Decluttering your home feels easy until you're actually holding the thing. That's when the reasons show up: it might come in handy, it was expensive, someone gave it to me. It's not just sentiment. It's a well-known phenomenon.
In a classic experiment, half the participants were given a coffee mug and could then sell it to those who hadn't gotten one. On average, the sellers asked for more than twice what the buyers were willing to pay for the same mug. Simply owning something makes it feel worth more. That's why it's so hard to throw things out, and why it helps to change the question you ask yourself.
Pick your approach based on where you get stuck:
- Change the question if you get stuck on "what if I need it?"
- One drawer a day if it all feels like too much.
- A box to wait in if you can't make up your mind.
- One room a month if you want to go further.
A first step today: empty a single drawer, and put back only what you've used in the past year.
Decluttering your home feels easy until you're actually holding the thing. That's when the reasons show up: it might come in handy, it was expensive, Grandma gave it to me. An hour later the trash bag is half full and everything else is still there. It's not just sentimentality. It's a well-known phenomenon that makes what we own feel worth more than it is. This article explains what it is and what a classic experiment showed, and gives you four ways to start.
What you own feels worth more
In 1990, Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler ran an experiment with coffee mugs. Students at a university in the US were randomly split into two groups. Half were given a mug with the university's logo, the kind sold in the campus bookstore. The other half got nothing. Then those who had a mug could sell it, and those who didn't could buy one.
On average, the sellers asked for more than twice what the buyers were willing to pay. It was the same kind of mug, and they'd owned it for a few minutes. Even so, ownership was enough to make it feel more valuable. The researchers called it the endowment effect, and it has since been studied in many different settings.
- Those given the mug Wanted more than twice as much to sell it.
- Those not given it Were willing to pay less than half that.
What we own feels worth more, just because it's ours.
The experiment was about mugs and pens, not things that hold memories. But it explains part of why decluttering is so hard. When you're holding something and asking yourself "should I keep this?", you're starting from the fact that it's yours. That makes it weigh more than it would on a store shelf.
Change the question you ask
That's why it helps to change the question. Instead of "should I keep this?", try asking: "If I didn't already have it, would I buy it today?" The question removes ownership for a moment and lets you see the thing the way a buyer would.
Another question is when you last used it. Whatever has sat unused for a year will most likely sit unused for another year. And anything you truly would need again can often be borrowed or bought secondhand.
Things with memories attached are their own category. The question of whether you'd buy them doesn't work for them. Keep them, but choose: hold on to what matters most, and take photos of the rest.
Four ways to start decluttering
Change the question. For you if you get stuck on "what if I need it?" For each item, ask whether you'd buy it today. If the answer is no, it can go. First step: go through one shelf today with that question.
One drawer a day. For you if it all feels like too much. Declutter one drawer, one shelf or one cabinet a day, never more. It takes five minutes, and after a month you've gone through thirty spots. First step: empty a drawer and put back only what you've used in the past year.
A box to wait in. For you if you can't make up your mind. Put everything you're unsure about in a cardboard box, write today's date on it and put it in storage. If you haven't opened it in three months, it can move on without you looking inside again. First step: grab a box and write the date on it.
One room a month. For you if you want to go further, and it's the most demanding approach. Pick one room a month and go through everything in it, from the closets to the walls. Give away, sell or recycle things that same week, so they don't end up sitting in the hallway. First step: choose which room goes first and put a time in your calendar.
Small daily habits help keep what you've cleared out from creeping back, like the ones in the guide to your home. And if you want to declutter so that whoever comes after you won't have to, there's a whole way of thinking about it in death cleaning.
When your stuff takes over
Sometimes the difficulty of throwing things out is about more than habits. If your home is so full that rooms can't be used the way they're meant to be, if the thought of throwing things away brings intense anxiety, or if it worries the people close to you, it may be worth talking to a doctor or health professional. There's help for that too, and it's nothing to be ashamed of.
A first step today: empty a single drawer, and put back only what you've used in the past year.
This is the understanding and a first step. Atlas is where it becomes a habit. If you add Home as its own area, you'll find Ten-minute tidy, where you clean one room until the timer goes off, and Straight back in place, where you count the times you put something back right away. With Feeling at home, you rate how glad you were to come home and see whether the decluttering is making a difference. Try Atlas free for 7 days, and cancel whenever you like.