9 Things I Decluttered and Never Missed (and a Few I Did)

I’m a pretty big fan of the broad benefits of decluttering. I’ve written dozens of articles recommend others to give it a try, and even shared a few examples of my own decluttering success.

In this article, I’d like to share what I learned when I took on a more extreme decluttering challenge. The minimalist experiment saw me get rid of anything in my home that I didn’t think I would use in the next 72 hours. That meant no extras of any kind— just your ordinary daily use items.

The experiment provided a wealth of insights, and I’m really glad I did it. But I also learned an important life lesson. Even beneficial behaviors like decluttering can be taken too far. When you go to the extremes you not only run into quickly diminishing returns, but you can create negative downstream consequences. I’m a big believer that many of the best things in life are found by searching for a happy medium—not too much, not too little.

Read on for my full list of things I decluttered and never missed at all, and a few areas where I now wish I hadn’t gone so far.

Winter gear and clothes

The best part of my experiment was getting to see just how little our family of 5 could get by with each day. We lived in a much simpler environment and loved the spaciousness and ease of cleaning up. However, I didn’t fully appreciate just how much mental energy would be used up trying to find things we truly needed but had gotten rid of. My biggest mistake was donating all of our winter gear because it was summer when we began the experiment. I completely underestimated how long it would take for us to replace these items as they were sold out for the entire season by the time I realized my mistake.

Screen time (except for TV)

One great side benefit of our more minimalist lifestyle was that we spent less time doing mindless things out of habit. In particular, my whole family didn’t spend nearly as much time on our phones simply because they weren’t always nearby. We would charge our phones in an out of the way location, and not carry them around room to room. Instead, we’d use the time to talk, go for a walk, or play outside together.

Self care items

Going without many of our self-care items like lotions, nail trimmers, brushes, toothpaste, floss, shampoo, and more turned out to be a really foolish decision. I thought, well, if I’m not going to use these things for the next 3 days, why not get rid of them all and buy back only the items I need. But the truth was, we needed all of these items, and I vastly underestimated the hassle of having to restock everything we threw away. This is something I’ll try not to forget.

Photos and momentos

I remember at one point, early in my minimalism journey, looking at a box of sentimental things I had saved from my college years, and deciding to get rid of it. I thought, if I haven’t looked at this in four years, I probably never will.

What I didn’t consider was that I might want to look back at it someday far in the future. Perhaps once I retired, or even on my death. But even more realistic was that I’d want that box to be available for my children someday to look through and learn about their dad. I do regret that decision, and only wish I had scanned the photos before I tossed them.

The vast majority of our dishware

We had an enormous amount of dishware. More than we could ever use in a single day, so that when we washed it, we couldn’t fit it in our drying rack. And of course, that’s the only way to put pressure on ourselves for not washing the pots and pans every night. However, after decluttering we often found ourselves running the dishwasher on half-load just to get the dishes we needed for that day. In some ways, that was less efficient than before, and we had not accounted for it.

Artwork and decorations

We simplified our home furnishings quite a bit during our experiment. The idea was to make space to think about what we really liked and what we had simply gotten used to. Overall, this worked out well, as there are only a few pieces we ended up hanging back up in our walls. One side effect, though, is that the whole process of replacing art and decorations took much longer than anticipated, and our walls felt incredibly bare for a while. I think in the future, I would do my decluttering more incrementally.

Books and bookshelves

For some reason, I thought there would eventually be a downside to getting rid of nearly all of my books. But what has actually happened is that I simply read more digitally, which has turned out to be far more convenient than hauling around physical books. And when I really did want a special one on my shelf, I just purchased it. I think this is a great approach for anybody who’s on the fence about getting rid of books. You can always buy them back, and in the meantime, you’ll enjoy the benefits of a more streamlined home.

Toys and kid books

One area I think we took too far was getting rid of all but a few of our kids’ toys and books. We reasoned that they didn’t need all of them at once, and we could simply restock later. And while this did work out just fine, and we have since stocked back up on both play items and books, we found ourselves a bit bored without them in the first few weeks. I would’ve liked to have done this more gradually.

Extra sheets and towels

Having had just a few extras of these made our lives much easier with three young kids in the house. We have a couple who still wet the bed or spill their drinks from time to time, and if there’s one thing that makes me feel out of control in our home, it is not having precisely enough of something. While we certainly didn’t technically need more than one set of sheets or towels per person, the convenience of a few extras was worth it for the peace of mind that it provided, and so we have slowly been purchasing a few extras to replace the ones we got rid of.

Notepads, sticky notes, pens, and stationary

One area that I got rid of too many items was in my home office. I got rid of nearly all of my physical writing tools except for one pen and a notepad for every few days. While in theory, this led to a more minimalist aesthetic, in practice it was a big hassle. I kept forgetting the items in one room, or having to bring them around with me. This just isn’t the way to live life. I think the optimal amount of decluttering should be just enough to make a real impact, but still leave you enough margin that you don’t feel like you’re needing to replace the items you got rid of.

Recovery period

One thing that is not talked about enough when people mention decluttering is that in the short term, it’s kind of a mess. It definitely takes a couple of weeks to settle in to your new life, and figure out what items you really need and which ones you never even think about again. But let me say this: it is 100% worth it. Give it a try and you can always buy back whatever you got rid of. But I think you’ll discover, like we did, that there are many things cluttering your drawers, closets, and counter tops that are just better off gone.