You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey, it's Mariel.

I think many of us have had this experience where we attempted to declutter, to Marie

condo our homes, and we hit an emotional roadblock.

There in our hands was some item that we had no use for anymore, and yet we were emotionally attached,

not ready to throw it away or even donate it.

This seems infinitely more likely when the object in question reminds you of your kid and the

time when they were so little.

I often think about, like, you know, my kids have like nice winter

jackets from when they were younger and they're very sweet and I remember them all like puffed up

in these beautiful little jackets. And I think to myself like, oh, I have such a hard time letting

this go. Dene Barahona is a psychotherapist who works with children and families in New York City.

And the way she gets out of this trap is she reframes the situation.

But then I think, should this jacket spend the next 30 years in this box,

or should it be on the body of another child somewhere that needs it?

And I think that just sort of picturing that jacket, living its life

on somewhere else, really helps me to let it go. Her tip here, and the approach that's worked for

her family, is to create not a donate pile, but a share the love pile. Okay, yeah, it's a bit of

semantics, but for whatever reason, when I call it the share the love pile, I'm much more inclined to put things into it.

As a parent, it is worth doing this, decluttering, because others will benefit from your donations,

because you, the adults in the house, will now have more room to function, and because simplicity

can help children thrive.

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