Decluttering your empty nest
As with many major life changes, adult children leaving the home is a good opportunity for decluttering your empty nest. Our daughters both moved out in 2020, taking furniture, personal belongings, and even kitchen duplicates or items they’d purchased.
With a goal of lightening up in 2020 — and now that my husband and I are officially living in an “empty nest,” I have been decluttering yet again. It’s been a good opportunity to take a look at our home with fresh eyes, to see what we really want and need for how we live now.
Though the girls took a lot with them, I am discovering many items that we no longer need, need less of than we did in the past, or need to pass on to our daughters. As I go through cupboards and closets, I thought you might find it useful for me to share what I’m learning.
Here are two lists to consider: 1) Items you no longer need (or need less of than you did previously) and 2) Items to pass on to your young adults for their homes.
1) Examples of items you may no longer need:
- Food or pantry items that were only or mostly for the kids (I’m buying less processed and packaged food, less bulk items, and less sweets, for instance)
- Calculators of all sizes and types
- Extensive art supplies (colored paper, coloring pencils, canvases, paints, jewelry making kits)
- Class supplies (index cards, binders, lined paper)
- Games and puzzles we’ve outgrown
- Old computers and cords
- Extra electrical cords
2) Examples of items to pass on to young adults:
- Excess furniture or pieces better suited to them
- Kitchen dishes, utensils or gadgets you’re no longer using
- Extra bedding and linens
- Games and puzzles they will use
- Their keepsakes and mementos (other than those gifted to you or that you treasure)
Decluttering your empty nest has benefits
When we declutter, we can walk through the process of transitioning through change, a process that transforms us into a new phase of living without our children in our home. By letting go, muddling through and moving forward, we process this major life change in a positive manner.
Joshua Becker, author and minimalism expert, says that this process moves us forward.
“Today is the day you rid yourself of anything that distracts from your best life.”
Joshua Becker, The Minimalist Home
Don’t we all want to live our best life? I truly believe that decluttering our empty nest is helping me lean into living lightly and simply. And we’re so enjoying sharing time with our girls and their guys in our home and theirs!
