“Everyone has too much stuff” On decluttering, organising, and disposal.
Dr Sophie Mew with Dr Jenny Durrant, October 2024
This blog is the beginning of a collaborative and ongoing discussion connecting the idea of public collections — items held by museums and galleries — with private collections — items from inside peoples’ homes and other personal spaces. More specifically it investigates the ethical dimensions and parallel practices of carrying out disposals as well as decluttering. Disposal is the term applied to reducing public institutions’ collections (or ‘profusion’ in Heritage Futures, 2020: 153) by de-accessioning items whilst adhering to a recognised code of ethics.
Last June I attended a symposium on Disposal, hosted by the Museums Association (MA). Over 150 museum professionals participated, from curators, collection management teams, registrars, researchers and conservators. Throughout the course of the day the similarities between what I practice as a professional organiser inside people’s homes and what was going on in museum and gallery storerooms grew. We heard about feelings of overwhelm triggered by not knowing where to begin; there were accounts of disorganised storerooms left by predecessors; of emotional attachments to particular items, as well as decision-paralysis from simply not knowing what to do with items that needed to leave.
I later connected with Jenny Durrant who was at the symposium. We discussed our shared interest in human relationships with museum collections, and the complex emotions of dealing with disposals and decluttering. Jenny is a museum curator and a specialist in disposal, and an academic researcher into how museum staff think and feel about ‘letting things go’. I invited Jenny to join me in this blog, and we exchanged some q and a’s which are transcribed below. I’d like to thank Jenny for participating in this conversation.
Connecting museums and homes: to dispose and declutter.
Museums are perceived as storehouses for items to tell stories, whether it’s sharing collective knowledge about a society or culture or communicating personal memories. Flipping this, I see people’s homes as museums too, with their myriads of items that tell us who their owners are, from mementoes — family photographs, souvenirs, clothes worn on memorable occasions or children’s drawings… We place these items physically or in our mind, according to different contexts, times and places. Like a museum curator, we organise them and store them according to sub-categories of wider collections, giving each item its place of belonging. However, as more items enter the home or are acquired by museums, the system can become untenable. Bookshelves fall apart, paperwork gets mixed up, objects are damaged, dust sets in, increased storage options are costly, pest control is compromised, items are mislaid and remain unused or hidden out of sight. It is obvious but it can happen: if new things arrive, some things need to leave.
How do we approach the task of disposal and declutter? The principles here are the same and begin by identifying what clients and museums have. Find a clear space, start with a small area or a small category of items. Take like for like carefully off the shelves, out of the cupboards, from under the sofa, behind the back of the door. Once grouped together, it’s easier to identify duplicates (two identical audiobook CDs?), broken items (are these for the museum’s conservator/ the local tailor?). Do the items still fit, are they still useful or would another museum collection be more suitable? Would they make better sense being donated to the charity shop? Are there items that can be returned to their original owners? Set aside a labelled area for these, sometimes you need detective and archival skills to find out what they are. Whether it’s addressing a student’s bedroom or a collections storeroom, the process requires a clear — often visual — idea of what needs to be achieved. It takes a long time, requires patience, objectivity, motivation, teamwork and a positive disposition!
What are the key obstacles?
Two key obstacles to decluttering and disposal can lead to potential decision paralyses and risk stalling the whole process. The first is the ‘what if’s’ or the ‘just in case’ items, the second is ensuring that items leave their homes in sustainable and ethical ways.
‘Why do we have this?’ (‘… A study of museum approaches to retention and disposal of archaeological archives’, thesis title, Samantha Hinley Paul, 2021). Think of the clothes that no longer fit but are kept in case we go on that diet; the vase you don’t like but was a gift from a cousin who might visit one day; the gourd from South Africa that would work if the museum produced an exhibition about goat herders; or the sculpture made by an unknown artist that might be identified in future. The weight of decisions puts pressure on curators who are the custodians of museum collections, they carry a sense of responsibility which can turn to guilt from letting items go. Many museum professionals also feel emotionally attached to the collections they care for. It helps to avoid making decisions in isolation: rather, do it with a range of colleagues as a team effort. I encourage my own clients to share their decisions, we talk about the pros and the cons of holding on to certain things or letting them go, and decisions get easier as we progress and the ‘declutter muscles’ get stronger. Talking through difficult decisions is a powerful human approach to overcoming overwhelm and sharing the burden.
