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.

You never know how Free Stuffs ruin your home

Free accessories from the hotels

We just love to take the free accessories from the hotel bathroom.  Small bottles of shampoos and conditioner can be used when going to the swimming pools, gyms and other trips, small combs to put into the cosmetic bags and purses, razors for chins or armpits, wonderful.  Even you don't smoke you may take away the matches, perhaps that will be useful for birthday cake candles!  Shower caps, soaps, toothbrushes and toothpastes -- take everything and leave nothing!

As a result, a family which only uses shower jel ends up stocking dozens of unwanted soaps. They never swim or gym so frequent, those tiny bottles shampoos and conditioner are never done. My mother used to do this, too. Combs up to a dozen. Countless razors yet untouched by anyone for ages since she never put these items in one place. We did not know that and buy new razors from time to time.

Combs are the worst. As for other items, after awaken by the truth, we can manage to finish them up and share them with others. But for combs, they are not easily breakable (unless you get terrible hair texture or hero's strength). Only charities serving the homeless are willing to take them. Members of the eco groups will just say, nope, my combs are just fine and I don't need one.

Free accessories from airplanes

To save cost, the airplane companies have cut budget for these freebies. However, you may still able to see a cute little bag at the back of the seat for certain airlines. Usually there are plastic combs, ear plugs, and even a small bottle of lotion in this cute little bag. Many people will take them home as a souvenirs. And they never get to use it, and only to remember the ear plugs when a construction sites turn up across the road. After a one dollar shop opens near my home, I have never used those free ear plugs anymore.

Promotional products

Usually it's pens, memos, bookmarks, key holders, mobile phone strapes, calendars, magnets, brooches and tote bags. For events with more budgets, sometime you may even get towels, tees, cups, place mats, wine openers and crystal-like accessories made of glass or plastic.

But no matter how useful they are designed, usually a big logo is printed on the surface, there are no sense of beauty and look just awful. Small freebies add up into a huge volume of stocks, and big freebies are the worst. As shown in the picture, the bright red calendars, and the plastic place mat obtained from the supermarket, ruin the taste of your lovely home.

Imagine putting them into a zen-like or Muji-like home. Gosh, it's definitely a mix-and-match from hell! You can ruin a perfect dream house like that in just one second.

Not to mention the quality of these freebies are always bad. They deteriorate and rot faster than normal goods do. Especially for pens, the ink just stuck there and refuse to come out. But we still take them home and think at least some of them may work fine. We have endless cups in the kitchen, but yeah we will drop them on the floor one day, it seems it is wise to take one home as backups. And sadly the number of times you drop your cup never catch up with the numbers you take home, it seems it will take at least ten years to have it done.

Almost every family have endless memos on the desks. Since memos are useful, even there are still a few piles at home, we would happily get more. We rarely change our key holders, but we still take them out of no reason. New models of smartphones no longer have the holes for mobile phone strapes, but we never learnt to say no.

"Free Goods" are ruining your dream home and turning it into a mess. Are you going to keep going like this?

Free gifts from the bank

If the design isn't too bad, such as crystal-like accessories of fruits and cute animals, we are happy to put them up on the shelves. However, for those gold-plated one which symbols money and the bank, even an elderly won't be too happy. For families which I have visited, they always put these free gifts in the most unreachable corners, or either put them in the unviewable storage spaces, covered in dust years after years.

Since they are gold-plated, it seems a waste to throw them away. A recycling company would not buy these, and nowhere to sell. In Asia, the banks sometimes made a 20cm high gold-plated statue of the God of Wealth as a free gift. Many people feel that by throwing the God of Wealth away, these may lead to poverty and lost of money fortunes, so they have no choice but to keep these unwanted statues one after one.

If you are living in Asia and you did get such unwanted gifts in the past, you can ask the bank manager to change the free gifts into a more useful supermarket coupons by applications before hand.

And for those at your home, throw them away, you have no other options. No one want them anyway. If you think it is a waste to throw away and decide to keep it forever, then they will only stay up to the day you pass away. You sure you want these unwanted items to pass on to your children or other family members?

Stationaries from your company/ex-company

All kinds of pens, highlights, clips, rulers, files, folders. Feeling they are useful and bring them home. Or the other way around, out of the rage of being unemployed, take all the things you can take even you don't need them at all!

Online Green Groups

Many people love to go to these groups and give away their unwanted items to other people who want them. Because these items are free of charge, many members will happily take them home. Very often, we see many members turn up in the reply comments for every single item. Do they need so many things I wonder? With all sorts of hobbies? I believe they are actually suffering from hoarder disorders with a super messy home, perhaps look pretty similar to a waste management transfer station.

Christianity

I was studing in a happy stress-free high school run by a church. Every year the school would distribute souvenirs after certain religious functions, such as keyholders of Ave Maria, Jesus, Sisters, Fathers, the Cross, all sorts of things linked to the Bible. When I graduated, these souvenirs added up into a bag of unwanted accessories. It was already ten years ago, and I am not so sure whether the church nowadays does the same thing. These freebies are never helpful to religious field service, even a Christian would not use these keyholders in daily life!

Buddhism

If you go to a restaurant or a store related to buddhism, the owners often put a bookshelve at the entrance with free booklets and bookmarks on it. Everytime my mother went pass these shops, she took a pile and distribute them to the friends. Not for religious field service, you won't be able to understand a word without proper guidance anyway. She believed that these freebies can give luck and protection to all people out of no reasons. Oh Great. After I received the fifth or the sixth buddha bookmarks, I have no choice but to give her a lesson. Even a non-believer like me know well that the booklets are for studied. They does not share the function of a cross in a vampire film!