Have you ever opened up a drawer and marveled at the discovery of something you didn’t even know you owned?

Given how much stuff we accumulate it is easy to pick up items without consciously remembering it! For me this happens at a conference when vendors hand out bookmarks, pens, and other items like candy at Halloween. While it is easy to acquire stuff, for most of us the challenge is getting rid of things we don’t want anymore.

The Minimalists have a simple approach to clearing out unneeded belongings. It’s called the “Didn’t Know” rule. Basically, it means that if you find something you didn’t know you owned, you can permit yourself to let it go. 

Barbara Bellesi Zito writing for the website Apartment Therapy, experimented with this approach. She tried it out on three boxes and soon discovered a surprise.

Taking up an entire box was a pile of TilePix I had purchased around three years ago when I snagged a sale. These photos from my phone didn’t render well at all, so I had no desire to hang them in our home. They went right into the garbage pile; I have the originals on my phone anyway, and I had completely forgotten I even had these in storage.

After completing the task of organizing the boxes, she wrote down three insights.

• If you don’t know you have something, you can’t truly be missing it.
• If it’s sentimental or something you need to hold on to, by all means, keep it.
• Unless the storage in question holds seasonal clothing or items, check on it every few months or so to make sure you still want what’s in it.

I challenge you to take 10 minutes in the next 24 hours to practice this simple decluttering technique. For me, I’m eyeing that middle desk draw. I know it has long forgotten stuff waiting to be rediscovered …