As I began to go through my clothes I realized that I liked and wore all my clothes, I just had too many. Since I liked everything I couldn’t really bring myself to donate them right away. So, borrowing a term from 30 Days to a Simpler Life, I created a “center of ambiguity.” I got all the clothes together that I think I wanted to remove from my closet and boxed them up. I then put that box out of sight and out of mind.
It is so much more psychologically easy to create a Center of Ambiguity when decluttering than it is to actually throw things away. By creating a CoA you end up with the same result, less stuff, without the psychological permanence of throwing stuff away. Once you have taken your test run of living without the items in your CoA it is much easier to remove that box after a couple of months (especially if you don’t open it again).
Pick one area of your life that you know you need to declutter yet still have serious attachments too. Good places to start are your wardrobe, a box full of momentos, or some other collection. Go through the items and create three piles. Anything you are unsure about getting rid of but don’t think you should keep goes into a box. This is your Center of Ambiguity and it gets put away, out of sight, for several months. Try living without these items while knowing that if you need to, you can always go get something out of your box.
I’ve found that once I’ve experienced living without something, because it’s living in my Center of Ambiguity, I can slowly get over any guilt or psychological issues I have with getting rid of it. It’s such a simple concept, throw your stuff in a box and forget about it, but it has such great implications for stress-free decluttering.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Great way of doing it! I do a similar thing — hide stuff away in a closet that I rarely open. It eventually becomes obvious to me that it’s time to lose the things in the closet. (BTW, RowdyKittens is now on my blogroll — your content is great!)
@Jane – thank you for reading and adding me to your blogroll. I sincerely appreciate it.
Thanks so much for allowing me to guest post on your blog. I really appreciate it!
Of course! Your writing is awesome Sam. I think you’re blog is going to grow like crazy.
I love this trick – it really helps me too! And I 2nd Jane – great content. Thank you for sharing.
Downsizing is a great way to stay away from clutter, also cleaning after yourself. Happily I’m a natural declutterer.
I like your idea, still I don’t have much to implement it but it is a nice way to suggest it to someone else.Thanks Sam for the article, and of course many thanks Tammy for sharing it with us!
I am so glad I caught this post. I have recently been recharged into decluttering and one of my major clutter areas is definitely clothes. Just a few weeks ago, quite by accident, I did something very similar to this concept. I put clothes into a white garbabe bag, dated it, and have left it in a storage area of my house with the same purpose…. If I don’t use it, I can lose it. It’s a great concept. I’m always fearful of wanting that special “something” one day in the future, because it has happened to me before. Now one of my tricks I’m playing on myself is “How badly will I really need this item in the future?” Or is it just a simple… “I may want this item in the future.” Thanks Sam and Tammy.
Great post! What a practical way to get past procrastination and lighten up without stressing out! Thanks to you both.
Tammy – I am so pleased to have found you – I thank Sam Spurlin for that (his recent post). I am on the road to leading a simpler life but have ‘sentimental hoarding’ issues!! Perhaps I’ll get the T-Shirt haha! I have 5 huge boxes of stuff my kids have drawn etc… ready to be sorted through. The CofA is going to help me and I am going to try it next week. I’ve been putting the project off as I feel stressed just thinking about having to throw away things that I have had since they were babies – but it must be done. It’s like my dirty secret locked away in the closet upstairs. I know once it is done I will feel lighter. Sounds strange perhaps but I drag this clutter around with me in my subconcious every day… it weighs me down… very dramatic when talking about a few boxes of drawings, christening cards etc… but I think it demonstrates how physical things can impact dramatically on your own well being. I’m really looking forward to shifting through your archives and will be subscribing.
@SimplyJo – thanks for reading RowdyKittens. Sam is such a great writer and I was happy to have him do a guest post. I’m glad you came over to say hi.
Have you considered donating your items to a thrift store? For me, it’s always good knowing that my extra stuff goes to a family or individual in need. Also, have you considered scanning some of your drawings, christening cards, etc. For example, we scanned all of our old photos and now they are stored on the computer. I used to have boxes of them! And now that I have a digital camera I can share my photos with the world, via flickr.
Cheers Tammy – thanks for the reply…. yes I do donate to thrift stores (aka charity shops in the UK) – its a big thing over here with lots of the charities doing bag drops through doors – you fill ‘em up and leave them outside. I’m okay on that kind of clutter – thanks though for the suggestion… It’s the paper stuff that weighs me down! I love your scanning idea – why hadn’t I ever thought of that? It’s a way of me not destroying what I believe to be precious but at the same time I can organise it efficiently electronically. One tiny external harddrive is a lot more compact physically (and mentally!) than the HUGE boxes I have stored in the closet with everything getting crumpled and damaged. Thank you – I will start ‘project scan’ asap… I can then do my kids a photobook when they are 18 with all their treasures…. love it!
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Glad I did drop by… really interested in what you have to say… going to do my own bit of car free as an experiment soon with not cooking/eating anything that I can’t walk and aquire (no I’m not talking roadkill – more like local produce
Thanks again
@SimplyJo – Yay! I’m so glad that I was able to help out.
The scanning option has been great for me. I can still hold onto items that I love, but I’m not weighted down with lots of boxes. Keep me posted on your car-free and local eating experiment. 
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