Arti Unlimited and Professional members can use our new AI-boosted ARTIAssist to enhance their stories and memories with historical and factual details about the items they Artifct.
If you want to simplify your life and maybe enjoy some of the reported benefits of a minimalist lifestyle without adopting a minimalist lifestyle, you may be asking yourself (or Google): “Where do I start?”
Inspired by an article from the LA Times published in March 2024 in which professional organizer Regina Lark claimed that the average US household has 300,000 items, we thought the easiest place for some to start is there – with the excess, the unused, the damaged, the forgotten, the just-in-case from 20 years ago. We think this approach is valid even if in all likelihood your home, like ours, has far fewer than 300,000 items inside.
The relevant point is finding simplicity in less. From the clutter and chaos, you can gain clarity as to what 'stuff' matters to you, a theme near and dear to us here at Artifcts. You can reduce time-consuming decisions you make every day, too. If you have 5 pairs of pants to choose from, how hard can it be for you or your kids to get dressed in the morning? And just maybe you’ll also stop yourself from spending money on things you already own but can’t find, like items number 78 and 83 in our list below.
We invite you to take a stroll around your home with this wildly varied home decluttering list to see where you find opportunities to simplify by reducing the volume of stuff that’s claimed a place in those drawers, closets, and shelves. Here and there we’ve added some commentary where we simply couldn’t resist. Like anything, decluttering takes practice, like building up a muscle. Enjoy, and good luck!
If you’re looking for a Decluttering or a Collections Checklist from Artifcts—or any of our dozens of additional checklists—to inspire you as you also seek to capture the stories, CLICK THE IMAGE. Our checklists are free to download with a free Artifcts.com account.
108 Objects to Declutter from Your Home
Why 108 objects? Author Jeff Greenwald, in his book 108 Beloved Objects: Letting Go of Stuff, Keeping Our Stories, explains, “The number is deeply significant in Eastern spiritual practice, and beyond… the number of prayer beads on a malla (a Buddhist rosary), the number of yoga postures in a full cycle,” and so on. Because of the deep global resonance of this number and the efforts here at Artifcts to help change our relationships with our ‘stuff’ and each other, we think 108 is the perfect number for our decluttering list.
Enjoy some story telling from Jeff Greenwald, who shared with us some of his 108 beloved objects.
We’re breaking away from a room-by-room approach with our list. In doing so, we hope to unleash creative and unexpected freeform association of items that might help you declutter items that did not make the list or have been very much “out of sight, out of mind.”
Ready? Here we go!
1. Lightbulbs – You don’t even have a socket for that one anymore!
2. Boxes, the cardboard variety; and no, it doesn’t matter if it’s a “really nice box”
3. Bins, the plastic kind this time
4. Rugs
5. Fidget gadgets
6. Suitcases – If your kid isn't even a teen yet, and you think they are packing up for college in those, reconsider how else you could use the space.
7. Picture frames
8. User manuals
9. Candles
Candles are wickedly easy to accumulate because they are easy to gift and even available in end caps at grocery stores!
10. Cookbooks
11. Party decorations
12. Pens and markers – Do they work? How many 100s do you need?
13. Remotes from gadgets you no longer own
14. Pots for plants
15. Decorative pillows – Well, maybe keep the pillow, rehome the case?
16. Baseball hats
17. Pads of paper / notebooks
18. Cleaning supplies and tools
19. Retired and retirement-ready linens
20. Bottle openers
21. Koozies
22. T-shirts and sweatshirts
23. Chapsticks
24. Coasters
25. Glassware
26. Scrunchies – If you know, you know.
27. Old sports equipment
28. Ice packs
29. Rubber bands – Beyond the fun aesthetics of a rubber band ball, how many do you need? And you know they will become brittle and break.
30. Shorts (or other clothing) long out of style, stained, or otherwise in disrepair
31. Belts
32. Coins – Cash it in!
33. Musical instrument lesson books
34. Fine silver, you never use
35. Fine china, you also never use
36. Pottery
37. Bookmarks
38. Greeting cards
39. Business cards, too
40. Rechargeable batteries, because they stopped holding a charge
41. Regular batteries in sizes you haven't used in decades
42. Foam rollers and massage devices
43. Coffee making apparatus, including pods that are long-since stale
44. Coffee mugs
45. Hygiene products (spares and expired, from consumables like cosmetics to tools like toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and combs)
46. Socks
A friend of Artifcts kindly shared this picture. Can you relate to her dilemma?
