Dear FlyLady,

Would you mind to share some posts about not feeling guilty about decluttering gifts. I seem to be keeping things I don’t really love but feel like I have to keep it because someone else bought it for me. Thanks!

Alicia

Dear Alicia,

When I began my decluttering process back in 1999, I made two New Year’s Resolutions. The first one was to keep my sink clean and shiny and the second one was to be kind to me. It is that second resolution that helped me to get rid of the items in my home that I didn’t love. Here is how this works.

When you walk through your home and you see things that remind you of something sad, then it is time to let those things go. If you don’t, you are not being nice to yourself. In fact it is a form of self torture. When you go from one room to the next; I want everything you see in your home to put a smile on your face.

As for those gifts that you never liked in the first place. Put them out of your eyesight at first; out of sight, out of mind. If your mother or mother-in-law asks where a certain item is then you can honestly say it is here someplace. Then after a while you can put it in your declutter box and pass it on to others. I always liked to take an item that gave me a bad memory and give it a new one. I did this with teapot once that made me feel bad. I passed it along to a friend and the act of giving, turned a bad memory to a good memory.

You don’t have to get caught up in making sure the right person gets the item. This is perfectionism. Keep in mind; you didn’t like it anyway! So the sooner you get it out of your house, the faster that smile is going to come to your face.

You can’t organized clutter; you have to get rid of it! I want you to smile!

FlyLady