Decluttering In Areas That Aren't On The List

While I have been using "more" as my word for 2016, I do not want more stuff. I actually want less stuff (so, really, more decluttering, to go along with the theme!).
And while I am glad that we don't have a terrible mess of things for the most part, there are quite a few areas of our home that need quite a large chunk of help.
As well as some places that I would normally just pass over - because they were "done" enough.

Of course, you know, I don't want to start the process in those needing-a-lot-of-work areas - I want to build momentum, start small and work my way up. That makes the most sense to me, so that's the path I'm taking on this quest.
Which lead me to this project - an area that I've been sort of ignoring and telling myself that it's not an issue - our media shelf.

There is one shelf in the living room, that holds all of the DVDs, CDs, and video games. Just one! That's great!
Well, okay, a little perspective here - a few years ago, the same shelf was overflowing with DVDs only, so this one shelf alone for all of our physical media was a good thing!
I thought it was done, and have been on that bandwagon for a while. Well, sort of.

Until I go and try and choose a movie to watch. Because there were too many movies to choose from! While I enjoy options, when it takes longer than a minute to pick out something to watch, because there are too many things there, it's not a good way to actually enjoy a movie.
So, over this last weekend, I went through and realistically pulled all of the things off the shelves that I don't watch, that I won't ever watch again, and some things that I've never even watched in since purchasing it!

I'm sad to admit that some of my Batman collection fell into those categories - Batmans I've not watched, Batmans I've tried but couldn't get into. But, I had to be honest with myself, and I can't get into them. I didn't enjoy it, even though I am a huge Batman fan (I enjoy the "bad" movies from the 90's!). Some of the direct-to-DVD specials that I've heard were fabulous, but I've had for years and never watched more than once. They don't need to clutter up my shelf any more.
And a lot of my movies were like that. Things I may have enjoyed at one point, but won't grab because they will fall behind in the queue of what to watch ("I like it, but I like all this more," kind of thing). Things that I was keeping because I thought it was good backup - for when I had watched everything else. Well, when you have so many options, there's not ever going to be a time when everything has been recently watched!

I pulled a bunch of movies from the shelf and felt good about it - so I watched Beauty and the Beast, because that made sense.
And then I went back after the movie was over and pulled off a few more.

The main bits that needed to go were gone, and that helped make the harder decisions easier. The things that I didn't really want to let go of, but should have. The things I really did enjoy, but didn't reach for often enough. There was space cleared, and only harder decisions left - which, somehow, made those decisions easier (probably because there was nothing else sucking up brain power!).

Now, there's extra room on the shelf, and I am pleased about that.
No, it will not get filled up with something else - except for maybe things from around the house, but nothing new! And while it doesn't look like a lot of extra room on the shelf itself, it is quite a large pile of things to get rid of.

The truth is, there's probably more on that shelf that I could get rid of. I'm positive of it, actually. But not yet. Those options needs to be there still, for my own comfort, for a while longer still.
Though I am debating rearranging it all so that once something has been watched, it moves to a different part of the shelf (similar to the keeping your clothes to the front of the closet, and anything that doesn't get worn slowly moves towards the back) and at the end of x-amount of time, getting rid of what hasn't been watched. There's less picking and emotions involved in that, which would certainly be helpful.

Either way. It's progress. It's something I was avoiding and thinking I wasn't even going to touch. And I feel so much better about it.

Have you tried the closet-moving-backwards trick to deciding what to get rid of? Did it help with the emotional attachment any? Let me know in the comments!

~Havok

P.S. So, about the "after" photo - behind the Project Life album are VHS tapes of the Misters, as are the tapes next to the album. Other than the album, nothing on that shelf is mine. Though let's not discuss how much of the rest of the thing is mine versus his!

If you liked this post, check out these posts!

But I *Need* It & It's Useful! I Can't Chuck It!

An Ode to a Shirt [or, thinking clearly]

"I Didn't Raise You To Be Lazy!"

[Edit 1/24/15: Added to Create & Crave Link Party]
[Edit 1/24/15: Added to Merry Monday Link Party]
[Edit 1/24/15: Added to The Creative Gallery Link Party]