How should I declutter my stuff?

You can use organized and chaotic approaches to declutter your stuff.

• Organized approach
  
  First of all, you should make a list of everything you own. This might be a little bit tedious, but it is necessary. If you have a lot of stuff you probably cannot finish with list in one day. In that case, make a list of places that you could finish with in a reasonable amount of time (for example, the closet on the left in the living room, the closet on the right in the living room, ...)
  
  After that, note the date of last use for each stuff in the list, and process the stuff one by one.

• Chaotic approach
  
  Start anywhere you like (bathroom, living room) and pick a random stuff at hand, and ask yourself what is the date of last use of that stuff. Process the stuff and pick another one.
  

Processing the stuff

If you haven't use the stuff for a year or more then this is a candidate for decluttering. One year period is not fixed. For some stuff period should be shorter (for example the milk in your fridge) or longer (winter clothes). But the key is to ask your self: "Do I really need this stuff?". If you really, really need the stuff don't do anything. If you don't need the stuff than you have three options:

1. Throw it away
2. Give it away
   
3. Sell it

If something is for throwing than pile up the stuff at the entrance. If you would like to give away something, you should immediately consider to whom you will give it. Otherwise it could float around as if it is something you need. If you want something to sell, then you have a range of options, from ads on the net to ads on the windshield of your car.

Before getting rid of something, you should be aware if there is legal or personal limitation. For example, you cannot just throw away something dangerous. Also, some stuff you must hold such as tax related papers, health related papers, etc. On the other hand there might be some emotional value (souvenirs, photos, ...) that you wouldn't throw away just like that. Also, be aware that if you have family things could complicate. If you find something of no use, your spouse might object and be very angry. In that case, before getting rid of things, ask everyone in family to check if there is something that they would like to keep. Don't argue about that. Probably there won't be a lot of such things.

Why should I declutter my stuff?

Why should you do that? There are several reasons.

1. Stuff eats space, and space eats money. How clutter eats space? Everything has some volume. Therefore you should have enough space in your home to store stuff. You can even calculate how much money costs one cubic feet. If for an example, you have one thousand square feet apartment that costs $400,000, and the height of ceiling is 8 feet. Then you have in your apartment 8000 cubic feet and one cubic foot costs 50$. One cubic foot is a box which base is one square foot and which height is one foot. If you have 20 such boxes full of unneeded stuff, then you have lost one thousand dollars.

2. Stuff eats time, and time is money. How clutter eats time? First of all, everything needs some kind of maintenance, and maintenance eats time if you do it, or it eats money if you pay someone to do it. If you have two TV sets, than you will have to clean both of them. The second way that stuff eats time, is in increased effort to find something. For example if you have a pile of 10 magazines, with five useful, and five useless. Then each time you search for a specific magazine, you spend one half of search time unnecessary. There are examples even drastic examples.

3. Stuff eats mental energy. For example: you play with your kids, but something is nagging about what to do with that closet or garage that is full of stuff.