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, don't forget to Artifct first so you can declutter without guilt
71. Magnets
72. Unmatched socks
73. Décor that is outdated or no longer on display
74. VHS and cassette tapes – Say it with us: digitize, digitize, digitize.
76. Miscellaneous home repair and renovation materials (tiles, bricks, etc.)
77. Books, but Artifct the ones that mean something to you first
78. Blenders – True story, our cofounder Heather found SIX of them at her dad’s house.
79. Record player
80. Reusable shopping bags, consider donating to your local food pantry, they can always use extra bags!
81. Plastic shopping bags, recycle if you can!
82. Costumes
83. Reusable water bottles, yes, we know they're lurking in the back of your kitchen cabinets
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 that no longer work or are no longer worn
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, consider donating or recycling before tossing in the bin
94. Postcards
95. Cutting boards that are long past their prime
96. Key chains
97. Dried (and dusty) flora
98. Membership cards to places you no longer visit/no longer have a membership
99. Cameras, bonus points for selling them for the point-and-shoot obsessed Gen Zers
100. Cords, cables, and chargers
CLICK THE IMAGE for more tech inspiration from our Tech Detox checklist.
101. Unused swag from your employer AND previous employer.
102. Paint
103. Travel mementos from who-remembers-where
104. Sunglasses
105. Cake pans of all varieties, especially if you don't bake!
106. Shoes you no longer wear
107. Covid-era face masks
108. Ticket stubs, playbills, brochures – ephemera of life. Artifct them first, along with the memories!
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.
The best moments don't wait, so now Artifcts lets you quickly capture items you want to Artifct later.
We're excited to introduce Drafts, a faster way to capture what matters and fill in the details whenever you're ready.
How It Works
Share a photo or video straight from your phone's gallery to Artifcts to start a new Artifct, or open the Artifcts App and take a photo, record a video, or capture an audio clip on the spot.
Add your media, tap Save, then choose Save as Draft. No title, no description, no details required.
Your draft appears at the top of your Artifcts list as a Local Draft, stored right on your mobile device.
When you're ready, open it back up, fill in the “Name Your Artifct” field and add the “Description or Story” behind it, and do a full Save to push it to the cloud and keep it safe in Artifcts. Once fully saved, you can see and edit it on the Artifcts website.
Capture the moment in seconds. Tell the story on your own time because your stories matter — and we're honored to help you preserve them. Feel free to reach out to us at Hello@Artifcts.com if you have any questions or suggestions for future features. We'd love to hear from you!
Once upon a time, crossing an international border came with a satisfying thunk.
An immigration officer would flip through your passport, stamp a page with ink, and send you on your way. That little mark became proof that, on a particular day, you stood in Paris, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, or Reykjavik. Your passport slowly transformed into a scrapbook of adventures, filled with colorful stamps, visas, and memories.
As more countries adopt biometric entry systems, e-gates, and digital border processing, many travelers no longer receive passport stamps at all. Instead, passports are scanned, facial recognition verifies identity, and your arrival and departure are recorded electronically. Countries including Australia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and much of Europe have increasingly embraced automated border controls. The United States also records many entries and exits digitally, and while stamps are still available in some circumstances, they're no longer the default for many travelers.
For frequent international travelers, it can feel like the end of an era.
The Next Generation May Never Know
Think about handing your passport to your children or grandchildren one day. They'll flip through the pages and ask, "What are all these stamps for?" For many of them, the answer may be surprising because their own passports could remain nearly blank, despite traveling just as much—or even more—than previous generations.
The physical evidence of travel is fading, and that's a shame, because passport stamps were never just administrative marks. They were breadcrumbs through our lives. Each one represented a moment, and every stamp held a story. Maybe it was the excitement of your first international trip; the honeymoon that started with a missed connection but ended with the best vacation of your life; or the semester abroad where strangers became lifelong friends. Whatever the story was, it was yours and yours alone; no one else would or could know the story simply by looking at the stamp.
Open an old passport and memories come flooding back.
