Moving has a way of exposing habits you don’t notice when you stay put. After packing up my life three times in a matter of months, one pattern became impossible to ignore: I was carrying things I didn’t actually use, need, or even like anymore.
Each move made the same items feel heavier. Not just physically, but mentally. Packing them, unpacking them, storing them temporarily, then packing them again forced me to confront a simple truth. If something keeps surviving every move without earning its place, it’s probably overdue to go.
These are the four things I finally got rid of and wish I’d let go of long before the first box was taped shut.
Disposable cleaning products I didn’t need to move with me
I hate wasting usable items, so cleaning supplies were some of the first things I packed. Half-used bottles of bleach, disinfecting wipes, spare sponges, specialty cleaners. In theory, they made sense to keep. In practice, they made every move harder.
I wasn’t settling into a long-term space. I stayed with family, then in a sublet, where I didn’t need my own cleaning stash at all. Instead of passing these items along immediately, I hauled them from place to place for months before giving most of them away anyway.
Looking back, this was an easy decision I delayed for no real reason. Someone else could have used them right away. I just carried them until I was tired enough to finally let go.
Clothes I hadn’t worn in years
Every time I packed my closet, I found pieces I had completely forgotten about. That moment of surprise should have been my cue, but instead I packed them without thinking. Seeing them again during each move only confirmed what I already knew.
If I had to dig past them to get to clothes I actually wear, that was the answer. Cute doesn’t matter if it never leaves the hanger. Over time, I started a simple rule. If I came across an item during a stay and didn’t wear it even once, it went into the donation pile at the end.
The constant unpacking made it obvious how much mental space unused clothing takes up. Letting it go made everything else easier to manage.
Shoes that were never part of my real rotation
Shoes were a different kind of realization. With clothes, I at least remembered liking them at some point. With many of my shoes, I genuinely wondered why I owned them at all.
I rotate through the same handful of pairs. Sneakers, running shoes, house shoes, formal boots, winter boots, hiking boots, and flip flops. That’s it. Everything else was aspirational, uncomfortable, or impossible to style in my actual life.
Once I acknowledged that, the decision was immediate. Anything outside that core group went straight to donation. No second guessing. No storage.
Decor I kept out of habit, not love
This one took the longest to accept. I started collecting decor in my early twenties, and a lot of it followed me out of sentiment rather than attachment. I convinced myself it represented my personality, even when I no longer liked how it looked.
Moving forced honesty. My taste had changed. Some pieces felt dated. Others simply didn’t fit who I am now. Holding onto them out of guilt didn’t make my space more personal. It just made it more cluttered.
Letting go of decor didn’t erase my personality. It made room for it to evolve. And yes, some early ceramic pieces were objectively not great. Accepting that was oddly freeing.
After three moves, the pattern is clear. The things that slow you down aren’t always obvious until you have to carry them with you again and again. Once I stopped moving items out of habit, everything else felt lighter, both literally and figuratively.
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