Never buy a furniture or plastic box before you finish decluttering (Case Study)

Many people tends to buy a new furniture or a new plastic box whenever they find out the storage furnitures can no longer store all their belongings. And they never think of decluttering the long untouched items inside the storage, then complain the rooms are too small for them, lack of space blah blah blah.

I can still remember the day when I helped my friend to declutter her room. Her room is one of the worst among my friends. At that time I had only seen rooms with "beginner level", which was boxes of belongings pile up like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, in a random way yet managed to keep up to a perfect balance that the boxes won't fall to the ground and bury the room owner up.

When I entered into her room, I was shocked by the scene in front of me. It's like the dark dirty back alley in the old rotten part of the city outskirt, which I would put that as an "intermediate level". The corridor between the closet and the bed was filled with plastic bags of all colours, with the long forgotten items in it unopened for ages, and these piled up to the height of my shoulder. And not to mention the thick dusk on this Great Wall of plastic bags!

Since the way to the closet was blocked, only a few drawers left to be in use. Almost all clothing was stored in the big plastic boxes along the bed and under the desk.

And one extra fold bed is put in front of the shelves, so she cannot use the things stored in the shelves. It was quite ridiculous that a music lover and music magazine fans reporter like her have her lovely hi-fi unused for ages!

It was so dirty that she would never search through these bags even she could not find her stuffs. Later we found her long lost dress, wigs, purses, clothings and many other items. 

We declutter for three days, 18 hours in total. On the first day, she kept yelling "Let me buy some plastic boxes first please please please!" But she never ever think of this -- if she declutter those useless items away, she need not buy any plastic boxes, and can even put all the clothings in the closet and give away her plastic boxes to someone in need. Her rooms was full of plastic boxes, if she further buy more, that would only turn her room into a warehouse! And big plastic boxes are never cheap, at least US$15 each.

At the second day of decluttering, IKEA is having a crazy sale. She was desperated to get her room a big change, such as buying a larger closet, a bedside cupboard, replace the plastic cabinet into a wood one, and of course, what she always wanted, big plastic boxes!

She never had a good detailed planning in buying furnitures, everything goes with her heart freely. Oh it's cheap let's get it back home! If there is no promotion then I'll just wait!

If she really buy the cabinet to store her socks and underwears, then when she later buy a closet, the size can only be limited to a certain length. Why not buy a larger closet to put all clothings, underwear, socks and fashion accessories in one place? 

The desk is next to her bed, after decluttering for two days the shelves of the desk is already half empty. What is the point of buying a bedside cupboard if there is so much space?

STOP STOP STOP! Never buy a furniture or plastic box before you finish decluttering! 

Especially for people who have not declutter for years, they never know how many items will left after decluttering. The amount is hard to tell. After buying new furnitures and new plastic bags and turn up to have too much storage space is just terrible. People always tend to buy more and fill up all storage spaces under this condition.

After decluttering all unwanted items and put everything into the right place, my friend said, "Feeling so great so happy right now, finally can relax in my pretty room. It WAS like a disaster aftermath scene the days before!"

Did she need to buy any new furnitures and plastic boxes? Nope, there are just so much space left unused. Though she can choose to buy a new one to REPLACE to old one.