Sometimes, decluttering can be a challenge if you share living space with someone. You own things together and just because you decide those things don’t matter, doesn’t mean your significant other agrees. Typically, I am from the lead by example camp. Get rid of your own stuff first and often, the other person will join in.

Today’s mini-mission is a little loop hole to leading by example. I am not suggesting that you are sneaky with your spouse or significant other, but there is a way to get rid of your mutual stuff without even having a conversation.

Hide your stuff.

Here is a really good example, based on a true story…

In our bedroom, my husband and I had three vases on our dresser. They were very minimalist in design and nice to look at, but also unneccessary, in my opinion. To see how unneccessary they really were, I hid them. I was cleaning one afternoon, and just wrapped each one up and hid them. I forgot about them. A month went by. My husband never asked me where they were.

In all fairness, I didn’t hide them to deceive my husband. In fact, I wasn’t sure I wanted to get rid of them at all and that’s why I hid them. Before I hauled them out to one of our standing “donate” spots in the garage, I asked him if he minded. He said, “no, I like those.” I said, “they haven’t been in the bedroom for more than a month”.

At that point, he agreed that they were unnessesary and we tossed them. I do believe that some things are necessary even if they are not useful, but these vases were not.

This mini-mission is even helpful if you live alone. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of something you think you need or want. Hide your stuff and see what you think after a little time apart.

For more experiments to simplify your life, read Mini-missions for Simplicity. It’s available on the Amazon Kindle store, but you don’t need a Kindle to read it. Kindle books can also be read using the Free Kindle Reader App for your Web Browser, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android.