The Two-Year Rule

Discardian Ruut Ackses (which is a fabulous name, by the way) recommends you get rid of anything you haven't used in two years. He writes:

Less is more when you don't live in a mansion. That's the only way to cope in a modern British house, and we stick to similar rules to yours to prevent our place becoming a reality tv episode of "Look at these poor hoarding lunatics".

We have a three bedroom house that struggles to fit two people if you let your belongings take over. To keep the size and space comfortable, we run "The 2 Year Rule" on every space in the house, regularly. We have a minimalist living room now, with just media stack, DVD/game storage, some LCD lighting, coffee table, one or two nice pieces or art and two couches.

The two year rule has cleaned out every room, every drawer and every cupboard. We own nothing but the essentials that we use and some nice art. Open a drawer, and look at the contents. DId you use any of that in the last two years? If not, sell, donate or bin it.

It helps to remember that stuff is just stuff. Stuff is not your friends or your family, and nothing should hold a huge importance to you. We have very little that we are attached to, and even less that we would have to grab if an evacuation call came. I'd probably grab my partner's antique violin, my Thinkpad, my gadget bag and my AIBO. The rest is disposable.

The hardest part was disconnecting ourselves from our library. We don't have room for shelves of books and now, as soon as they are read, they get given away, traded, donated or binned with only a few exceptions.

We recycle as much as possible and try not to waste anything useful.

This is a good technique. And if it doesn't work out, you can always look into starting that reality tv show...