Digital Decluttering: Finishing the Job (Premium)

As you probably know, I'm a big proponent of decluttering. The aim is to live a more mobile and minimalist existence that is less about being surrounded by stuff and more about focusing on what really matters. This includes digital decluttering, which is perhaps misnamed, as it involves replacing physical things---books, photos, videos, music, and more---with their digital equivalents. For example, you can store your entire library in the cloud and carry around a Kindle that's smaller and thinner than a single paperback book, while physical books take up a lot of space. (And are kindling for some future fire, too.)

Decluttering makes moving---being more mobile---easier. And while you may have no plans to move anytime soon, the accumulation of stuff is what makes moving feel like a non-starter in the first place. We spent 15 years in the same house and knew we wouldn't move while the kids were growing up, but my wife and I began decluttering nonetheless and have done so on and off ever since, for two reasons: we had dreams of eventually splitting our time between two places, one of which would be international, and it was clear early on that there was a constant influx of stuff coming into our house. If we didn't actively work to triage that and remove as much stuff as possible, we would end up like so many other homeowners and simply fill every nook and cranny.

If you followed me in my pre-Thurrott.com days, at the SuperSite for Windows or even before that, you might remember my "Everything Must Go" events, which were attempts to put electronics I would never use again in the hands of people who would appreciate them for free. More quietly, my wife and I have done things like that locally too, giving away PCs and other things to church groups and the like, and giving away or selling things via Facebook groups and Craigslist.

Tied to the decluttering, I would perform regular cleaning rituals in which I would go through all of the bins and cubbies in my office and all of the boxes I stored in the cellar---I never threw out a container for any electronics that came into the house---and get rid of as much as possible. And in a weird way, this became an off-kilter superpower: I became very good at cleaning and organizing the clutter. I would get rid of stuff, yes, but I would also organize what was left so that it seemed like less junk than it was.

(In a weird coincidence, right after I wrote about this, I learned that this kind of thing is called a "doom pile," where "doom" is actually an acronym that stands for "Didn't Organize, Only Moved." Incredibly, this is yet another symptom of ADHD, "a common cleaning tactic people in the ADD/ADHD community [use] to help reduce the visual clutter that can impact [one's] productivity and mental health." And a sobering reminder that my superpower may be more off-kilter than I knew.)

But it adds up. And it seemed like no matter how much we got rid of, there was always more stuff to take up spac...

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