As you move through your home and separate what you want to keep from the things that will go you have made good progress. How you let go of what is not staying is best done by splitting these into four easy categories. If it's not staying then you are going to Sell, Donate, Gift or Bin each item. The key to winning at this stage is that you do what it says on each grouping of items. Don't let yourself be distracted.
A word of guidance for the unsure or the weak-hearted. If it doesn't fit into one of those four criteria, you are keeping it and that's OK. You are letting it stay where it is because you love it or it brings such happiness to your life when you see it. I hope that stops the panic for some of you. This is your stuff and you can keep the best of it. You are getting rid of the clutter, the waste, the surplus and the junk. Stay calm and get busy decluttering!
Sell: This can be a task the whole household gets behind and if so, you get to share the rewards from the selling activity. If you want to motivate a teenager, you may have just found a good way forward! Get them involved in listing the items for sale in online platforms. Reward them with seeing the progress made and the additional cash that comes in from the successful sale of items that they list.
A silk tie that cost you $50 new can reach $20 when advertised online. Pictures uploaded from your cell phone and a short description will see it sold within the week, and you have $20 bucks to add to your holiday fund or family treat fund. This two lamp bases that are made from beautifully turned wood are sold for $40 the pair plus postage. The classic shirts or vintage sneakers sell for $10 - $15 per item and you had been hoarding loads like these. You can hold out for slow and steady sales or you take an offer of $400 for the lot. It all goes into the fund.
Bigger items are no good for sending by mail. Use a marketplace listing for the pictures of that polished wood dining table and four chairs, or the spare desk or the two armchairs that have been in your garage for a year. You click and upload the pics, and the next day some buyers come for the separate items and you pocket $60 cash for the table and chairs, $50 for the desk and another $50 for the two big armchairs. That's another $160 for the holiday fund.
Donate: You take the items that end up here, down to the goodwill shop as soon as you have enough to fill a couple of boxes which you can put in the car and deliver to the store next time you are in town. Every card box or black bin bag you fill with lampshades, unwanted clothes, laundered bedsheets and duvet sets, books in good reading condition or jiffy bags of unused pens and pencils, each of these has a value to your local charity. You are taking stagnant energy in the form of the stuff you no longer want and transferring that to a place where it can be sold on and gather new energy in the form of cash money for the cause they promote through their work.
Gift: This is about some of the choicer stuff you come across when rooting around in your garage, attic or den. Perhaps you will find some emotional gold deep within those wardrobes where you haven't looked behind the coats for years! You will inevitably come across things that you have held onto as family heirloom items, and which you have enjoyed having with you over several years. Now might well be a good time to let them have a new home, still within the family.
Before my Dad died he had already given me some of the beautiful things he had treasured. A velvet lined, mahogany box stored his Lewis Men chess set which he had made from resin. My youngest son is the chess player now and so this is marked for him. A folding wooden writing desk from the Officer's Cabin of 1940's troop ship is something Dad bought in his one of his trips hunting for antiques. It is gorgeous, has a secret drawer, the cut glass ink pot, has the original ship's movement document attached and also comes with research into the history of the ship
What have you got that you are happy to let go of, knowing it can have a renewal of life in a fresh setting, where it will be loved and appreciated? It has already served you well and brought you pleasure. You have the memories of it in your life and can take several digital pictures of it before handing it over to the next person who will appreciate it. I think of these as Legacy Treasures or Legacy Gifts.
Other items you have which are simply in good order can be used by others who will be grateful to you for the gift and able to make use of the item. A food processor, a well equipped tool box, an auto jack or tire pump. A mountain bike in good order. Some electrical extension cables. Unwanted surplus furniture. A gift can be anything that you have had good use from and which still has life in it to be of use to another person or household. Let the items go and notice how different your space feels for the new energy it has within it. Write about how you feel as you let these things go into their new life somewhere else.
Bin: This is an easy one. The sooner something moves from the Bin pile to the large waste bins outside your home the better. A good and realistic goal here is that whatever you place in this pile, it does not stay here overnight, but goes outside into the designated private or communal bin areas for your home. The items here can sometimes be split between recycling and rubbish. For example, a broken wooden chair is rubbish, but the material can be recycled by your local authority as they work through waste.