The short answer is… maybe! No one can perfectly predict what you will want or need in the future. I cannot predict that you will be invited to an 80’s theme party next December and those neon heels would be perfect for an outfit.
There is always a risk that you will declutter something and regret it.
But, everything in life carries some risk. If you want to accomplish your goal of a tidier home, you will have to accept a degree of risk in the decluttering process. I love Christen Fackler’s gentle encouragement to just start making decisions in this Instagram reel. She is 100% correct that people who are more organized are better at making decisions. And how do you get better at something? Practice! Live with the consequences of your decisions and adjust as needed to make better decisions in the future.
As you practice and adjust, you will find your sweet spot for how much stuff and what stuff you need to keep in your home.
Now let’s address some specific scenarios…
Oops, I Got Rid of Something and Now I Need It!
It happens!
Last spring I cleaned our garage. I tossed a worn-out foam baseball bat. A few weeks later we hosted a birthday party and the pinata I bought had a flimsy baton that wasn’t making a dent in the pinata. The kids were getting frustrated waiting for the candy to break out. My husband asked “don’t we have a foam baseball bat in the garage? That would be perfect for this…”
Oops. My mistake. But you know what? We survived! The kids busted the pinata open with a mini plastic snow shovel. It worked beautifully. Would I make a decision differently in the future? Maybe… I don’t feel the need to buy a new foam bat, but if we happen to obtain one, I might hold onto it now that I know it’s usefulness for pinata-busting.
What if I Get Rid of Something that Someone Else Might Want?
I keep 2 bins of sports gear in my basement. The primary purpose of these bins is to save things for my own kids. Soccer cleats and ballet leotards get passed down to younger siblings. When a kid starts a sport, I shop the bin first before buying new. If I have extra space in the bins, I save gear that is no longer useful to my kids but might be wanted by a friend.
If a friend texts and asks if I have ballet shoes in a specific size, I check my bin of sports gear. If I have the shoes, yay! I am a hero. If not, oh well! My friends don’t expect me to maintain a warehouse of kids gear for their convenience. That’s what stores are for, and my home is a home, not a store.
It is super fun to be a friend or neighbor who has the thing someone needs. However, most of us don’t have the space or mental capacity to track a huge inventory of “someone might want this” items.
If you desire to have an item in your home in case someone visits, consider how much space you have and how likely it is that a person who needs this item will visit your house.
Prioritize space and stuff for your family’s immediate needs over “what-if” scenarios. If there is space leftover, go ahead and store some things that would be nice to have when you welcome visitors. If you have space in a spare closet for a small highchair and frequently have dinner guests with toddlers, go for it! But if all your old baby gear is crammed into the guest room and your kids now need a quiet space to do homework, consider offloading the baby gear and putting a desk in that room so your home can serve the needs you have in this current season.
Having a tidy home that my family can enjoy matters more to me than always being able to say “yes!” every time someone asks me to borrow something. I also can’t lend things to friends if my house is too disorganized to find anything!
What About Sentimental Stuff? I Can’t Replace that on Amazon.
The stakes feel higher with sentimental stuff.
Again, I can’t promise you won’t have regrets, but if holding onto sentimental things has become a hindrance to your home and your life, the only way forward is to start making decisions to let some of it go. You do not have unlimited space to store stuff. You do not have a full-time butler and servants who will organize and maintain your stuff like it’s the Downton Abbey manor house. You can start with baby steps. If you have historically saved all the Holiday photo cards you receive in December, try throwing them all away on January 1st. Notice if you have regrets or sad feelings… do you find yourself wishing you could go back and look at those cards? Do you find yourself enjoying the lack of clutter?
What About Clothes? What if I Lose Weight, Gain Weight, Change Jobs…
There are so many variables at play with clothing and changing bodies. There isn’t a one-size fits all set of rules about what clothing to keep. Christen Fackler has another excellent video on “what if” clothes. She talks about how you have to consider your budget, your style, and your space. Do you have space to store “what if” clothes? Will it matter to you if the clothes you saved are out of style when the time comes to wear them? What is your budget for buying new clothes in the future?
In all of these scenarios, you are trying to predict the future. You cannot actually predict the future, but you can make educated guesses about what you will want and need in the future. You can give yourself permission to fail and learn from your mistakes.
