Take a picture, then let it go

How to part with sentimental clutter

We all have sentimental clutter. It’s human nature to hold onto things that remind us of something important in our lives. For instance, I held onto the outfit I wore on my first national TV interview for many years. The ruffles on the shirt fell apart over the course of a decade, so I couldn’t actually wear it, but that shirt represented a professional goal of mine: getting to share one of my books with a large audience. So it sat in my closet.

Chucking something like that is hard, but here’s a solution that I read in Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein’s book, Joy at Work. Take a picture of the object you’re fond of. Often that works to convince yourself that you can still hold onto the memory. Then you can feel free to let the object itself go.

The upside of this, of course, is that a picture doesn’t take up much space. So you get the memory and more real estate in your closet.

It turns out that this strategy really does lessen the hold that sentimental clutter can exert on people. In one study Kondo and Sonenshein highlight, researchers advertised a donation drive using different posters. One urged students to collect and donate their sentimental stuff. The other told them to first take a photo of the sentimental stuff, and then donate it. The second poster, which urged the photo, generated 15 percent more donations.

So while cleaning out my closet, I took a lot of photos. I didn’t get rid of everything. I can’t quite part with an old white coat of mine that represents some trips I took with the boyfriend who became my husband. And I have held on to a lot of baby things. But I did manage to chuck the shirt with the no-longer-attached ruffles. So that’s progress — and space for a shopping trip if I’d like.