Have you ever looked around your house and thought, “Wow, look at all this clutter.”

That was where my wife, Jordan, and I found ourselves a couple months ago, and for the past six weekends, minus one where I was down with a 48-hour fever, we’ve been purging in the spring cleaning spirit.

Whether or not this plan was concocted under the pressure of watching too many episodes of “Hoarders” is still undetermined. But, whatever the reason, we’ve been reveling in the mass minimization.

Considering how much cleaning and organizing needed done, we developed a plan — tackle one room a weekend, getting rid of as many things as we can bear.

We started in the master bedroom, availing our closets of about four or five 39-gallon Hefty bags full of clothing that has not seen the light of day in many moons. We also filled two or three bags with what you might call junk, things we’d kept thinking we’d use it but hadn’t in many years. It all had to go.

The next weekend, our two hall closets were the focus. The poor things had been filled to the brim with gift bags (we’ll never have to buy another one), more than 300 old newspapers dating back to 2019, occasion cards from all kinds of family and friends (one of which still contained a crisp $20 bill), board games of all shapes and sizes, air mattresses and blankets, and much more.

We didn’t end up throwing away much from the closets, but the emptying and reorganization was 100% healing to the soul.

Our laundry room got the same treatment the next week, specifically our metal racks stacked with all kinds of outdoor activities and items. It’s amazing how many things had been completely untouched for multiple years. If it wasn’t being used, it had to go.

We had intended to take on the bathroom the following weekend, but instead we headed to the biggest beast of all — the game room, garage and shop room.

The game room is pretty large, containing a full-size bar, a 7-foot pool table, a couch, the kids’ train table and a queen-size bed. Surrounding the furniture was a mountain of old kitchen equipment, boxes of toys and clothes, a myriad of Bin Barn finds that we once thought we’d use but hadn’t, more clothing and some camping equipment.

The shop room, a nifty part of the house in the back of the garage, was packed full of old yard sale items that didn’t sell six years ago, and new yard sale items we intend to purge from the house.

And the garage? Well, there was a tight walkway from back to front between the old moving boxes, extra dining room table and chairs, broken lawn mower, holiday decorations, camping and beach equipment, empty boxes stacked nearly to the ceiling, and again, much more.

Finally, this last weekend in between Power of Pink and Purdy graduation photos, we minimized the kitchen cabinets. Now, we have a couple massive boxes overflowing with old mismatching plates and cups, pots and pans that looked like a bear had been scraping the bottom for honey, numerous drinking glasses we’d collected over the past decade-plus, a cabinet plagues by lidless Tupperware, and, of course, odds and ends from our dreaded junk drawers — all three of them.

All of this cleaning and clearing is in anticipation of a yard sale at our house May 22-25. We would do it during the Cassville City-Wide Yard Sale coinciding with TroutFest the first weekend in June, but we already had other plans detemrined.

In the spirit of shameless promotion, everything — and I mean everything — will be priced to sell. We do not intend to move a single item back into the house. Anything unsold will be donated, given away for free or tossed in the dumpster. As the date approaches, we know of a great advertising avenue (you’re holding it in your hands), so keep an eye out to see what of our best phased-out wares could be yours!

Jordan has been the cleaning catalyst this year, and I’m glad we’ve put in the work. It’s truly incredible how much better we feel in our house with less.

Through the process, we’ve also let go of numerous items we’d been hoarding for nostalgia purposes. Releasing those has been especially gratifying.

It’s great to remember the past, but too low a bar for “keep items” was a key contributor to our clutter. Now, we’re feeling exceptionally lighter with the less-is-more approach.

It’s a feeling I would wish on everyone — even my worst enemies.

Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/publisher since 2023. He was named William E. James/Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist for daily newspapers in 2017, and he is a two-time ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com.