Junk Discernment & Body Doubling

This morning my son asked me what the word “discernment” meant, and I struggled to come up with a concise definition even though it’s a word I use relatively frequently. When I looked it up, “to discern” simply means “to perceive or recognize.” One of the phrases we use a lot here at House Peace is junk discernment, which by that definition just means “recognizing what is junk.” We might disagree on what makes something junk, but I think we can all agree that we really don’t need to make room for junk in our homes. The process of junk discernment allows us to separate what should and should not have priority in our home, and to toss what is truly junk (or as Miss Tara might say, “chunk it”). You probably hear the word “declutter” used frequently, and junk discernment is the process which allows for decluttering to happen. As we hold up items to recognize if they are worth keeping or not (junk), we discard the junk and the space naturally becomes less cluttered. There might be items that fall into a third category, which is that they aren’t necessarily junk but we also don’t have a need for them - those are your donate items.

So, practically speaking, what does junk discernment look like?

We like to use a simple trash bag method to keep this process organized. We use white trash bags for donate items and black trash bags for trash/junk. If you were doing the process of junk discernment in your pantry, you would simply take out all of the items in the pantry, toss any expired food (junk) in a black trash bag, put unopened food you don’t want along with any non-food items you don’t want (think small appliances you really don’t use but still function) in a white trash bag, and all other items (the “keepers”) would go back in the pantry. You’ll be shocked when you do this how big of an impact it will make on a space. We often don’t realize that the spaces in our home that we think are desperate for organization are simply overcrowded with junk and need to be purged.

This is the result of Junk Discernment at a client’s house using the trash bag method.

For some people, this sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon. For others, this sounds like a daunting task, especially if the area of your home that needs work is something overwhelming like your personal closet. In these cases, we recommend something called body doubling, which is in essence just having another person (we’ll call him/her your “buddy”) with you to keep you on task. Your buddy can be in-person or virtual if necessary (think FaceTime or Zoom), and their role is to help keep you focused and to make the experience a bit more pleasant/tolerable than if you were doing it alone. If your buddy is virtual, you could both work on your respective closets at the same time, chatting occasionally and helping each other with the process of junk discernment. My husband is currently doing this type of virtual body doubling as he works on his dissertation - he writes quietly in his office while his friend is on Zoom writing quietly in his own office in another location, but they’re keeping each other accountable and periodically bounce ideas off one another for feedback. If your buddy is in person, you could make it fun by playing music and enjoying a special drink or ordering take-out. After all, you’re working hard and deserve a little treat :)

We hope the concepts of junk discernment and body doubling are helpful for you as you think through areas in your home that you’d like to improve. As always, we’re available for a quick shout on Instagram if you have specific questions, and we’d love to come to your home and be your buddy any time with an in-home organizing session.

Happy Organizing!

— Colleen

PS. You can get to know me and my family a little more here!