If you’ve been using our decluttering method, there’s always an item in your pile that you just can’t decide on.
These are the difficult items: they are emotional, or you really think you’ll need them soon, or you’re uncertain about a number of factors.
The danger is letting these difficult items derail the process. You could just give up and say, “I can’t decide!” and then not declutter anything. That’s obviously not great for forming this habit.
So this month, I’d like you to set those difficult items aside. If you really can’t decide, put them in a special “Maybe” pile. Then put them in a Maybe Box.
What’s a Maybe Box and how do you use it? Here’s what you do:
- Put any items you just can’t decide on into the box.
- Mark it as a “Maybe Box” and mark today’s date on it. Put it into a storage area.
- In your phone/computer calendar, mark a date that’s 6 months from today — to check on your Maybe Box.
- You can add to the Maybe Box or create new ones as you continue to declutter, but just change the date to check on the box in your calendar.
- When the reminder comes up in 6 months, open the box. If you didn’t need any of the things in the box, you can safely get rid of the things in it.
This solves the problem of worrying that you might need something. It doesn’t solve the problem of items that have emotional attachments, but we’ll get to those soon. For now, use the Maybe Box as a powerful tool in your decluttering toolbox.