Slow Decluttering: The Gentler Way to Clear Your Home After 60
A few years back, I decided to declutter my whole house in one weekend. I’d read that you had to be ruthless. Rip the bandage off. Pull everything out, make …
Declutter
If I Can’t Declutter Perfectly, I Won’t Start
There’s a closet in my bedroom I avoided for the better part of a year. Every time I opened it, I told myself the same thing. Not today. When I …
The Things We Keep When We’re Lonely
The house is quiet now in a way it never used to be. For years it was full. Kids in and out, doors slamming, somebody always calling my name from …
Just Five Things: The Two-Minute Habit That Actually Beat My Overwhelm
Have you ever sat down after supper, looked around the room, and known it needed picking up, but you just could not make yourself get up and do it? That …
What to Do With Old Letters and Cards From Someone You’ve Lost
I finally opened that box on an ordinary Tuesday, a few years after my mother passed. It was an old shoebox, soft at the corners, packed with letters and cards …
How to Part With Old Bibles and Religious Keepsakes Without Feeling Guilty
My mother’s Bible sat in my nightstand drawer for three years before I could look at it honestly. It’s worn soft at the corners, and the spine is held together …
What to Do With Your Wedding Dress Decades Later When Your Daughter Doesn’t Want It
Have you ever held onto something just because it cost a lot and meant a lot, even when it hasn’t left the box in thirty years? For me, that’s my …
What to Do With Inherited Silverware Nobody Wants (Without the Guilt)
Have you ever kept something for years, not because you loved it, but because you didn’t know what else to do with it? That’s the silverware for me. When my …
When Does Saving Sentimental Things Become Hoarding? How to Tell the Difference
A while back, my niece was helping me in the kitchen and opened the cabinet where I keep my coffee mugs. She just laughed and said, “You’re such a little …
Why You Can’t Let Go of Your Pet’s Things (and How to Start When You’re Ready)
It’s been three months since we lost our dog, and I still can’t move his bed away from the back door. The blanket is still rumpled the way he left …