Throw Away Five Items A Day

We are all always surrounded by old things. They fill our cupboards, drawers, and shelves. Most of the stuff we own we do never use. They stand in our way and block space that we would need much more urgently for new things or ourselves. Let’s start getting rid of them.

For years, the Internet has been writing about 300,000 things that are supposedly available in an average American household.

I don’t know if this number is correct, because if you try to verify it, you quickly find out that nobody seems to know where this number comes from.

The Los Angeles Times uses this number in an article

and refers to the clean-up expert Regina Lark.

But if you do some more research, you realize that Lark just read this number somewhere, and she asks herself if it’s true.

But be that as it may — no matter whether we own 300.00 things or a little more or a little less — there are, in any case, an enormous number of items.

Why we hoard so many things

The reasons why we accumulate things are manifold.

- We think I’ll probably need this again

- There are memories attached to it

- It’s not broken, so we don’t throw it away

- Maybe somebody else could use this.

- We are overwhelmed by the mass of things and do not know where to start.

We can counter all these reasons with something.

If we think we might need it again: Most of the time, we are wrong on this point. Take any item from the back corner of your living room closet and ask yourself: When was the last time I used it?

If you haven’t used it in the last twelve months, you won’t need it in the future. This thing can go.

When memories hang on a thing: When my mother-in-law died, my wife kept boxes of her stuff. Boxes full of dishes, clothes, documents, and decorative items were stored in our cellar and our apartment for the next few years.

For a long time, my wife was not able to throw any of it away. This belonged to my mother, she said. I can’t throw it away.

But when we started to redecorate our apartment two months ago, for the first time in a long time, we had to pick up every single piece we owned.

As we searched these old boxes, my wife discovered that she had never looked at well over ninety percent of the things her mother had left us.

Things can only remind us of something when we look at them. Stuff we never look at is not mementos. My wife decided to keep only a few select pieces and let the rest go.

If we don’t want to throw something away because it’s not broken: We all want to avoid garbage and do something good for the planet. But keeping things we don’t need doesn’t reduce the mountain of garbage — it just shifts it into the future.

It is often advised to sell old but still functioning things on eBay or to take them to social department stores.

These are useful tips, but not always feasible.

I brought nine boxes of old books to a social department store. I was lucky that they just needed books. But what if people had sent me away again because they have too many books?

Or let’s talk eBay. I have no desire to photograph things and put them on the Internet for sale.

For every single article, I have to spend time that I don’t have. Besides, I don’t have the nerve to bother with impertinent buyers.

I don’t sell anything on eBay. If nobody from my circle of acquaintances needs it or if I can’t donate it to anyone, I throw it away. Ultimately, even the person who buys it on eBay would throw it away eventually.

We are not saving the planet from too much rubbish by keeping our old things forever, but by buying less new stuff.

Maybe someone else could use that: If we’re serious about this, we’ll try to sell it or donate it.

But if a thing has been lying around for years because we say someone else might need it, we lie to ourselves. Even if there is someone who might need it, we are obviously not willing to look for that person.

We expect them to come through our door at some point and ask for that one thing.

That’s not going to happen. Take this thing and throw it away.

The last item on the list of reasons we keep something old deserves its own headline:

We’re overwhelmed by the mass of things and don’t know where to start

If you have lived in a house or apartment for many years, you have accumulated so many things over time that you have completely lost track.

Most of the time, we do not mind. Only when it comes to renovating or moving, do we see the problem.

Then we have to move tons of junk and make thousands of decisions in a short time.

Sometimes we come to rest in the evening and suddenly see how much junk we have. We think then: At some point, I’m going to have to clean it all up. But then, the next morning, we have already forgotten it again.

In reality, of course, we didn’t forget it, we repressed it. The mere thought of this colossal task paralyzes us.

We already have so many projects in our lives that need our attention. How are we supposed to manage this one as well? Isn’t it better to ignore the chaos until it is no longer possible?

If you have a little compassion and respect for your future self, you will realize that ignoring must not be the answer. A big problem does not get smaller by ignoring, but more significant and this bigger problem will catch up with you.

This may happen in the distant future, but you will still be you only that you will be older and certainly even less willing to face this task.

The Five Things Strategy

Let me quote the well-known self-help joke: How do you eat an elephant? Answer: Bite by bite.

As worn-out and overused as this joke is — it still hits the heart of the truth.

All big projects are realized this way. You don’t write a book, you write a page and then another, and so on. You know what I mean.

Of course, we can also get the chaos of the old things in our house under control this way.

Here comes my challenge for you:

Set up a daily recurring appointment in your electronic calendar with a reminder function. Name the appointment Throw away 5 Items.

Ready? Good, next, go to any closet or drawer in your home and pick out five items that you want to throw away immediately.

It could be an old pencil, an old brochure or a postcard from a friend. Whatever you choose, you will have no trouble finding five things to throw away immediately.

But you can throw away bigger things right away, too. A chair from the kitchen that nobody ever sits on can also be thrown away.

If you have doubts about an item, read above again and ask yourself if your suspicions are justified. Usually, they are not.

When you’ve thrown away your first five things, then Congratulations to you.

You now know that you can do it and have the first success to show for it. Tomorrow your calendar will remind you to throw away five more things.

You don’t have to think about it every day anymore, because you will be reminded automatically.

If you do this for a whole year, you will end up with 1825 things less in your house.

I guarantee you that after just one month you will notice significant changes in your house and these changes will feel good.