47. Keys
48. Craft supplies, the should’ve, would’ve, could’ve never started, unfinished or dried up
49. Handbags
50. Fishing tackle
51. Nail polish
52. Aprons
53. Magazines and pages torn from them
54. Dog toys
55. Pet beds
56. Lamps
57. Baby blankets
58. Spare buttons and thread
59. Kitchen appliances you never use and utensils, too – What’s jamming that drawer?
60. Spices, so old they may not poison you but they certainly won’t add the flavor you’re expecting
61. Travel-sized everything
62. School report cards – Scan and Artifct them first!
63. Awards, professional and childhood
64. Games and/or pieces left from them
65. Take-out containers and utensils
66. Blankets
67. Stuffed animals
CLICK THE IMAGE to read about why you should declutter stuffed animals with care, according to research.
68. Boxes of tea – Added to this list, with love, on request of both of the husbands of the cofounders of Artifcts.
69. Holiday stuff, the one off, the past it's prime, the "when did we celebrate that?"
70. Kid artwork
71. Magnets
72. Unmatched socks
73. Décor
74. VHS and cassette tapes – Say it with us: digitize, digitize, digitize.
76. Miscellaneous home repair and renovation materials (tiles, bricks, etc.)
77. Books
78. Blenders – True story, our cofounder Heather found SIX of them at her dad’s house.
79. Record player
80. Reusable shopping bags
81. Plastic shopping bags
82. Costumes
83. Reusable water bottles
84. Windshield wipers, for the car you don’t even own anymore
85. Vases
Collections can take on a life of their own. What's in yours? One of these vases pictured is not like the others. Take your guess, and then click here for the answer on Artifcts.
86. Watches
87. Travel pillows
88. Gift bags
89. Costume jewelry
90. Placemats, tablecloths, and chargers
91. Extension cords - Who are you, Clark Griswald?
92. Eyeglasses
93. Old computers
94. Postcards
95. Cutting boards
96. Key chains
97. Dried (and dusty) flora
98. Membership cards
99. Cameras
100. Cords, cables, and chargers
CLICK THE IMAGE for more tech inspiration from our Tech Detox checklist.
101. Swag from your employer
102. Paint
103. Travel mementos from who-remembers-where
104. Sunglasses
105. Cake pans of all varieties
106. Shoes
107. Covid-era face masks
108. Ticket stubs, playbills, brochures – ephemera of life
Your reward for reading all 108 is this free download to take with you around the house. As always, if you’re having trouble letting go, "Artifct that!" to keep the memories. You can download our DIY checklist to jot down all the items you want to Artifct as you declutter, too.
And please remember to recycle, upcycle, rehome! Download Artifcts' Going Green guides to inspire and support you. Depending on where you live, you may have a reuse center where you can donate goods in addition to traditional charities.
What is a family heirloom other than some object that someone decided was important in some way and decided to keep it and pass it along to another family member. That’s it. For what it’s worth, Webster’s dictionary agrees with us – and it all hinges on the word “special.”
: something of special value handed down from one generation to another
No one ever said family heirlooms have to be financially valuable or historically significant.
A family member might have an inkling that an heirloom carries with it some history. But then again, even if so, how will you gain access to that history? Usually it’s a conversation, a sticky note, a journal that’s also hopefully passed along. We can do better. We need to do better.
Artifcts and Heirlooms Go Hand-in-Hand
Each Artifct you create carries the potential of heirloom status. How you may ask? Many ways, including:
By creating awareness that this object even exists, or that it has some interesting origin or story, you increase the probability someone will care about it and claim it as their own. It’s no longer just ‘stuff.’
One of our Artifcts members thought her china set was doomed for the Goodwill bin. However, when she Artifcted it and shared the story with her family, she had children and grandchildren eagerly offering to take it off her hands. Why? Because it wasn't simply a china set that she had received as a wedding gift as long assumed. No, it was a set she purchased while stationed overseas in sub-Saharan Africa as a newlywed under instruction from the US Ambassador that, "Martha, you need a china set for 12 because you are going to start hosting diplomatic dinners." Who would have thought!
Because it wasn't simply a china set that she had received as a wedding gift as long assumed
By serving as a unique digital asset, a digital heirloom. Someday, your loved ones can inherit your Artifcts collection and the stories, memories, and more captured in each Artifct will live on. If you haven't already done so, simply designate your primary and secondary legacy contacts for your Artifcts account to ensure your heirlooms live on for generations to come.
