Decluttering 1000 sq. ft.

Our place is just over 1000 sq. ft. If you were to discount the two bathrooms and little laundry room, you might be down to 850 sq. ft. So, my question: where does all this clutter come from???

Both the bedrooms have floor to ceiling closets, and there is plenty of built-in bookshelves in the living room- yet, when I look around, I still feel like stuff is seeping out of every crack and cranny. I usually do a donation run every 6-8 weeks to the local thrift store and I've been trying to curtail random Target purchases in an effort to save money and space.

My official mantras, "would I put this is in a moving truck, or not?" and, "if I haven't used it in the last year, get rid of it," work most of the time, but there are a few items that escape this reasoning... 1) camping equipment/sleeping bags, and 2) my fine china.

We used to camp a lot when we lived in San Diego (read: pre-children days). The items are of nice quality so I don't want to get rid of them because we'd like to camp again in the future (maybe another year or more). In regards to my fine china, I collected a few pieces in my teen years and was gifted some when Dan and I married. Most of the pieces were given to me when a great-uncle died and the estate was divided up. I still hope to have a china cabinet one day in the future.

In the mean time, I'll keep stacking items on top of the camping equipment and around the boxes of china. There are always other items that can be given away to make space for newly stored items:-)