What’s your decluttering personality?

When it comes to decluttering, there’s no one-size-fits-all method. Heck, finding time to declutter at all can be a feat in itself! Even the seasoned minimalist can attest that some methods are more effective than others towards achieving a clutter-free lifestyle. The X-factor is YOU (believe it or not)! How we individually process sorting our possessions has a lot to do with how effectively we minimize.

After my recent escapade in what I call “Rage Purging”, (you can watch my video here), I’ve created a fun little list of other decluttering personality types.

So what’s your decluttering personality? Read on and let me know in the comments which one you’re most like!

The KonMari Acolyte

You’ve read the book (maybe more than once), and jump at any opportunity to share Marie Kondo’s wisdom with others. And while you MAY not follow her strict decluttering methods to a T, you stay true to her one basic guideline: “If it brings you joy, keep it. If not, get rid of it.”

Does. It. Bring. You. Joy. These words become your lullaby as you lay down to sleep, thinking eagerly about your next decluttering session.

The Rage Purger

When you’re so fed up with your surroundings that you go into a decluttering frenzy, often throwing out somewhat useful items that could otherwise be donated. You think to yourself, “I need them out of my life NOW!”

If you have a higher tolerance for clutter, you’re more likely to rage purge at some point in your decluttering journey. It’s an unfortunate eventuality. You get busy, and things start to clutter up, until you wake up one day and realize your house imploded on itself. So you rage purge… throwing away items left and right as if you have a personal vendetta against them. (As you should… how dare those things clutter up your house like they own the place!).

The Delayed Decisioner

Do you ever go through your stuff and set something aside while thinking, “I’ll get to that later,” or “I have to think about this.” This is what we call a ‘delayed decision’. You’ll eventually have to confront these items again, and you’ll EVENTUALLY have to make a decision on whether or not to keep them.

The Delayed Decisioner is probably the slowest type of decluttering method, because it often results in shuffling items around your house (also see: The Tote Shuffler), rediscovering the same stuff over and over without truly confronting the items. Delayed Decisioners tend to be highly sentimental people, seeing potential in broken items, and/or unable to let go of childhood keepsakes.

The Tote Shuffler

Unlike the Delayed Decisioner, The Tote Shuffler is either A) resolute in keeping a set of items, or B) resolute in PURGING a set of items, but feels the need to categorize them first, resulting in setting them aside. Then, it happens…. The item (or tote of items) gets moved around the house over and over again during decluttering sessions. Why does this happen? Because they don’t have a home. Eventually, many of these items DO get decluttered, it just takes a while.

The Tote Shuffler is notorious for cleaning one area in their home at the expense of another area. Is someone coming over for dinner? NO PROBLEM! The kitchen, dining room, and living room become spotless… but the once clean spare bedroom now looks like a bomb went off.

The Planned Purger

The Planned Purger is a person of high orderliness, perhaps leaning minimalist without much effort. Everything is calculated for them, including what to keep or not keep. Unlike a The KonMari Acolyte, they value practicality over ‘joy’ in their possessions. And if it makes you happy AND is useful? BONUS!

So when it comes to getting rid of stuff, The Planned Purger doesn’t act with haste. Instead, they may contemplate an item over several hours or days, eventually making a decision and promptly following through.

This straightforward approach has the highest chance for long-term decluttering success. One might even consider them synonymous with a true minimalist!

So what’s your decluttering personality?

I’d love to hear from you! I’m a mix of a Tote Shuffler and Rage Purger. (Depends on the day!).

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