5 Unique Ways to Get Rid of Clutter and Have More Peace

Last Updated on November 1, 2021 by Hollie Giglietti

The artist life = clutter.

I am a crafter, a seamstress, a writer, and general creator. My artist life is piled high with boxes of paint, brushes, canvas, stamps, ink, books of scrapbook paper, markers, colored pencils, yarn, thread, felt, feathers, jewelry pieces, crochet hooks, and stitching needles, an old heavy typewriter, a sewing machine, a fabric stash, and old vintage clothes that don’t fit but could be made into something else amazing!

The “clutter” I have as an artist is paired with vintage collectables, trinkets and memories I can’t seem to let go of. I usually try to keep everything organized but it can be a challenge in small spaces. 

While spending a couple of weeks at my sister’s house earlier this season, I realized I felt extremely calm and completely at peace in her beautiful home. I pondered why I felt this way in her home and not in the current house I was living in. I had a total “Ah-hah” moment when I realized it was because everything was put away and in its place. She takes pictures of memories and lets the rest go. And her home is always beautifully decorated, as you can see!

Clutter-free and peaceful. A welcoming space for all… to simply be.

I’ve been on an interesting journey this past year striving for that simple, peaceful life. Where I’ve learned that experiences, friends and family mean so much more than things. So I’ve decided to let the things go and discovered five unique ways to have less stuff and live a clutter-free, more peace-filled life.

1.) Move across Country and sell everything you own.

In 2018 I decided I wanted to move from Saint Louis, MO to Asheville, NC. My dream location 🙂 In order to do this I could only take what would fit in my car. I sold everything and gave away the rest. All of my furniture, my clothes, shoes, kitchen stuff…. Everything but my craft supplies! An artist always has to keep her supplies!

2.) Rent a room, rather than an entire house.

We rented a room from a very gracious woman here in the mountains of Western North Carolina and had a smaller space than the house I left behind in Saint Louis. Saying goodbye to all of my things, and my own space, was very hard. But I knew it would be worth it to live in a part of the country I love.

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to make your dreams a reality!

With so little space and (still) so much stuff (my car is BIG), it was hard to get organized. As a result, it was hard to find peace in our living space. I kept a lot of those things in my car for a long time and then boxed them up in unused corners.

3.) Quit your full-time job and only work part-time.

While I was learning to have less I was also learning to spend less. In the past, I’ve used shopping and food as therapy. I would spend so much money on both. Since I’ve moved to North Carolina I’ve been working part-time. This forced me into not being able to buy anything extra.

It was so hard at first but then it became freeing as time went on. I didn’t have buyers remorse, I didn’t have to wonder where all of my money went and I didn’t have to figure out where to put the new things in my small space. I had less money but more time to explore the mountains!

Experiences > Things = Always

4.) Buy/Rent a Tiny House and proclaim that it will never be a place of clutter.

Black Friday is in just a couple of days and instead of going shopping we are very symbolically (yet totally not planned) moving into a TINY HOUSE for six months.

This will be my next challenge in decluttering… Quite possibly the ultimate test, as it’s much smaller than anywhere I’ve lived in before!

We have moved the majority of our things into a storage unit. And although everything I own still fits in my car, the Tiny Home we will be renting is already furnished with everything, thus the storage unit was needed.

5.) Put all of your extra things in a storage unit. Learn what you really use and challenge yourself to get rid of the rest. Then get rid of the storage unit.

My plan is to bring things into the tiny home in shifts and sort through everything, piece by piece.

I’ll be asking myself;

Do I REALLY need this?

Will it even fit in our small space?

Can I live without it?

If I’m leaving it in the storage unit, what good is it doing there if I’m not currently using it?

But the craft supplies are still coming with me, for now.

I have things to make! But I plan to actually make the things. And if I notice I’m not using something, then it will have to go. It’ll be hard but it’s been exciting to challenge myself with something I’ve really struggled with my entire life.

Rise above that clutter!!

In moving every few years, for as long as I can remember, I’ve placed value, memories, and worth into the things I own – rather than value on a place to call home.

This makes it difficult to let the things go.

When I was forced to part with them, however, it gave me a sense of freedom I never knew I could have.

If uprooting your life, selling everything you own and moving into a tiny space is not for you, here are an additional (more practical) 20 Ways to Buy Less and Live More, from the Postconsumers blog (a great blog to check out!), that may be more manageable. Try one or a few but if peace of mind is what you’re searching for, less clutter and less things, may be your answer.

SO this Black Friday, I challenge you to buy less, have less, and experience more peace. It is definitely a journey and I would never recommend an instant purge of everything without a single thought. Parting ways can be really hard, even if it is just stuff. Thinking through why you can let it go is important. But the peace that comes with decluttering may just be worth it.

Have you discovered the amazing power of decluttering? Do you have any tips and tricks of your own? I would love to hear them! (I’m still learning!)

But I’m so ready for that peaceful, clutter-free life!

Just let me keep my craft supplies.