My decluttering journey

It's said that teens are messy, that it's a reflection of the mess inside their brains. I can confirm that my hardest times were some of my messiest. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the worst of it, because I was so ashamed of how my room looked.

My journey started a while back, I decluttered over and over and it was such an overwhelming task. However, it has gotten exponentially better over the past two years.

I have decluttered bags upon bags of stuff! From books to clothes to all sorts of random decorations has been decluttered from my room. It's such a free, awesome, light feeling to have it out of my care.

Top 10 Reasons I'm Decluttering

(and why I'm keeping my life much more simple in the future & taking in far less stuff)

1. I'm heading to college/ university in September 2018 and will have a much smaller space to work with.
2. Clutter stresses me out and makes it hard to concentrate fully on the task at hand.
3. I have memory issues and having less stuff makes it easier to remember what I have and where it is.
4. I want to travel more.
5. I don't want to become a hoarder, and apparently it's an easy trap to fall into.
6. I have motivation to clean others' houses, but not my own.
7. I don't want to pay my time and attention to insignificant things while the things, activities, and people important to me sit there untouched.
8. I want to feel happy and free, and contribute less to companies that rely on child labour.
9. I am forever changing, and I want my life to reflect me, not a past me, at the lowest cost possible.
10. I'm tired of the upkeep, the mess, the stress and frustration of too much.

Steps I have taken

Phase One: Constant decluttering and reorganization, but no real change.

I constantly got rid of and organized things, but there was so much stuff replacing it that, in about a few months to two years, I was back at stage one.

Phase Two: The Catalyst

The catalyst to decluttering for good was moving several hours away. There was limited room, so I only took what I thought I needed.

I decluttered a bit during the year I lived there, but when I moved back was when I started really thinking about what to get rid of again. I got rid of several garbage bags of books I didn't read, clothes I never wore/ were too small/ I didn't feel good in, and some pieces of decor that I didn't have the space to display in a non-overwhelming way.

Phase Three: The Plan

This is the phase I'm at now, the one where I ask how much I want to own, truly. Where is that 'just right' spot for me at this time?

I'm Goldilocks-ing it!