Donate items in your house that you are not using

“At first it was easy. I culled books and magazines, threw away broken toys and recycled papers. Clearing away that layer energized me—I was making visible headway. But then I unearthed an embarrassing number of new items I had purchased with the intention of using, yet were still in their original boxes. Like a set of stoneware gingerbread house molds and fancy chip bowls that I never got down from the high shelf. Surely I would use these eventually, I thought, and if not, shouldn’t I sell them to recoup the money spent? Our budget was perpetually tight and yet I’d bought things I clearly didn’t need. Plus, I wanted to be the mom who baked gingerbread houses from scratch for her children to decorate. I wanted to be the hostess who used matching chip bowls. But I kept to my self-imposed challenge, dusted off the boxes and gave them away.”

“During my decluttering journey in 2016, I had a combination of selling, donating, gifting, recycling, and putting items in the trash. I ran a lot of experiments and learned my lesson how hard it is to sell things. And in the end, most of the things I donated. I donated to Housing Works, The Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and the NYC Public Library. I also personally chose certain items and asked homeless people in our neighborhood if they could use special items. For example, a sleeping bag and suitcase that I never used and wanted to bless another person.”

“This was emotional. I was letting go of years of “preparing” for a life I’d imagined. But it was also incredibly freeing. [...] The reality check: We needed a kitchen for daily family meals, not entertaining, which we weren’t doing. The fancy dishes were for a life I imagined, not the life we were actually living with two young kids.”