One of the comments that I often get on my decluttering posts is “throwing things away is a waste of money” or “how do I not feel like I’m wasting money?” and honestly, I get it.

When I first started my decluttering journey, I wanted to keep hold of anything that cost a lot of money because it felt like a waste to get rid of it. If I’d spent money on something, simply throwing it away or donating it felt like a waste.

That was until I remembered one little thing.

The money is already gone.

Whether I kept hold of that item or not, the money that I spent has already gone. It’s no longer in my bank account and it’s not coming back. Now I just have to decide if that item is worth the space and effort of keeping it.

I’ll tell you an example from something that happened in my own life recently. I used to love photography. I collected cameras and always had one with me. Yet that hobby faded out over the years and I still had all those cameras. They sat in my home untouched and taking up space that I could use for something I do actually care about. Now I’m sure we all know, cameras aren’t cheap. So I found myself wanting to keep them simply because I spent a lot of money on them. But then I remembered that the money is already gone. Keeping those cameras won’t bring back the money I spent and I’m not going to suddenly start using them again just because they were expensive. So I separated the money value from the item and only thought about whether or not I wanted to keep the item. Now they have left my home and I know that someone is out there making use of something that I just had sitting around.

When we take away the thought of how much we spent, we can truly decide if the item actually adds value to our lives. If it’s not something you like or something that you use then it’s not worth keeping around no matter how much money you spent.

Everything in your home requires something from you. It requires you to clean it, maintain it and move it around. If an item isn’t worth all that then despite its original cost, it’s not worth keeping around.

Remember that the money is already gone.

Your home should be a happy and cosy environment. If your stuff is working against you then it’s time to declutter.