When is enough enough?

A client recently shared her frustrations about being organised with me. Being organised doesn’t come with an instruction booklet or a step-by-step guide. Our client was looking for a checklist that helped her decide how much she really needed. That sounds pretty structured and organised, doesn’t it?

Well, for my client, it was anything but that. She admitted being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff she and her family own. “I’ve so much, I don’t know where to begin. So we started with a simple question:

How much do I need?

The undies

Asking this question, we looked at her underwear drawers first.

Now, here’s something you didn’t know about me. One friend helped me move some 10 years ago and saw that I had about 30 knickers. She was amazed by the amount. She’s probably giggling now as she’s reading it, too! Last weekend, one of my friends here revealed that she has just as many. For us, the benefit is having to do laundry less often!

Enough about me, back to our client. She finally felt comfortable separating the undies: First pile was the she loved to wear and the second pile for those were to tight, lost shape or just weren’t her style anymore. This help us answering the question how much she need tremendously. We settled for 14!

The socks

We followed the same approach for her socks. Our client felt more at ease sorting out the unwanted socks (or the single socks) and really enjoyed asking herself the question over and over again. She realised that it’s great to buy as much as you can, but it’s far too overwhelming and stressful for her at home.

The tops

Our client felt relieved seeing her wardrobe clear up little by little and we quickly moved to bigger items: Casual T-shirts and tops. She recognised that she’s wearing only a few pieces but those very often. The 80/20 rule was more than accurate in her case. We sorted out over 70 tops, bagging those still stylish and well kept for the local donation box. She now has 10 shirts and tops left.

We continued with her trousers (11 remained) and skirts (7 remained) while she decluttered her dresses on her own afterwards.

The feeling of relief

Seeing her wardrobe transform so drastically over the course of a few hours lifted her spirits tremendously. Our client felt liberated and although she’s not a minimalist, she’s so much happier with less.

The question how much do you need is one you can ask yourself this weekend or month when you are approaching your decluttering and organising project. If you like a helping hand finding the number right for you, contact us and find out what we can do to give you less stress, more space and peace of mind!

Until next time,
Agni