It seems everyone is decluttering these days, or wants to. But how do you actually go about it? Flow’s creative director, Astrid, offers some good tips for getting rid of all the stuff you just don’t need anymore.
- Don’t let things gather dustÂ
Many people don’t tidy up, they just rearrange. Moving stuff around – rearranging – is strictly prohibited. Tidying up means finishing up and putting everything back in its proper place. That’s either on the shelf or in the cupboard where it belongs, or in the trash. There is no place for stuff to lie around gathering dust in between those spaces. - Repeat after me
One sentence can really help when you do a cleanup. You can repeat it endlessly with all the things in the house: Will this [object] make someone else happier than it makes me now? Would it make your neighbor, your cousin or a colleague happier? Would any one of them be far, far happier with your old typewriter, your leather jacket or your wooden stool than you are now? If yes, give it away. If no, you can keep it.
- The other tips can be found in Issue 19.
Text Astrid van der Hulst Photography Anna Sullivan/Unsplash.com
