Let go and start fresh

With a New Year come resolutions, and Ottawa residents like Vicky Chaumont are making 2016 the year to start fresh and downsize.

“There were many toys in our living room that my son had outgrown or that no longer provided stimulation for him,” said Chaumont, who took time around New Year’s to declutter in order to accommodate all the gifts their toddler received over the holidays.

“I feel that keeping items to a minimum will also help him to grow up understanding that lots of things aren’t what keep us happy.”

The rising popularity of books like Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy, as well as websites such as theminimalists.com and becomingminimalist. com, have people all over the world jumping aboard the minimalist bandwagon.

A follower of Kondo’s “KonMari” method – in which the author tells readers to discard anything that doesn’t bring them joy – Miranda Dulmage began decluttering her family’s 2,000-square-foot home last year. Although the best time to get organized is always the present, she said there’s something inspirational about the New Year.

And this is a time of year where items can really build up in our homes, said Heather Cameron, a professional organizer and owner of Edited Interiors.

“People need to understand that decluttering and getting organized doesn’t happen overnight – and that’s perfectly OK. It’s a process and it takes time and practice. And every little step will eventually add up to a very big result.”

Like many couples, Dulmage and her husband combined two full households when they moved in together. Each had parents who passed items onto them, and combined with their wedding gifts and the birth of their son, Aidric, their Kanata South home filled up fast.

She started following the KonMari method to help her day-to-day life run more smoothly. Although she didn’t miss a single article of clothing out of the seven bags that she purged, other areas proved more difficult.

“For years I even kept all the notes from my university classes just in case I needed to reference them,” she said.

“We all change a great deal as we progress through life, and it is hard not to be sentimental and hold very tightly to every item that we accumulated along the journey, no matter how much we have outgrown them.”

For Ottawa’s Lidia Romeo, those clutter challenges include sentimental items like her daughter’s baby things. Already, the box she’s started for her 20-monthold’s drawings, hand prints and crafts is overflowing, and tossing things can be hard. Still, it’s worth the effort, she said.

“I think less physical clutter leads to less mental clutter,” she said.

It’s harder for families to stay organized, as decluttering is complicated by sharing a home with others, said Kanata resident and mother of two Jasmin Mallory.

“You’re dealing with several people’s belongings instead of just your own. Just because I don’t use something doesn’t mean it isn’t being used, and just because I don’t value something doesn’t mean it isn’t valued by someone else,” she said.

There are also financial and practical considerations. “Things like maternity clothes and breast pumps can be expensive,” said Mallory, “so if you’re planning on having more children, it would be wise to hang on to these items if you have the space.”

Before organizing, Mallory said the possessions in the home she shared with her husband and their two young children were enough to cause them stress. “It was difficult to find things, easy to lose things, and we often ended up buying duplicates of things simply because we’d forgotten we had something in the first place,” she said.

“Things that didn’t have a dedicated spot were neatly stacked in piles against the wall, in baskets and bins or on top of desks, which created a lot of visual clutter.

“The basement slowly became a dumping ground for anything we didn’t quite have room for in the rest of the house.”

Joanie Ouellette faced a similar situation in her basement, but when she and her husband learned they were expecting a baby, they did a huge cleanup, donating and throwing out 10 carloads of items.

“Since then, we’ve change the way we consume,” she said. When they do make a purchase, they donate something else, and they tend to favour quality over quantity. “When you have good stuff, you appreciate it way more,” she said.

An attitude of gratitude is just one of the benefits of decluttering. Teacher and mother of two Kristen Perneel said there is more room in her home, it’s easier to clean, and her life feels less chaotic.

And getting organized, said Dulmage, has paid off financially. “I found that now when I shop I do so with much more awareness of what I already have, and I do not buy extras, which means that I don’t waste money,” she said.

“Focusing on how you really feel about an item, rather than its monetary value or who it came from, or how long you have had it, allows you to get rid of things without regret.

“I have been able to let go of items that I inherited from my mom, but that were never displayed because they don’t match my style, art projects from my childhood, and things that I have bought with the best of intentions, fully intending to use them but never finding time for. “It’s been incredibly freeing.”