The Accidental Minimalist: How I Learned to Stop Hoarding and Live with Less

Well, I hate to break this to you, but I used to be a hoarder. I might not have been an extreme one, but it used to be so hard to open my pull-out drawers because of the gazillion things I kept there. “Throw away all those examination papers from primary school! Donate the shirts you no longer wear so you have room for the new ones!” screamed my mom for the fiftieth time.

As a natural minimalist, she never understood the weird attachment I had developed to my things over the years. It might sound strange (and I’m okay getting teased for it), but it felt easier for me to buy brand new things for donation than hand out something I had owned for so long.

So… what changed? If a main character in a book gets this mind-blowing arc that shifts their personality, then I’ve had my own version of that journey. I first started by buying fewer things, thinking it would lower the risk of getting attached. As expected, it didn’t solve the real problem. I still couldn’t throw away most of my childhood stuff. So, I shifted my mindset instead:

1. It’s not the object, it’s the memory. I looked at my childhood stuff and thought about all the memories I had had with them (not all astonishing, most were just decent). I still felt sentimental, but I realized it was not my love for the object holding me back. It was the memory.
   
   
2. I didn’t even remember I had them if not for the decluttering session. I think it was normal to suddenly feel a strong nostalgic emotion over something I hadn’t even thought about in years. But was it still normal to keep that stuff for some more years, locked and forgotten, just to store it again once I decided the memory was too valuable? I didn’t think so.
   
   
3. I wouldn’t miss the stuff once it was gone. The hardest part of all was perhaps convincing myself that I wouldn’t miss it after throwing it away. While I knew deep down I would have forgotten about it in no time, coming to terms with it took time.
   
   
   
4. I took pictures of the stuff before I got rid of them. When it was extremely hard to let go of something because of its past value, I took a picture of it to preserve the memory. It might be a questionable step to some, but I found it very helpful. I could easily throw something away physically after making sure I had saved it digitally.
   
   Was it smart or stupid? I couldn't tell.
   
   
5. Stop collecting things just because they’re cute. Yup. Take it from someone who used to collect all things cute: stickers, erasers, new notebooks, used notebooks, agenda, stamps, enamel pins—you name it. Since I decided to no longer be a collector, my life feels much more organized.

All those steps might have helped me, but breaking the ‘one step forward, two steps backward’ cycle was still a challenge in itself. Making it an overnight success was, without a doubt, impossible. For comparison, it took me years to get better.

If the main character has to face a major plot twist that leaves our mouths wide open, then I did too. A few months ago, when I was in the office, I opened a message from my sister that left a sour taste in my mouth. She told me that (please brace yourself for this) there was a baby mouse in our flat… I repeat: a freaking baby mouse in our flat…

A little bit of me died inside that day. I mean, I had started to get better at not hoarding, so why now?

Following the shocking news, my sister told me the flat’s guard had helped her capture the little pest. She sent me a video as proof. “Baby or not, a mouse is still a mouse!” I said frantically when my mom tried to shrug off the experience by calling it ‘only a baby mouse’. “Who knows if the baby and its mom have had a secret party here after invading our peace?”

Well, it turned out I was only exaggerating. After some investigation, we figured the baby mouse came in when our room was being cleaned in the morning since we had left the door open. The baby mouse must have thought we were very welcoming. How charming.

Even after discovering the real reason behind the appearance of this uninvited guest, I didn’t feel relieved just yet. I decided to go through all of our belongings in the flat. I decided to come clean. Irrelevant files I had kept as souvenirs? Thrown away. Backpacks I wouldn’t use again? Donated. Some broken binders I had kept just in case I might need them again someday (I wouldn't)? To the bin, they went.

The situation, if you would like to know, was more or less like this:

In conclusion, the last tip worked like magic for me:

• Beware of the pest if you hoard. Since my fear of living with pests was far greater than my fear of saying goodbye to an extreme amount of stuff, it was the wake-up call I needed.
  
  Should I thank the baby mouse for this, or would it assume that a thank you equals a welcome gesture?

Needless to say, I may not be the most minimalist person yet (I still love to shop), but I now find peace in living with less unnecessary stuff. I feel like this lifestyle is not only suitable for me, but also much healthier.

On a more serious note, I encourage you to contact your healthcare provider or a mental health professional if you feel hindered by a severe hoarding issue. Please remember that you're the one who gets to say when help is needed.