How To Prevent Accumulation

1) Have goals
2) Follow through
3) Limit your storage options
4) Know your taste, stop buying things you don’t need

1) Have goals
For this you might need to generate some guilt. Here is an example of a thought that might run through your head: “Do you want this cashmere sweater, or would you rather be able to afford a ticket to France?”
Sometimes feeling bad is a good thing. If I want to move to France, I can’t keep piling up junk I’ll just have to get rid of in a year. No, this won’t fit in my suitcase. Why am I buying this when I’ll just have to get rid of it when I pack?
Keep your goals in mind whenever you’re tempted to go shopping. It might help to tape a picture of your goal to your credit card (this works! You feel terrible when you try to untape it), or a big poster on your wall.

2) Follow through.
I’m guilty of not following through. I have a lot of hobbies (which generate their share of junk) and I’m bad at keeping up. I’ll give you my most annoying example: whenever I see a recipe with a pretty picture, I’ll tear it out of the magazine I’m reading and put it in my recipe pile.
2a) Set deadlines
It’s so easy to say “I’ll do this later” and set aside the proverbial stack of recipes. No, you won’t! Say instead, “I’ll either do this by the end of the month or I’ll toss it”. And in the case of recipes, toss should mean recycle.

3) Limit your storage options
Again, don’t make storage to accommodate your junk. Don’t build a rack in the garage for your ski poles if you live in Texas and have never been on vacation.

4) Know your taste
While getting rid of things this summer, I realized it was hard to get rid of clothes because I liked all of them. Part of the reason I liked all of them was because most of them were the same. I had 10 blazers, 14 sweatshirts, numerous other sweaters, overcoats, et cetera. And that’s just the warm clothing department. Needless to say, it was hard to get rid of a lot of them. But I did it! And I don’t miss the ones I got rid of because I own clones of them. Avoid this situation - if you have something you like, don’t buy something similar.