“The Container strategy” will Simplify your Decluttering
Image by JayMantri from Pixabay
This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.
The container strategy is really simple: you can keep as many items as you want as long as they fit in their designated containers.
For example, I can have as many books as I can cram on my bookcases. My bookcases are my containers, and all of my books must fit. Once this container is full, buying a new book means getting rid of an old one.
In addition to books, I love office supplies. I have a variety of pens, pencils, and highlighters. And they must all fit in two pencil boxes and a coffee mug.
The container strategy allows me to keep a good amount of things I love while also limiting clutter.
I have many other containers in my home office:
- 1 shelf for printer paper, legal pads, and cardstock
- 3 drawers for graph paper, binder paper, and fluorescent yellow printer paper
- 1 gallon-size bag for phone chargers and computer adapters
- 2 bins for cords, cables, and surge protectors
Now you may say that I don’t need as many cords as I have. And you’d be right. But I don’t need to be an ultra-minimalist to control the clutter. I just need to set limits with the container strategy.
(I learned this strategy from Decluttering at the Speed of Life! by Dana K. White.)
Take action: Pick one area of your home and brainstorm ways containers could corral the clutter.
More Decluttering Mental Models:
Top 10 Favorites
- How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
- “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
- Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you earn $15/hour)
- Wait 48 hours before buying stuff
- 21 questions to ask before you buy
- The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
- We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
- Clear clutter by zoning your home
- How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
- Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo
Get started
- Clear clutter by zoning your home
- How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
- “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
- Hold each item and ask, “Does this spark joy?”
- When the “Does this Spark Joy?” fails you, ask these 6 questions
- Create your “Discard by Feb. 2022” box
- Decluttering yearbooks? Ask these 8 questions first
Shopping
- 21 questions to ask before you buy
- Wait 48 hours before buying stuff - version 1 and version 2
- How a grocery shopping list saves me time, money, and pounds
Manage your clothes
- Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you can earn $15/hour)
- Dear Dude with too many T-shirts: no one wants to buy them—just recycle/trash them
- Don't be like my friend Giorgio with his 400 Hawaiian shirts
- None of my clothes "spark joy"—so what do i get rid of?
Happiness & satisfaction
- Limit pleasurable things so they don’t lose their novelty
- We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
- Craving never stops and my potato chip addiction
- Reminder: happiness levels stay consistent
Get motivated
- Want to boost your motivation to declutter? Immerse yourself in decluttering videos, podcasts, & books!
- How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
- Imagine your ideal home… Imagine all the clutter is gone…
- Feeling unmotivated? Declutter with a 5-minute time box
Manage your money
- The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
- Save money by controlling aspirational identities
- I wasted so much money starting projects (and how I fixed it)
Manage consumption spirals
- How consumption spirals work
- Buying a house led to an enormous consumption spiral
- How craving completeness drives my consumption
Shift your Paradigm
- Change your environment, change your consumption
- 3 thought experiments to adopt a decluttering mindset
- Your home is not a storage unit for other people's crap!
- Before you buy stuff, do this little mental exercise
- Less space, less stuff
- That’s right, you and I pay for the privilege of seeing viagra ads
- Your home is an expensive container for your stuff. What’s your cost per sqft?