A Quick Guide to Decluttering Your Home

整理你的家的一个快速指南

Living in a cluttered² home is not fun. It means you'll spend an inordinate³ amount of time looking for things when you need them – and quite possibly never finding them. It means you'll waste hours cleaning and rearranging to keep your home looking more or less inviting⁴. It means you'll carry the mental burden of having too much stuff and not being able to relax fully when you're at home.

生活在一个杂乱的家里并不有趣。这意味着当你需要的时候，你会花费大量的时间去寻找——很可能永远找不到。这意味着你要浪费好几个小时来打扫和重新布置房间，以使你的家看起来或多或少有吸引力。这意味着你将背负着拥有太多东西的精神负担，当你在家时，你将无法完全放松。

Fear not! There is a cure, and it's called decluttering. This process, difficult though it may be at times, can change your life. It will transform your living space into one that you want to be in and it can miraculously⁵ add hours to your life – hours that you can spend on pursuits more pleasant than looking for things you can't find.

不要害怕!有一种改善方法，叫做清理。这个过程，尽管有时会很困难，但可以改变你的生活。它会把你的生活空间变成一个你想要的地方，它会奇迹般地增加你的生活时间——你可以把这些时间花在追求上，而不是去寻找你找不到的东西。

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There are many decluttering experts with excellent advice to share (most famously, Marie Kondo and her KonMari Method), but here we will distill⁶ what we consider to be the most useful information for starting your own decluttering journey.

有许多整理专家都有很好的建议可以分享(最著名的是近藤麻理惠和她的近藤麻理法)，但是在这里我们将提炼出我们认为最有用的信息来开始你自己的整理之旅。

Ask Yourself Questions

问自己问题

Marie Kondo thinks people should ask if an item "sparks joy." Gretchen Rubin suggests asking if an item "energizes⁷" you. Joshua Becker tells people to hold each item in their hand and ask, "Do I need this?"近藤麻理惠认为，人们应该问问某件物品是否“能带来欢乐”。格雷琴·鲁宾建议问一下某样东西是否能“激励”你。乔舒亚·贝克尔告诉人们把每一件物品拿在手里，然后问，“我需要这个吗?”

The Unclutterer says there are three questions to ask: (1) If you had to purchase an item at full price, would you? (2) If someone you didn't like gave you the item as a gift, would you keep it? (3) Does it invoke⁸ happy memories?

这位组建者说有三个问题要问:(1)如果你必须以全价购买一件物品，你会这样做吗?(2)如果你不喜欢的人送你这件东西作为礼物，你会保留它吗?(3)它唤起了快乐的回忆吗?

Nineteenth-century British designer William Morris simplified it further: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."19世纪的英国设计师威廉·莫里斯进一步简化了这个概念:“在你的房子里，不要有任何你不知道有用或认为不漂亮的东西。”

Choose the question(s) or approach that works best for you. The point is to begin analyzing⁹ the items in your home with a critical eye and questioning their reason for being there.

选择最适合你的问题或方法。关键是要开始用批判的眼光分析你家里的物品，并质疑它们存在的原因。

Pull Everything Out

把所有东西都移开

Both Marie Kondo and Francine Jay, author of "The Joy of Less," insist on the importance of removing everything from its usual place in order to better assess its current relevance¹⁰ to your life and home. As Jay explained, we become accustomed to seeing things in certain places:

近藤麻理惠和《少的快乐》一书的作者弗朗辛杰伊坚持认为，为了更好地评估它目前与你的生活和家庭的相关性，把所有东西从平常的地方移开的重要性。Jay解释说，我们已经习惯了在某些地方看到固定的东西:

"The broken chair that’s been in the corner of your living room for as long as you can remember seems to have staked its claim to the space; it’s like a member of the family, and it feels disloyal to move it. But once it’s out in the backyard, with the light of day shining on it, it’s suddenly nothing more than an old, forlorn broken chair."“从你记事起，那把破椅子就一直放在你客厅的角落里，似乎已经占据了这个空间;它就像家庭的一员，搬家会让它觉得不忠。但一旦它到了后院，在阳光的照射下，它突然就变成了一把老旧的破椅子。”

The same goes for clothes, which Kondo tells people to put in a big pile in the middle of the room. Leave nothing untouched in a drawer or closet. You need to be able to see everything to know what you're dealing¹¹ with.

衣服也是一样，近藤告诉人们把衣服堆成一大堆放在房间中央。抽屉或壁橱里的任何东西都要动一动。你需要看到所有的东西，知道你在处理什么。

Establish a Sorting Method

建立分类方法

There are as many sorting methods out there as there are socks in your sock drawer, but here are some that we consider to be effective. Jay recommends dividing belongings¹² into trash, treasure, or transfer (give away/donate/discard), and to use black garbage bags that don't allow you to second-guess your decision. Whatever remains¹³ is divided into three further categories: Inner Circle, Outer Circle, and Deep Storage, based on frequency of use.

