Approaches to decluttering come and go, but one decluttering tip I’ve been seeing a lot lately is the poop test. What does it mean and how can it help you? Let’s get into it.
What is the Poop Test?
The poop test (which could also be the pee test or the vomit test) is a thought experiment that aims to help you declutter more easily.
The idea is that you think about if this particular thing got pooped on (peed on, thrown up on, etc.) and whether you would bother to clean it up or just chuck it out.
If something isn’t important enough to you to keep when it’s covered in poo, the idea goes, you shouldn’t have it in your house.
How Does it Work?
I think the concept behind the poop test is pretty sound, and it could help you if you’re on the fence about keeping something.
But I really feel like it’s not all that helpful because of the relative ease with which some things could be cleaned.
Everything in the kitchen, for example, would pass the poop test because you can just wash it without too much trouble. That doesn’t help you sort through the 17 coffee cups you have in a household of two coffee drinkers.
Sentimental items might be hard to clean but you’d want to try, so that doesn’t help you decide what to keep.
In the reading I’ve done about the poop test, it seems like it’s helpful for things you aren’t sure about keeping, but it’s not a test you can use for everything in your house.
Can the Poop Test Help Crafters Declutter?
I also don’t feel like the poop test is that helpful for going through craft supplies, because things like yarn, thread, maybe fabric might not be washable enough to try to keep if they were peed or pooped on, but that doesn’t mean we should get rid of all of them.
The fact that I could theoretically clean a rotary cutter doesn’t mean that I need two of them. The fact that I could clean a pair of scissors doesn’t mean I don’t need four of them.
But like any decluttering rule, the poop test can be helpful to get you in the mindset of decluttering and deciding what’s really important to you. And maybe in the future you can use it as a rule for buying new things: if you wouldn’t clean poop off of it, do you really need to buy it?
What do you think? Have you tried the poop rule? I’d love to hear about it!