Where do items go? Sorting out household belongings according to what can be recycled (batteries, textiles); donated (clothes, pens, books); re-purposed (CDs); gifted (friends and family) takes time but decisions are straightforward. One of my clients is a gardener and hates anything going into landfills. How to sustainably get rid of each item that can’t be recycled or donated becomes a very difficult task leading to guilt and reluctance to let go. The Museums Association with the Arts Council England reaffirmed in August 2024 that public collections are not allowed to be sold for profit, citing the risk of undermining public trust in institutions. How can public collections be disposed of ethically? This is a big topic to which we will return. Past examples include re-homing in similar institutions. Clearly, repatriation and restitution are examples of returning items where they take on another stage of their long lives. The Ulster Transport Museum transferred deaccessioned cars to a local Young Offenders Centre (Hydebank, 2022-23) and Fishbourne Roman Palace identified and reburied archaeological material.
Giving permission.
Let’s return to the idea of public museums and private homes as storehouses or containers. If things are going in, to avoid the spaces getting filled up to the ceilings, there needs to be a system or a cycle of movement, in as well as out. When I was a project curator I witnessed the high volume of public enquiries for donations that museums receive. The situation becomes untenable without this flow of movement: ‘too much stuff’ means you can no longer see or locate what you have; items can’t be identified in museums and retrieved to share for public enquiries; and in the homes, the things that matter the most get lost, such as passports, probates, heirlooms. The last five years that I’ve helped people in different circumstances have been full of intensely human experiences. I have gently encouraged individuals to take difficult decisions, to hold items, to describe them to me, to unlock memories, to categorise and significantly — when they’re ready — I’ve given them permission to let go and helped them to find their next homes.
Jenny Q&As:
1. what are the benefits of disposal? Do you have examples?
Disposal has been a part of museum life for over 150 years but we only started calling it that name in the 1990s. Before then curators transferred items between their museums, a bit like a game of ‘swapsies’, as they looked for better examples of things they already had, or to fill ‘gaps’ in the collection. But, as we know from our homes, there is only so much space to store things. Add to that changing collecting fashions, changes of staff and funding, and there is only so much time and ability for visitors to come and see things in the store. And that is the important difference between our homes and our museums - the ‘stuff’ in museums belongs to the public and is there for people to interact with.
By reviewing museum collections, and identifying any items that are not serving a purpose, museums can decide to let some things go. As well as freeing up physical space, we can see and better understand what we keep, and give ourselves mental breathing space to use them for their purpose – for people to see on display, use for research or creative inspiration.
The disposal outcomes are endless - I know of museums that have upcycled old wood into new furniture, have worked with charities to refurbish old tools for use in countries with less easy access to work kit, and another that used pieces of Roman pottery in a pretend archaeological excavation for kids (and adults!).
2. can you tell us a bit more about the ethics. What is your own background to this?
The ‘stuff’ in museums belongs to the public so it is very important that museums work ethically and legally. It is also vital that we ask people what is important, so that we shape each museum collection to be its best and most meaningful. Last year the Museums Association (our professional body) revised its disposal ethics guidance, and the boundaries have shifted a bit from the previous version that was ten years old. The problem with ethics is that it they aren’t fixed, but grey areas. What one person finds acceptable will be totally unacceptable to someone else! Working out what is best for museums, and the public that use and fund them, and the objects within them is a complex process. And this is why museum staff find removing objects so hard, as they don’t want to get it wrong because they are looking after collections on behalf of the public. In my role on the MA Ethics Committee, I am fortunate to explore real world situations. I find the emotions and questions that ethical dilemmas create are really interesting to unpick and work through. Usually there is no right or wrong answer.
3. can you explain the idea of life cycle and death of an object, and how this impacts disposal?
The idea that objects can ‘die’ was suggested by Michael Thompson in his idea of ‘rubbish theory’. We’re familiar with the idea that physical things have a lifespan – when something breaks or wears out we usually throw it away as it’s no longer able to do what it was made for. But sometimes things can ‘come back to life’ by being upcycled or made into something else. But it’s also true that things can ‘die’ because they go out of fashion. As fashions change, things can come become coveted. Just see how vintage and charity shops are thriving at the moment! Because of this, museums can be very reluctant to let things go in case they are wanted in the future.
But the reality is, for things to become rare or special there need to be few of them. If we kept everything, nothing would be seen as important. And museums can’t keep everything, so some things must go. In my home life I know I sometimes regret throwing something away, but I probably wouldn’t have used it if I had kept it. Museums will get things wrong from time to time – after all, museum staff are only human. But we can make the most informed decisions we can, ask other people what they think, and keep a record of how we came to our decisions.
4. how can we convince audiences who are still afraid of letting items ‘go’?
Fear is such an innate human feeling. Many people fear getting something wrong and being judged by the public today or in the future. I think this is only getting worse with our society that seems very quick to judge rather than to pause and consider before we respond. Whether in our homes or our public museums, we need to find the balance between keeping things because they are useful or important, within the practical reality that we have limited time, space and money. It is ok to let things go, and it is important that we choose what we let go, before someone else decides for us.