That faded entry stamp from Italy reminds you of the tiny family-run restaurant where no one spoke English but somehow everyone understood one another and your daughter ended up ordering the best meal of her life. (At least according to her 15-year-old self.) The visa from India brings back the sounds, colors, and aromas that no photograph could ever fully capture. The nearly illegible stamp from Costa Rica reminds you of the rainstorm that soaked every piece of luggage before you ever reached your hotel.
Even the imperfect moments become treasured stories over time, because if we're honest, nobody has perfect travel stories. Flights get canceled(hello two week delay!). Luggage gets lost (and your skis rack up more air miles than you do). Or you get spectacularly lost in a city with no cell service. Those are often the stories everyone wants to hear first.
Long before social media timelines and smartphone photo libraries, passports quietly documented where we had been. For genealogists and family historians alike, passport stamps provided critical "proof" of when a relative immigrated to a new home. Unlike digital photos that disappear into thousands of images on our phones, passport stamps asked almost nothing of us. They simply waited until we were ready to remember.
The irony is that while we're documenting our lives more than ever before, some of our most meaningful physical records are disappearing.
Ready to Get Started?
Every passport tells a story. Instead of letting your travel memories live across photo libraries, email confirmations, Google Docs, ticket stubs, and shoeboxes of souvenirs, you can bring everything together in one place. Years from now, your passport may have only a handful of stamps—or none at all—but your travel stories can still be rich, vivid, and ready to share with family and friends. Artifcting it ensures those stories stay alive long after the ink fades.
Start with the stamp
Create a new Artifct using a photo of a passport stamp or visa.It's the perfect starting point because it captures both the location and the date in one simple image.
Add the sights, sounds, and souvenirs
Bring the trip back to life by adding:A photo of yourself in the destination; videos you captured while exploring; photos of mementos you collected—artwork, ceramics, t-shirts, pins, spoons, shells, rocks, postcards, or whatever made you smile.Together, these pieces create a richer picture than any passport stamp ever could.
Include your documentation
Artifcts isn't just about preserving memories—it's practical, too.Add documentation such as flight confirmations and travel itineraries, hotel reservations, museum tickets and excursion bookings, or receipts, certificates of authenticity, or appraisals for valuable travel purchases that you may someday insure, include in your estate plans, or resell.Future you will be grateful.
Tell the story
Write five words or five thousand.Type your memories, use voice-to-text, or simply record yourself telling the story directly in the Artifcts app.There is no story burden.Capture as much—or as little—as feels right today. You can always come back and add more later.
Travel Memories Worth Keeping
Why Artifct your passport? Because every stamp—even the faded ones—marks a chapter of your life. Because the best stories aren't always the smooth ones. Because one day someone you love may flip through your passport and wonder what those little ink marks meant. And because memories deserve more than a fading passport page or a forgotten folder on your computer.
Artifcting your passport makes it easy to relive your adventures, revisit trip details when planning a return visit, and share recommendations with friends heading to the same destinations. No more hunting through old emails, scattered Google Docs, or paper files to remember the name of that unforgettable hotel, hidden café, or favorite museum.
If only our passports could talk. Thankfully, with Artifcts, they finally can.
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Your passport may not capture every journey, but your stories still can. Start with one stamp, one souvenir, or one unforgettable trip and preserve the memories behind it in Artifcts.
Our co-founder Heather is getting ready for her fourth move in five years. At this point, you'd think she'd have moving down to a science.
Spoiler alert, she doesn't.
The thing is, even if you've moved multiple times, no one prepares you for the inevitable chaos. The boxes all start out neatly taped and labeled. Then somehow, hours later you find yourself surrounded by a sea of cardboard, balled up packing tape, and a child on the verge of a meltdown screaming "Mom, where's Shimmering Star?" For the record, Shimmering Star is the stuffed bunny you repeatedly reminded said child NOT to pack in a box and instead carry in their day pack.
Bonus points if your spouse simultaneously chimes in with, "Honey, where'd you put the coffee maker?" while the dog is desperately looking your way with his patented, please-tell-me-you-remembered-my-kibble-mom look.
Moving has a remarkable way of making even the most organized person question every life choice that led to accumulating so much...stuff.
The good news? While you can't eliminate every "Where's the XYZ?" moment, you can make the entire process dramatically easier by getting organized before you pack your first box.