By creating new family heirlooms from existing ones. One of the earliest examples of this that we saw here at Artifcts was Grandmom's rolls recipe from the early 1900s that was reborn and brought out for everyday enjoyment when engraved in her mother's handwriting on a cutting board.
One of our favorite tips for Artifcting future family heirlooms is to include a photo of a family member using, wearing, or otherwise enjoying the heirloom-to-be. It helps connect the dots between the object and your loved one, and adds context and visuals to the story or lore.
What family heirlooms are you the keeper of? Do you have many? Artifct them today to ensure those heirlooms and their stories make it to the next generation.
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Heirlooms on your mind? You might enjoy these related ARTIcles by Artifcts:
We’ve all heard the expression “greeting card holiday,” sometimes even used against one of your personal favorites. So many love-hate relationships out there with national days for everything from your dog to your sibling to coffee and doughnuts.
Then there are the months generally preserved for themes of broad societal significance, like heart health, black history, hispanic heritage, and even family history. Hello October, and hello Family History Month!
This October we’re sharing a few ideas from the Artifcts Community to help even those of you who may think you have no interest in family history to find some value in a month dedicated to exactly that. Use the month as an excuse or opportunity to get to know and capture your own family history and legacy a bit better.
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Hello, Family Genealogists (And Those In the Making)
An Artifcts community member once lamented to us, “I’ve spent so much time and money researching all of this history, and I have the files, but I really haven’t taken that next step to share with my extended or even immediate family. Without me they’d have to start over.”
And then she told us that all her research is locked up behind a subscription-paywall. Hmmm. If you can relate, here are some tips to help ensure your family history is not lost to the next generation:
Purchase a second research subscription for someone who can pick up the research alongside you to carry it forward to the next generation. Guide them through the myriad of resources online and through special archives and libraries as well as in your own family collection. If you have a tech-savvy grandchild in the family, this may be the perfect way to spur intergenerational connection AND keep the family history/research going.
Take a class or catch a speaker! You can find a plethora of them by searching online or go local. Check your library, community center, museums, or local genealogical society for special events this month (and beyond). Confernce Keeper has a wonderful listing of genealogy related conferences and events, a lot of them for free too. Share what you learn with your family and friends.
Create a family videography to highlight key moments in your family’s history, roles family members have played in historical events, and the modern-day family branches. For beautiful, professional videographies, we adore Lori and her team at Whole Story Productions.
Self-publish a book(let) to document your research findings in black and white. Distribute during a family reunion, taking preorders (and payments) ahead of time. If you need an assist in your family history, we recommend our partner at Legacy Tree Genealogists.
At Artifcts you can share the family history behind old photos, cherished heirlooms, even Grandma's china! Your family members need not be Artifcts members to view the Artifcts you share with them. Want to make sharing your Artifcts with your family even easier? Create family invite-only circles for easy group sharing, and off you go! We recommend using a special tag like #NickersonFamilyAssociation to easily sort your collection. Some of genealogists at Artifcts also use the ‘Location’ field when they create an Artifct to list a URL or folder path where additional information is stored.
Memorable Family Dinners, Recipes, and More
You’ve been away from home for months or years, you return, and as you walk in the door, dinner is on, and you get that first smell of your favorite dish. Do you have the recipe? Who came up with it? Do you know the key steps? Special or secret ingredients?
Some family favorites are born directly out of the original farm-to-table concept, before it was so hip, and those origins become a key part of the family recipe story. You grew potatoes and found a million ways to prepare them. You had fresh citrus, wild asparagus, or vibrant rhubarb all around you, and the specialties of your youth reflect it. Capture that history!
Start a virtual family dinner club. You could create a group online to swap recipes or go a step further and once a month someone is the virtual host. Send the recipe ahead (as an Artifct!) so everyone has the ingredients on hand. Then run your own cooking show and enjoy the meal together after.
Collaborate on a special family recipe cookbook. Ask each member of your family to contribute their favorite recipe AND the story behind it. How did it come into your family? Are there any secret ingredients? Who made or makes it best? Create a cookbook that builds all the family history and the stories that go with those recipes. You’d be surprised, but even one generation removed, family members will start to lose track of the details never mind the actual ingredients or instructions.
At Artifcts recipes, cookbooks, and treasured kitchen objects come alive through stories and histories, but also with supplementary video and audio snippets. Artifct your favorite recipes, add a video snippet of a crucial step, and share with your family. Our co-founder Heather Artifcted her mother's cranberry sauce AND included a video to show her teenage daughter how to know when you've got a good batch of cranberries.
