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“Want to hook up the Wii and bowl?” I texted Bob.
“Or snowboard?”
The response: crickets.
I can only assume that the answer was “no” but that didn’t stop me from starting to round up all the components of the Wii. I was excited to set it up again—it had been years, but I used to love it. I played a lot of the fitness games, and even had my own little workout routine all set up. This was going to be fun.
I gathered everything together, cleaned it all off, and replaced batteries. I had my two favorite games standing ready and I could not wait to get going. So there I was, standing in front of the TV, ready to watch a setup video and dive into my Wii revival when it hit me: I’m missing the console.
I still searched every nook of the house, but I already knew the sad truth: my Wii empire had fallen—its heart, the console, was lost in the Great Decluttering of 2024.
Yep. I death-cleaned the Wii right out the door. A box of gaming consoles, cables, and controllers went to Goodwill. At the time, I felt virtuous. Someone would be thrilled to find those old consoles, and I was thrilled to have them out of my life—until now.
I toyed with replacing the console, but I’d also donated all the cables, and a few other parts were showing their age. I offered a friend my games and any components she could use. That was that.
Later that night, I sighed to Bob: “Well, no more Wii.”
His deadpan reply: “Nope. Now there’s just us.”
Hilarious.
As he watched me search in vain for the Wii console, Bob said, “This is what happens when you go into one of your drastic cleaning modes.” And he had a point. I was going into that storage closet intending to get rid of any and everything that I saw that was taking up too much space, hadn’t been used in years, was broken, out of style, or had no lingering sentimental value. (Signs with words was its own category.)
Those are good goals but he was right, it was drastic. I felt really good about opening that closet and seeing everything organized and neatly in place, but this time, I had regret.
But, I’m not going to throw out the death cleaning manual just yet.
During the Great Decluttering, a few things from my past didn’t make it to Goodwill right away. One of those was my old stereo system, predating Bob. The centerpiece was my Denon 3-disc receiver, paired with Mission bookshelf speakers — still in perfect condition and surprisingly elegant. I was proud of that stereo then, and it had served me well. But as technology evolved, discs fell out of favor, and with each move, it all got relegated to the storage room to gather dust.
Suddenly everything was aligning. I had recently redecorated the living room (which is really just moving the furniture around), and the TV went back over the mantle. That meant that my nice console table was vacant. It looked perfectly cozy minimal with just a plant and a buffet lamp. But the more I looked at it the more I thought: dang, that stereo would look kind of cool there.
When I brought the Denon and speakers out of storage, Bob — understandably — assumed they were headed straight to Goodwill. Instead, he watched in mild disbelief as I tenderly, almost reverently, cleaned them up. To my surprise, he even got on board with the project. “You know old-school tech is all the rage now, right?” How he knew this, I have no idea, but I wasn’t about to question his enthusiasm. The speaker wire was long gone, so I asked if he would mind picking some up for me, and he agreed. It was coming together.
With the stereo set up and the speakers flanking it, even my old Yamaha turntable found a home alongside. Two boxes of CDs — untouched in the Great Decluttering — yielded a playlist heavy on classical, instrumental, and a dash of '90s nostalgia. As I sit here listening to the music, I can’t help but feel a little sad about the Wii. That was the plan all along: to revive joy from the past instead of tossing it out.
Through these two experiences—the win with the stereo and the loss with the Wii—I have learned a few things.
The concept of death cleaning is one I am absolutely behind. Accumulating things and just filling up closets and shelves with stuff is not what I want. After all that decluttering, I am more intentional about what I bring back in. I like having dedicated spaces for things, being able to quickly find what I need, and keeping things tidy and organized. It is quite soothing for an anxious person like me.
But, even though I thought I was taking my time, I was actually moving pretty fast. I let the end goal of emptying shelves and consolidating drive me. And while I’m not sorry that all those old Nintendo game consoles are gone, I do wish I still had the Wii.
Objects have a way of holding memories, whether it’s fun times playing Wii games or hours listening to great music on the stereo. It could be that making room for the right memories—not just more space—can make a home feel lighter. And that’s something I’ll be keeping in mind for the next round of decluttering. Which will be happening again soon. There is a dresser that is calling my name.
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