Decluttering for Packrats: Three Boxes Sorting
One of the techniques she uses is “three boxes”. She didn’t invent this – I’ve been using it for a long time, and I found it on the Internet in the 90s – but, nowadays, it’s her claim to fame.
When you’re cleaning up, you sort things into three boxes. “Keep”, “Give Away to Goodwill” (or Sal’s Army, or the DAV), and “Toss”.
For each object, put it into one of the three boxes.
If you need to keep the pressure up, try to fill up the “Toss” and “Give Away” boxes before quitting.
The “Give Away” box helps relieve me of feelings of guilt for throwing perfectly good stuff away. You know, things like an IBM PC from 1989, an AM transistor radio, and many, many books.
Give It Away Now
There’s another technique I’ve used, similar to the three boxes. I’ll call it the “Give Away”.
I take a “banker’s box” – available at office supply stores for around $8 for a 6-pack – and make a goal to fill it with giveaways.
Now, first off, you have to have enough stuff to fill this box in the first place. If you have meager set of possessions, you can’t really do this. If you have worn-out stuff, you can’t do it either.
(If you’re in either of these situations, my congratulations to you! You are, believe it or not, operating at a plane of efficiency that others can only hope to achieve.)
So, you go through all your possessions and piles of stuff, looking for things that can be donated. Put it into the box, even if you kind of want to keep it.
Fill the box up, then put the lid on it.
Let it sit on the floor for a week. This is so you can get over any separation anxiety.
At the end of the week, take it to Goodwill.
You may find that the pile there accumulates a little bit, with additional stuff you found that you know you don’t need.
You may also find that you needed something in the box. You can get it out of there. No harm done.
