Declutter Archives

A spare bedroom seen from the doorway, with gift bags, a folded table, an old sled, bags and boxes around the bed

The Second Round: How to Declutter a Room You Already Decluttered

Have you ever opened the door to a room you already cleaned out, and felt your heart sink? This one is for you. I know that feeling very well. About …

A cardboard box of odds and ends on a kitchen table, with a cord, flashlight, tape and kitchen gadgets inside

“What If I’ll Need It the Day After I Toss It”: What I Do About That Fear

The year I gave away our extra folding chairs, three of our cousins had to stand at Thanksgiving dinner. They held their plates and ate by the kitchen counter. We …

A tied white kitchen trash bag beside a canvas tote of folded clothes on a laundry room floor

Is It Okay to Just Throw Things Away? When the Trash Can Is the Kind Choice

The woman at our church clothing closet lifted my blue blouse out of the bag. Then she held it up to the window. There was a yellow stain under one …

A small night-light glowing in a low wall outlet in a carpeted hallway, with a bathroom at the far end

A Night-Light, a Binder and a Weekly Call: 30 Things to Start Doing After 70

The night-light by my bathroom door is small and plastic, and nobody would ever call it pretty. It cost a few dollars. Last winter I tripped over a footstool in …

A lived-in kitchen with used plates and a mug in the sink, a slow cooker on the counter and dish towels hanging on the oven door

30 Things to Stop Apologizing For After 60 (And the Clutter You Can Let Go of Too)

“Sorry, it’s just soup.” I said that to my sister one Wednesday this fall. She had stayed for lunch after our coffee. I set a bowl in front of her …

A stripped bed with a bare mattress pad and pillows, a laundry basket of used sheets on the floor and clean folded sheets on a wooden chair

My Sunday Reset: 12 Small Jobs That Make My Whole Week Run Smoother

My Mondays used to start with a sigh. I’d walk into the kitchen for coffee, and there it all was. The mail from last week sat on the table. The …

An open front hall closet packed with coats, with boxes and shopping bags on the floor and hat boxes and blankets on the shelf above

What Keeping It All Really Costs After 60

The roll of tape cost me about four dollars. I already owned two just like it. I just couldn’t find them. I had a birthday gift to wrap and a …

An old brown leather purse tipped out on a worn kitchen table with tissues, receipts, cough drops, keys and a checkbook cover around it

What to Declutter When You Have 10 Minutes, One Hour or One Afternoon

I waited about twenty years for a free weekend to clean out my house. It never came. There was always a grandchild’s birthday, a church supper or a cold I …

A messy kitchen drawer set on a worn table beside a white kitchen timer and a mug of coffee, with a canvas tote on the chair behind

My Weekly Decluttering Routine After 60: One Hour, Same Day, Every Week

For years, nine o’clock in the morning belonged to my mother. That’s when I called her, every single day. She’d tell me about the weather and the birds, and I’d …

Six bars of lavender soap, still in their paper wrappers, stacked on a linen closet shelf in front of folded towels and sheets

Use It Up: The Easiest Decluttering I’ve Ever Done

The soap was still in its pretty paper when I found it in my mother’s linen closet. There were six bars, one for each Christmas. I had given them to …