Share the History
The reality is not all families have a family keeper, that person who by choice or default holds onto the heirlooms, photos, recipes, and slew of documents that represent generations of a family’s history. Or maybe you are the last keeper or recent inheritor of all this family history and are thinking, “Now what? I really don’t want this stuff.”
There’s a second reality that is important to recognize: family history is not only family history. Sometimes family history is part of local, national, or even global history. It offers clues to key figures, ways of living, and the social, political, and religious practices of a place in time. So, consider sharing pieces of your family history with the world through donations.
Philanthropic donations. Consider galleries, libraries, research centers, foundations, and museums with specialties that may overlap with your items. Donations are not necessarily only in the realm of inherently valuable objects. Often, you guessed it, the story behind the object is the key. Don’t know the story either? That’s okay. Reach out to an institution, share your items, and give them the opportunity to tell you!
Archival donations. Transform your personal family history into elements of a shared community history by offering your items to professional archives. What types of items might fit this category? As a starter: original works of fiction or non-fiction; scrapbooks, journals, letters, and diaries; original business materials (certificates, advertising, shares, board documents, voting records); media (photographs, slides, film, even websites too). You can learn more at the Society of American Archivists.
At Artifcts, before you donate, Artifct the items to retain the family lore and history that’s relevant to you, and then share with family. Make sure no one else is interested in the item before you donate it, and attach any documentation related to your donation to the Aritfct. You can then rest easy knowing your family’s history will be in the capable professional hands of institutions that will preserve and protect them for generations to come.
Let's Talk Wills and Legacy
Hear us out. Wills may be about death, but they are also all about easing the burden on those we leave behind. We all too frequently ignore the items we've collected over time. And, no, they will not sort themselves into piles to sell, donate, or bequeath. First someone must go through it all, a family member or two, or maybe a specialist hired to help. And in the end, someone will have to make 1000s of decisions about what becomes of every single item. Do you really want to leave a burden as your legacy?
Wouldn’t you rather everyone be better prepared and informed? Not only will making a plan and creating documents make it easier for your family to pick up the pieces, but they can also help loved ones understand why you valued the items you are leaving behind. We've got some tips to help:
(Dramatically) Simplified checklist:
Don’t have a Will? There are many wonderful estate planning attorneys in each community who can help you with this process. But this is an industry transformed by the digital revolution, and then some. If you are looking for a digital, self-guided approach, check out our fellow AARP AgeTech Collaborative partners at Trust & Will.
Haven’t really seen your Will in a while? Give it a checkup. There's no time like the present. Add it to your to-do list this month!
Confirm: Are the major themes covered?
Estate
Minor children
Relatives with disabilities
Retirement
Powers of Attorney
Living Will
Stewardship of digital assets (profiles, accounts, photos, web pages, etc.)
Is there a list of tangible assets referenced in your Will? Your Will may provide for a separate “Memorandum” that can be updated and changed at any time without making any changes to your Will.
No list? Start. Just take a first cut by looking around the house (or your Artifcts collection!).
Already have a list? Double check that it covers at least those items of greatest financial or heart (sentimental) value.
At Artifcts, pick three or four of your most treasured items to Artifct and let your loved ones know why each item matters to you. Use the "In the Future" field to think through and record what you would like to happen to this item one day. Will it be passed down? Rehomed? Sold? Consider sharing the Artifct with your estate planner or attorney to list with other tangible assets referenced in your Will.
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Artifcting Starter Resources
We have all sorts of helpful resources that we want to be sure you know about to take the pressure off and let the fun begin:
Feeling overwhelmed by your ever-increasing digital photo collection? Not sure what to do with the boxes and boxes of physical photos you’ve either collected or inherited over the years?
Chances are you are not alone. We take photos to capture a memory or moment in time. We keep photos not because of the actual photo (except in rare circumstances) but because of the memories and emotions they evoke.
This leaves most of us with an ever-growing collection of photos, some of which take up valuable space in our homes, and others that take up valuable space on our devices. It also leaves us with a lot of snapshots in time, but very few documented memories, stories, and the like for our loved ones.
As we wrap up Save Your Photos Month, we’d like to propose a challenge—over the next five days, pick a photo a day and Artifct it along with the story, memory, and maybe even the reason WHY you love that photo.
Over the next five days, pick a photo a day and Artifct it along with the story, memory, and maybe even the reason WHY you love that photo
You don’t need to have a paid Artifcts account to take part in this challenge—anyone, anywhere can join. Sign up for free today and get Artifcting! We all have photos and memories worth preserving.
