The Gatekeeper

Stop clutter before it starts.

Before you let anything cross the threshold of your house, ask yourself whether this is something that future you will identify as clutter. If so, don’t let it in.

Specifically, as you prepare to walk through the door, check everything you’re carrying to make sure it actually deserves a place in your home. Common examples of things that don’t are junk mail and other things you didn’t ask for like event swag. Put them immediately into the recycle or donate bin. (If you don’t pass those on your way to the door, maybe put a Gatekeeper box just inside the threshold.)

Sometimes, even things we buy ourselves don’t meet the Gatekeeper criteria. So before you buy anything, imagine walking through the door with it. Where is it going to live? Are you actually going to use it? Or will it simply go out the door again in a future decluttering session? Apply the same criteria that future you will use to declutter your house before you even pull out your credit card.

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If so inspired, reflect on your Gatekeeper experience in your Project Quartz journal.

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Source

My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place (2022) by Meik Wiking, who calls this “pre-cluttering.”