It's tempting to start packing as soon as you know you're moving, but taking the time to declutter and organize first will save you time, money, and stress. Even better, it's the perfect opportunity to preserve the stories and details behind the belongings that matter most with Artifcts.
Step 1: Declutter Before You Pack
Why pay to move things you no longer need, use, or love?
Every box you eliminate means less to pack, less to transport, less to unpack, and less to find a home for in your new space. Decluttering before a move also gives you a fresh start, allowing your new home to reflect your current lifestyle—not years of accumulated "just in case" items.
If you're wondering where to begin, consider tackling items like:
Duplicate kitchen gadgets and cookware
Clothing that no longer fits or hasn't been worn in years
Expired pantry items and medications
Old paperwork and manuals that can be securely shredded or recycled
Broken electronics and tangled cords
Outgrown toys and games
Decorative items that no longer match your style
Boxes of forgotten keepsakes you've been storing "for someday"
As you sort, remember that decluttering doesn't have to mean losing the memories attached to your belongings. If you want to keep the memory of those keepsakes while maybe not the actual items, take a moment to snap a photo and create a quick Artifct in our App. You can always go back and add the details later.
Step 2: Organize What You're Keeping and Artifct Before You Move
Once you've decided what deserves a place in your next home, resist the urge to immediately start boxing everything up. This is the ideal time to organize and Artifct your most meaningful possessions.
Think about family heirlooms, artwork, collections, antiques, military memorabilia, jewelry, childhood keepsakes, vintage toys, furniture, and other objects that tell the story of your life and your family. Heather also likes to Artifct anything that is or has the potential to be breakable, which with a 75-pound golden retriever underfoot is quite a long list!
Before those items disappear into moving boxes, take a few minutes to:
Photograph each item.
Record its story, history, and significance.
Note its current condition.
Attach any appraisals, receipts, or insurance information.
Not only are you preserving memories, you're also creating a digital record that can be invaluable later.
No matter how careful your movers are, accidents happen. Boxes get crushed. Furniture gets scratched. Artwork can be damaged. Sometimes items are even lost.
When you've already created an Artifct, you have:
Photos showing the item's pre-move condition.
Documentation of identifying features and provenance.
Purchase information or appraisals when available.
A centralized place to store supporting documents.
This information can make insurance claims much easier should something unfortunate occur during the move.
Our co-founder Heather Artifcts anything breakable before a move as life always has a way of happening...
And for the items that simply can't be replaced—a grandmother's quilt, a handwritten recipe book, a child's first artwork, or your grandfather's military medals—you'll always have their stories preserved, regardless of what happens to the physical object.
After you've decluttered, organized, and Artifcted what matters most, packing becomes far more intentional. You'll know exactly what you're moving and which items require extra care. Instead of simply moving boxes, you're moving the pieces of your life with confidence—and protecting both the objects and the stories they carry.
Let Go Without Losing the Story
One of the hardest parts of moving or downsizing is deciding what to part with. Matt Paxton, author, television personality, and longtime advocate for helping families through life's transitions, beautifully captures why Artifcts changes that experience:
"Take a picture, tell the story in Artifcts, and you can donate it away. The story lives on, and the memory lives on, and the person lives on. You don't need the item to do that."
When the memories are preserved, letting go of the physical object often becomes much easier. Families can confidently donate treasured belongings, knowing the stories behind them remain accessible for future generations.
Make Your Next Move Your Most Organized One Yet
Moving is more than changing addresses. It's an opportunity to decide what deserves space in your next chapter.
With Artifcts, you're not just preparing for moving day. You're protecting your memories, simplifying insurance documentation, making downsizing easier, and ensuring that the stories behind your most treasured belongings live on for generations to come.
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Looking for more ideas on how to Artifct during or after a move? One of our Artifcts community members, who grew up in a military family, shared that they Artifct the house they are moving from prior to the move so that they will always be able to remember what the house (and rooms!) looked like. We love this idea! Sometimes Artifcting those big items (like a house, car, etc.) may not seem obvious at first, but they are just as important as the small items we tend to Artifct most.
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