One question I often ask my clients when sorting and purging their clothing is, "how do you feel when you wear this?" Their initial reaction is usually a good indicator of their feelings about the item.

Deciding what to keep vs. what to donate can cause analysis paralysis. In order to continue working toward your decluttering goal, try following the advice of William Morris, a 19th-century designer, poet, and artist: “Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be beautiful or believe to be useful.”

I recently started working with a client who’s lived in her current house for 30 years and is considering downsizing in the next year or two. For the most part, she’s been really decisive about what she wants to keep and what she wants to donate. However, occasionally she’ll say to me, “A friend gave this to me, but I never really liked it. Do you think it’s okay if I donate this?”

Downsizing has become more and more popular as empty-nesters decide to ditch the suburbs to move closer to the city after their children have moved away. Oftentimes, empty-nesters also give up square footage when they move from a home in the suburbs to a condo or townhouse, which means they’re forced to evaluate their stuff to figure out what will fit in their new space versus what they can let go of.

When we decided to quit our jobs and move from Indianapolis, Indiana to Portland, Oregon neither of us knew a soul in Portland, we didn't have jobs lined up, we didn't have a place to live - it was a complete leap of faith. What we DID know was we didn't want to take a lot of stuff with us.

When visiting my family in Minnesota in November, my mom presented me with a box full of my papers from grade school that she didn't want to keep at her house any longer. Vowing to go through the box soon, I brought it back with me to Atlanta and promptly hoisted it onto the highest shelf in my closet. "Soon" turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months.

When we made the decision to move across the country the first of two times, we were living in a 530-square-foot apartment, so downsizing wasn't too terribly overwhelming. Limited space = limited stuff.