袜子抽屉里有多少袜子，分类的方法就有多少，但这里有一些我们认为有效的方法。杰建议将物品分类为垃圾、珍宝或转移(赠送/捐赠/丢弃)，并使用黑色的垃圾袋，这样你就不会怀疑自己的决定。根据使用频率的不同，剩下的部分可以进一步分为三种类型:内圈存储、外圈存储和深度存储。

Professional organizer Dorothy Breininger uses a 5-point "clutter¹ scale" to gauge¹⁴ whether or not an item belongs in the home: 5 – non-negotiable items that must be there, 4 – items that are difficult to replace or that you use daily, 3 – items used occasionally but not within last six months, 2 – items rarely used but you're hesitant to discard, 1 – items never used, seasonal¹⁵, specialized¹⁶ tools, etc. Breininger observes that "there are surprisingly few items that fall into the 2 and 3 categories; and as soon as something is labeled thus, it becomes easier to purge¹⁷."专业整理师Dorothy Breininger使用5分“杂乱程度”来衡量一件物品是否属于家里:5 -转让物品,必须在那里,4 -难以取代,或者你每天使用的物品,3 -偶尔使用，但最近六个月内没用过的物品,2 -很少使用,但你不愿放弃的物品，1 -从未用过的，季节性的或专用工具等。Breininger观察到，“属于第二和第三类的东西少得惊人;一旦有了这样的标签，就更容易清除。”

Enlist¹⁸ Your Family's Help

寻求家人的帮助

Unless you live alone, decluttering cannot be a solo activity. It's important to sit down with your spouse¹⁹, children, or other family members to discuss what you want to do and how they can help. Explain the benefits of decluttering and how it will free up time and resources for other fun family activities. Older children should take responsibility for decluttering their own spaces.

除非你一个人住，否则整理不能成为一个人的活动。和你的配偶、孩子或其他家庭成员坐下来讨论你想做什么以及他们能提供什么帮助是很重要的。解释一下清理房间的好处，以及它是如何为其他有趣的家庭活动腾出时间和资源的。大一点的孩子应该负责整理自己的空间。

Discard Items Responsibly

对丢弃的物品负责

Determine what can be given away to friends (host a clothing swap), donated to charity, set on the curb²⁰ for free taking, or resold through online marketplaces or a yard sale. Always clean items prior²¹ to selling, and try to repair them if possible. Seek out recycling facilities whenever possible. Landfill should be a last resort.

确定哪些东西可以送给朋友(举办一场衣服交换活动)，哪些可以捐给慈善机构，哪些可以放在路边免费拿，哪些可以在网上市场或庭院拍卖会上转售。在出售之前一定要清洗物品，如果可能的话尽量修理它们。尽可能寻找回收设施。填埋应该是最后的手段。

Establish New Rules

建立新规则

Certain habits got you into the mess of having an overly cluttered home and they will take you right back there unless you're vigilant²². It's important to take the decluttering process slowly and with full awareness²³.

某些习惯会让你的家变得乱七八糟，除非你保持警惕，否则它们还会把你带回去。慢慢地、充分地意识到清理的过程是很重要的。

One excellent rule is "one in, one out." While it's a human tendency to stockpile extras in case you need them, it leads to clutter and disorganization. A better approach is to keep one of each thing you need – one set of bed linens²⁴, one belt, one coat, one spatula²⁵, one bathing suit, one pair of sandals. You'll always know where it is because there's less stuff in the house obscuring its location and, as Becker says, "There is a peaceful joy found in the presence of owning one."一个很好的规则就是“一进一出”。虽然囤积额外的东西以备不时之需是人类的一种倾向，但这会导致混乱和无规矩。一个更好的方法是在你需要的每样东西中保留一件——一套床单，一条腰带，一件外套，一个刮刀，一件泳衣，一双凉鞋。你总能知道它在哪里，因为房子里的东西少了，把它的位置模糊了。正如贝克尔所说，“拥有一幢房子，你会找到一种平和的快乐。”

Decluttering is a slow and ongoing²⁶ process. Don't get discouraged, but keep plugging away until the job is done. Use this time to acknowledge how much you possess, how little you truly need, and how important it is to fight back against a culture that constantly tells us that we need more, more, more. More often than not, less is the right answer.

整理是一个缓慢而持续的过程。不要灰心，但要坚持不懈，直到工作完成。利用这段时间来承认你拥有多少，你真正需要的有多少，以及对不断告诉我们需要更多、更多、更多的文化进行反击是多么重要。通常情况下，“少”才是正确答案。