I was chatting with some friends about decluttering. One friend said she loves decluttering a specific area, such as a single cabinet, because the Before and After gives her so much satisfaction. But another friend said she can't handle that kind of concentrated decision making, and does more of a random picking up of things, like instead of emptying a drawer out, she'll open it, see a few things to declutter, close it again for another day. Stuff is always leaving but it maybe doesn't always look like it...and then on Instagram, I was watching some videos of people who do it all by category or color. Like, just the blue shirts.

None of these are bad approaches! I think I tend to fall on the more random approach side of things. But given any option (and assuming you're not decluttering due to a life change like needing to move), how would you prefer to declutter?

EDIT: And this is meant to be more of a discussion than anything, but Discussion wasn't a flair option, so I went with Motivation, lol!

I, 63F, let my hair go natural during the pandemic and kept it that way. For about four years, it was my brown hair with grey temples. Lately, my brown hair has turned dark pewter. In addition, I've been really sick for about ten years (thyroid cancer, gradual heart failure leading to open-heart surgery a few months ago). I'm recovering well and want to go out...but my clothes are mostly pre-2020-- and nothing looks good. I decluttered last month, but I felt I still had nothing I wanted to wear. A closet full of 'meh'.

So I took everything out of my closets, dumped the clothes and scarves onto the middle of my bed, and I held each fabric up to my face, one by one, and took a selfie. Every 'yes,' I put in a pile to the left of my bed on the floor. Every 'No' went in a pile on the right--out of sight. No looking back. With all of the selfies side by side in my phone, I could see what colors work and which don't.

What I learned: I've gone from an Autumn palette to a Summer (gray hair + skin losing pigment). The 'No' pile was really big. Going through my collection of linen scarves was excruciating because I bought each one of them after oncology/cardiology appointments. I'd go straight from the hospital to the store with the nice stuff.

I grabbed it all and took it downstairs, really fast, without 'but...but...' and I left it in a pile out of the way. I will eventually go through and fold them and try to find them, homes.

I was exhausted by the end of it, and emotionally scarred, lol. It felt like a cataclysmic event. It was more than a declutter. It was a reset. Now I can go shopping and buy some things I can actually wear and feel happy about.

Which is great to know! Now, when I go shopping for the new wardrobe, I'll know what colors to look for.

I let go of jeans I'd had since 2010.

I let go of a giant, apple-green hoodie from the hip-hop era!

And my poplin bathrobe, from...1999!!