http://www.care2.com/greenliving/start-to-stop-the-clutter.html
Start to Stop the Clutter
Adapted from Unclutter Your Home by Donna Smallin (Storey Publishing, 1999)
Uncluttering is the act of restoring balance to your life by eliminating unimportant things—and doing it will free up time, energy and space for the things that really matter. You can get rid of clutter. No matter how much you have, how small your home, or how little spare time you have, you can transform chaos into order, and here’s how to start.
There’s no right way to unclutter and no one way that works for everyone. What’s important to remember is that getting started is far more important than how you get started.
Figure out where to start. Begin by taking that first step.
Start with the easy stuff. This will get you into the act of uncluttering with little or no pain or anxiety. Get a large garbage bag and walk through your house. Place in it anything that you will clearly no longer use:
- Expired medicines.
- Expired coupons.
- Outdated clothes.
- Makeup that’s more than a year old.
- Sunscreen that’s more than 2 years old.
- Things that are broken unless they are valuable and fixable.
- Odd socks.
- Grocery bags.
- Old restaurant menus and shopping guides.
- Outdated calendars.
- Spoiled food.
- Rusted utensils and tools.
- Old travel literature and maps.
Take the bag and sort through it. Recycle what you can, donate what you can, and dispose of anything that is left over.
When you start to really organize a room, you can start with a single drawer or shelf. Empty the contents, so you can see everything. Pick up each item and make a decision. If you haven’t used or needed that item in the last year, put it in a donation or recycling area. Continue to tackle one drawer or shelf every day. This is the slow but steady approach.
Do not try to unclutter your house all at once. Work one room at a time and don’t switch to another room until you are done. Seeing progress will motivate you to keep up the good work.
Plan on spending no more than one hour each day on uncluttering activites. After an hour, you won’t be so fresh, and your decision-making ability may falter. That said, commit to spending at least 20 to 30 minutes on uncluttering each day.
Start out fresh. Don’t start out tired after a long day.
Make sure to commit to a daily plan. Set simple goals such as: “Tonight, I’m going to clean out my junk drawer and then I’m going to stop.” Or: “I’m going to clean up for 20 minutes and then I’m going to stop.” Then do it.
Finish what you’re doing before you move on. To avoid getting sidetracked, make a note to remind yourself of things you want to do later like organizing your sock drawer or photographs.
While you’re tackling the months and years of accumulated stuff, try to stay current with today’s stuff. Open, sort and file mail daily. Hang up your clothes when you take them off. Clean up the kitchen every night after dinner. And for every new thing you bring in the front door, send five items packing out the back door until you get your belongings down to a more manageable level.
Go to the Source
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21 comments
add your comment »I really have to declutter my home. I've moved in a year ago and really didn't have time to throw/give things away before moving, so EVERYTHING was packed.. now a year later I'm still living in a cluttered place, and some stuff are still in boxes (makes me think that I didn't see them for a year, it wouldn't make a difference to just get rid of them!)
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Balancing consumption and "stuff" might be so tricky because ancestral history taught us to basically hoard or starve! Now, we can have everything that we need to survive (and everything that we don't need). I'm learning to differentiate now and feel like that's the struggle. Balancing everything I've learned about being resourceful and frugal, but not a pack rat. Finding quality of life in simple joys, not stuff. And letting go of momentos, not memories. The stuff of life is everything else, that isn't really stuff, and decluttering does seem to be helping me transition my focus inward. Thank you for the great suggestions and have a happy day everyone! Excuse me, I smell some expired coupons...(:
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My husband and I are both pack-rats and savers. Whether it was being raised in a cluttered environment, I don't know. I have been known to stop at a house and pick up a useful item in their trash. Needless to say, I do get rid of stuff. I have to. Your advice about only sorting for an hour and stopping is very good. I have found that if I tackle one room, one area in room, (closet, table top, desk, etc.) it makes it easier. I take three boxes and make one for need to keep, need to get rid of, and one for possible maybe let me think on it. The next day or after a break, I take the possible box and examine it again. I usually find that the second time around, I am more likely to get rid of the stuff. The three questions to ask yourself is 1) When did I use/wear/ it? 2)When will I use/wear it? 3)Why do I need it?
Usually after those questions, I have to really justify why I am keeping it if I answered that I haven't used or worn it, and really don't know when I will.
Now, if I could only get my husband to use that practice. One breakthrough came recently when he started getting rid of clothes that he has had since high school (he is 60!) Good luck to all other baby boomers who are going through this stage.
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I am a declutter nut or so I have been told. I have decluttered my house 3 times in the last 4 years and it is such a great feeling everytime. Charity sure benefits as do friends, but I think I benefit most by not have "stuff" all over the place. I only keep what I just love to bits, or what is important at the time and nothing more. I don't feel the need to replace any of it now that I have past the 50 mark. I feel I have everything I want in life without bits and pieces lying around everywhere. Decluttering sure frees the soul. Marilyn
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Check out www.flylady.net.
Excellent free email group, motivation and routines for decluttering.
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Just think of all the poor people who are starving while we hord our stuff. Charities could be selling your possesions to help the needy. I cleaned up my mother's 20 years of household accummulation, boy was that a trial. We still have some of it in storage. Think if you can't use, think of a needy family who might. My mother-in-law gives me clothes from her last daughter that is almost 30 years old. We don't want the pain of this, out of fashion, old, discoloured and cluttering her cupboards. Try www.freecylce.com - a world wideprogramme where you can give away your unwanted stuff to local people in your area of the world. People will email you and offter to collect your the stuff from your front door. Be brave shut your eyes and stop being selfish. Free up your life.
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Alot of makeup such as blush, powder, and concealer can be used for longer than 5 years. There is a product in the makeup that doesn't let harmful bacteria form. Rusted utensils can have therust removed unless it's damaged by the rust. Old outdated clothes and odd socks can be given to the poor at Salvation Army or GoodWill dropoffs. Old menues, travel maps, and outdated calendars can be used as stuffing to ship breakables. Or they can be placed in the recycle bin. Grocery bags can be taken to the grocery store and put in their recycle bins.I do agree on throwing out old food and old medicines. I have heard that medicines are good 3 years after the expiration date. It's still hard for me to part with things. I have stuffed animals from when I was a child. I have a storage unit that is crammed with things. It's costing me alot of money. I need to get rid of books I'm done with. The others I'll donate to the library. Cards are sentimental and I'll keep them. I'll first see if I can't sell them. I hate going to the storage unit and trying to throw away stuff. I'm a pack rat too.
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I try and make the effort to declutter and find that I can't part with anything that I feel an emotional (or financial) attachment to. I end up putting them all in a box with a list on top and storing them. At least they are out of the way, but I have to do something one day. I also have to stop my mother giving me stuff she thinks is great but I don't want!! But how???
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The thing that deters me is my little darling who loves to get into everything. Things i try to sort through end up right through my house!!!!argh It is great when i do get to accomplish a clean up it makes you feel lighter and opens the door for new things to enter your life!
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I am 74 and do not plan to die soon. Mydaughters do not want to have to 'go through all my stuff'once I am gone, nor do I want them to. This timely atticle has put me on the road to decluttering. I will let go of everting that I no longer need and as well get rid of the things that my girls do not want to "inherit", Thank you. Peg Hughes
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