You also don’t need to overthink it. Five photos. Five stories. Five pieces of you that are now documented and preserved for generations to come.
After looking at her own post-move mess of photos, frames, boxes, and a soon-to-be collection of 15,000 digital photos, our co-founder Heather decided to give it a go. Her photos, her memories.
My Favorite Childhood Photo
This photo has survived more moves than I can count. It’s one of my favorite childhood photos—I have no recollection of the moment, but it always makes me smile.
I can feel the late Fall sunlight, smell the salt air, and remember the stone step to my childhood home, Briar Bog Farm. My father’s LL Bean flannel shirts, and my purple overalls. I always wore those overalls. Purple was my favorite color after all.
I shared this Artifct with my daughter and her first response (via text) was, “OMG we look so much alike!” Her second response was, “I didn’t know you liked purple.” And her third, “Did I have a pair of purple overalls when I was younger?” Before I could answer I got the “GTG don’t want to be late for class.” One photo shared, one memory saved, and a new story made.
You Surfed?!?
Yes, I surfed. Way back when you could still barter blueberry muffins for a surf lesson or two and a ride out to Cisco Beach in a beat-up Ford van.
It was the summer between my sophomore and junior years in college. I was working three jobs (bar tending, tutoring, and nannying) but it did not matter. I lived to surf. Any and every free moment was spent on the beach, surfboard in tow. I would (and often did) gladly sacrifice sleep for surfing.
I smile every time I see these photos. They are a snapshot in time of a crazy, wonderful, totally unexpectedly perfect summer.
And Miles to Go Before I Sleep
This is one of the few photos I have printed and framed over the past ten years. My daughter and dear spouse have even asked on occassion when I was planning to replace the stock photo that came with the frame for a “real” photo.
Sorry to disappoint, but this is the “real” photo. It’s one my favorite spots in the White Mountains, a boardwalk passage across a high-altitude swamp along the Zealand Falls Trail.
Growing up, Robert Frost’s poetry was a constant companion. Whether out for a walk or repairing the paddock fences, there was always a quote or two at hand. Whereas some children are drilled in their ABCs and 123s, I was drilled in verses of one of New England’s most celebrated poets.
I printed and framed this photo because (1) I love the majestic beauty of the White Mountains, and (2) it is a constant reminder that I have “miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” It’s my little reminder to myself that like any good hiking trail, life is best taken one step at a time.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
This is a private Artifct, and for good reason! The stories, the memories, and the laughs. Always the laughs.
Go Caps! Sorry, this Artifct is private.
The photo though is one of my all-time favorites. I framed it the moment I got it, and that framed photo has graced every desk I’ve had since, pre-COVID and post-COVID. My daughter recently took a good look at it while helping me unpack and said, “Wow, you and Aunt G still look exactly the same!” That in and of itself made me smile.
She then wanted to know the story behind the photo, hence one of my newest Artifcts. She knew it was me and Aunt G in the photo, but she didn’t know the story or even where the photo was taken. Small moments create bigger memories.
Marry Me?
This too is going to remain a private Artifct, but the photo is worth a thousand words. And yes, there are a thousand-plus words in the Artifct to back it up.
Do you have one of those photos that makes you smile every time you see it? That it puts you in a good move no matter what? That’s what this photo does for me.
Marry Me? Sorry, this Artifct is private.
It was taken the afternoon my now-husband proposed. We were in Telluride for the Blue Grass Festival. He proposed earlier that morning while out on a hike. I was so surprised it took me a moment to answer.
After I said yes, he wanted to know what I thought he was going to ask. I told him, “I thought you were going to ask if I was hungry and if I wanted pizza!” Well, this photo was taken post-hike and post-pizza, right before we settled into our spots for another night of amazing bluegrass music with the San Juan Mountains as our backdrop.
Like my favorite childhood photo, I can still feel the sunlight hit my face every time I look at this photo.
Your Turn!
Which five photos will you choose to Artifct this week? What five stories will you tell, what five memories will you share?
Remember, don’t over think it. If you’re not sure where to start, look at your framed photos. Chances are they are framed for a reason! Still stuck for inspiration? Check out our Rescue Those Photos! checklist for some ideas to help you get started. You can also check out our tips on How-To Artifct That Photo.
Remember, photos can’t talk, but you can. Start telling your story today.
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Dad & Me. Age 3. 
Surfing and surfboard photos. 
And Miles to Go Before I Sleep. 
Go Caps! Sorry, this Artifct is private. 
Marry Me? Sorry, this Artifct is private.
