Introduction: Grandpa Bill Was a Hoarder

This is part of Stewie's Guide to Ruthlessly Declutter Your Clothes Today.

Hey there!

My name is Stewie, and I come from a long line of packrats and entry-level hoarders.

For example, Grandpa Bill was a hoarder. He wasn’t extreme like the folks on TV (with their dead animals, crumbling walls, and other horrors). But he obsessively kept newspaper clippings from USA Today, Investors Business Daily, San Jose Mercury News, and numerous financial magazines.

These clippings filled many boxes. Boxes in the garage, boxes under the stairs, and boxes in the “cubby hole” (Grandpa’s tiny home office). Boxes also filled a shed.

Did Grandpa ever go back and read these articles? No, of course not. Why read about bygone bull markets when there’s always fresh financial news on your doorstep?

But Grandpa’s boxes became a problem when he and Grandma moved. They’d finally retired but couldn’t afford to move zillions of heavy boxes from California to Utah. Moving was a forcing function to downsize and declutter.

I’ll never forget the heartbreak on my Grandpa’s face as my Dad hauled countless boxes to the city dump. Grandpa pointed to our trailer full of boxes, saying, “There’s a lot of good information in there.”

That was way back in 1996, and in the decades since then, I’ve reflected on this experience. It’s helped me wrangle my own impulses to hold onto everything (like those boxes of computer parts for a supercomputer I never assembled). And I’ve gotten better at asking, “Why am I keeping this item? No, but seriously, why?”

When I started my decluttering journey, I first attacked clothing. Why? Because I didn’t have enough space. My closet was overrun and my dresser was overflowing with shirts and pants I never wore. I needed to either buy an additional dresser or declutter my clothes. Luckily, and with some nudging from my wife, I chose to declutter.

Fast-forward five years later, my clothes are an area I’ve kept decluttered. And this short book you’re reading contains the lessons I learned along the way. (If I ever invent a time machine, this will be the first book I’ll give to my younger self.)

Now, a word of caution: I have an extreme view of decluttering clothes. Some beliefs will rankle some readers.

Here’s what I believe:

  1. You should get rid of the vast majority of clothes you never wear. Right now.
  2. You don’t need permission to declutter gifts and inherited items.
  3. If you don’t declutter today, you won’t declutter tomorrow. Today’s excuses follow us into the future.
  4. It’s better to trash unwanted clothes—and have them disappear today—than to hold on to crap you might mend/sell/donate/recycle.

I also believe your situation is unique and not every idea will work for you. No one doling out advice on the Internet can tell you precisely what you should do.

But hey, you’re an adult, so use good judgment.

For example, you might keep more clothes if:

Or you might be even more ruthless with decluttering if:

No matter the situation, just remember: Life is better without the clutter.

Next steps…