Declutter Archives

An older woman holding a heavy inherited set of serving dishes with a thoughtful look, an open china cabinet behind her

The Day I Stopped Calling Things an Heirloom

I stood in my dining room holding a heavy set of serving dishes, the ones my grandmother passed to my mother, and my mother passed to me. I’d carried them …

An older woman sitting on a closet floor holding an open shoebox of old handwritten love letters found while decluttering

The Letters My Husband and I Wrote Before Email

I was clearing out the top shelf of our bedroom closet, the one I can barely reach, when my hand landed on an old shoebox I didn’t recognize. I pulled …

A garage corner with a used walker, shower chair, and spare cane set aside, the kind of medical equipment you can donate

Walkers, Wheelchairs and the Spare Cane: Where Medical Equipment Helps Again

There’s a corner of my garage that tells a story. A walker from my knee replacement a few years back. A shower chair we bought when my husband hurt his …

A phone on a couch showing a perfect magazine kitchen while the real lived-in living room around it holds a throw and a stack of mail

I Stopped Comparing My Home to the Ones on My Screen

The other night, I was sitting on the couch scrolling through Facebook before bed. A photo stopped me. Somebody’s kitchen, and it was beautiful. Clear counters, not a thing out …

A cozy living room mid-reset with open windows, a lit candle, and fresh flowers on a clear coffee table, an everything shower for the house

My “Everything Shower” for the Whole House

Last month, after a week that wore me right out, I decided to treat myself to an everything shower. If you haven’t heard the term, it’s the long, unhurried kind …

An overflowing kitchen junk drawer crammed with pens, keys, batteries, and odds and ends, so full it can barely close

Everybody Has One: The Day I Emptied the Junk Drawer

I was hunting for a stamp last week, and I knew exactly where to look. The drawer. You know the one. Every kitchen has it. The drawer that holds everything …

An overstuffed linen closet with folded towels and sheets spilling off the shelves, the sign of too many towels and linens

How Many Towels Does One Woman Need? (Far Fewer, It Turns Out)

The other morning I reached into my linen closet for a clean towel, and three others came tumbling down on top of me. I stood there in the hallway, arms …

A grown child's old bedroom with a twin bed, a half-full closet, and boxes on the floor, the kind of room you face when decluttering after 50

What I Wish I’d Known About Clutter When I Turned 50

The autumn I turned 50, my youngest moved into a first apartment across town, and just like that, the house was ours again. I stood in that empty bedroom the …

An open shoebox spilling loose faded family photos onto a wooden table with a pencil resting on top, ready for labeling old family photos

I Labeled the Backs of My Photos So the Faces Don’t Become Strangers

It was a slow, rainy afternoon, and my granddaughter had pulled an old shoebox of photos down from my shelf to keep herself busy. She sat cross-legged on the floor, …

An open wooden dresser drawer holding a lanyard, reading glasses, and a planner, the kind of sentimental items you've outgrown

I Held On to Who I Used to Be, One Drawer at a Time

Have you ever opened a drawer you hadn’t touched in years and felt like you were looking at a stranger’s things? Except they were yours. Every single one. That happened …