One week in to my decluttering project and already the difference is noticeable. So far I’ve:

• Gone through all our clothes and got rid of all the kids clothes they’ve grown out of, and any clothes I had to honestly say I’d never wear again
• Cleared a whole 12 cubby bookshelf by getting rid of CDs, DVDs and books that were no longer of use

I don’t even want to think about how much money is tied up in all that stuff.

It’s been a real trip down memory lane so it feels a little ruthless and hard-hearted to discover these memories only to have to expel from the house and from my heart. Thank goodness I still have my mind.

Boston Ska Band The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

It takes a special kind of ruthlessness

The rules of decluttering are a great guideline, but they don’t prepare you for all the hard decisions that need to be made.

For example, I’ve got rid of all of our CDs except this one. My husband and I met at a Mighty Mighty Bosstones gig in London back in 1993. Years later when we were fossicking through a remnants bin at a record store (remember those) in New Zealand on a Sunday afternoon we came across this CD of the concert we were at.

Then there’s the beautiful silk shirt. I remember buying it in Melbourne when we were there for the Rugby World Cup – just before we visited the couple who had set us up on our first date 10 years earlier. The last time I wore this was to the Media Awards when I won x golds and x silvers – and almost won Best In Show – for what was possibly the first ever social media campaign run in New Zealand.

And the little red ceramic heart, given to me by a friend who was going through more than I could possibly ever imagine coping with, yet found the time and energy to buy this for me because I cooked her a roast chicken dinner.

Is it clutter if it’s art?

Under the rules of decluttering, if I don’t want to get rid of these things then I need to give them a purpose. So I’m adding them (and a few other things) to the collection of stuff I’ve found that should have been hung on the walls years ago but have instead been sitting around creating clutter. After all, if I turn them into wall art, then they aren’t clutter – right?

The CD cover can framed, the heart hung with other heart shaped trinkets we’ve collected over the years to create wall art, and the shirt – well that might take a little more creativity!

I’m collecting photo wall and art wall ideas on this Pinterest board, so feel free to share any pins, links or other ideas you might have!

I didn’t expect decluttering to be such an emotional experience. The trip down memory lane has just reinforced all the reasons why we are downsizing (or in our case not upsizing) – because there are so many more experiences we are yet to have and memories waiting to be created.