Feature #46, April 21, 2010
Last week I featured an article that was in O magazine, about uncluttering your life. How do you decide what stuff to toss, keep, give away? Check out this article from Re-Nest. You never know, your trash is getting ready to be someone’s treasure! – Article by Rachel Wray
Are you spending more time looking for stuff, than living?
What You Need
Ingredients
Your Stuff!
Tools
Patience and an Open Mind
Instructions
1. Edit, Edit, Edit If you’ve participated in the Apartment Therapy Home Cure then you know the importance of evaluating what is important and productive to keeping in you happy and your home comfortable. Stop hanging on to things that don’t matter or don’t contribute in a productive way. Remind yourself that just because you really love all those mugs, doesn’t mean you need 20 of them — let someone else love them. Target your weakness — shoes, clothes, books, plates, etc. — acknowledge it, and deal with it.
- Top 10 Organizing Tips From Chez Larsson
- 10 Tips for a Closet Cleanse
2. Consolidate The future is now, and while gadgets may seem like they’re piling up, so are a lot of our old technologies. Copy all your books, movies, music and other media on a hard drive and watch as your space clears up in your house. Consider utilizing a shared appliance and equipment resource with your condo, apartment complex or even neighborhood, because not every residence needs their own lawn mower, power tools, vacuums and other space hogging and rarely used equipment.
- Green Tip: Rent Tools, Don’t Buy
- Green Community: The Sharing Solution
- Simple Green Entertaining: Use What You Have, Borrow What You Don’t
3. Simmer On It If you’re on the fence about getting rid of something, put it aside and out of sight for 3-6 months. If it hasn’t been used, needed or missed then it’s time to let go. A simple strategy for clothing is to hang everything facing away from the door, once it’s been worn hang it so it’s facing the door — everything that’s still facing away after 6-12 months is ready to be donated (this method could be revised for most other things).
- Lose the Clutter: Organize your Outbox
- What’s In Your Outbox?
4. Donate, Recycle or Toss Once you’ve figured out what will stay and what will go, hopefully very little of the stuff that is to ‘go’ will get trashed. Ask around if anyone you know can use your stuff — as they say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. From there it’s really easy to get rid of things on Freecycle, Craigslist and of course thrift and salvage stores, yard and garage sales, anything really other than the garbage dump.
- Where to Recycle or Donate Your Outbox
- How To: Get it Sold on Craigslist
- Salvation Army Pick Up
For the rest of the article visit Re-Nest.
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One of the really important areas that needs attention is decluttering a car especially for ones that carry kids and all the assorted stuff that gets collected. I suggest shoe boxes w/snap lids for small items that will fit on the floor under the little one’s feet. This keeps pencils, crayons and the toys from McD’s safe and secure. Larger containers for the trunks, RVs or back of the mini-van’s also with latching lids for shoes, clothes, blankets, towels (you get the idea) so that if there were a sudden stop or (God forbid) an accident, these items would be secure and not flying everywhere. These come in all sizes and colors. Have fun and be safe!
Melonie, thank you for your comment. Uncluttering our lives is huge isn’t it? Boxes with snap lids are great for the car, and boats too! My kids have McDonalds Happy Meal toys everywhere! :o)
I have a business and work out of my studio adjacent to my home. I used to write notes on post-its, but no more. I had piles of post-its everywhere. Finally I keep on thick spiral notebook and I write down everything. So at least it’s now
in only one place. I, also, just got a book binder with business card sleeves for all my business cards. I’ll need more work to get all the paperwork, etc organized.
I have a business and work out of my studio adjacent to my home. I used to write notes on post its, but no more. I had piles of post its everywhere. Now I keep a thick spiral notebook where I write all my notes. So at least it’s now in only one place. I, also, just got a book binder with business card sleeves for all my business cards. I’ll need more work to get all the paperwork, etc. organized.
Thank you Judith! Great ideas, sometimes the post-it notes, don’t even get read anymore!
I suggest that the way to declutter your car is to make sure the car is unloaded each time you exit it to enter your home. It takes only a minute to gather the “stuff”. Teach your children to do the same. In fact, if they are taught to do this with car items, they can easily transfer this skill to living areas within your home. Once they learn to look around, gather their stuff and put it where it belongs clutter becomes an unknown word.
Love the idea about learning to clean car will lead to home areas for kids. Thanks Vicki!
As a professional organizer, I am posed with this question almost on a daily basis. Decluttering is not just about disposing things, but also about placing things back after they are used. Implement a rule with your kids that if they leave something lying around for more than two days either in your home or your car, you have the right to donate it. This has worked wonders with many of my clients who are trying to get their families disciplined about staying organized. Also, beware…. organizing products are great, but they can also add to existing clutter!
I have inexpensive (from the Dollar Store, Walmart, etc) plastic bins to store laundry supply items,cleaning items, wash clothes, hand & dish towels, spices, etc. It keeps them together & also gives a solid bottom to place on the wire shelves that are so popular now. For other things I have larger storage boxes with lids to store such items as entertainment dishes, my baking pans that I need but don’t use on a regular basis. I can store the larger stuff in the garage without dust getting the pieces. Wash clothes & hand towels along with dish cloths & dish towels stay together much neater if they are in the small plasic bins in the linen closet. I also use drawer organizers for my silverware, knives, etc., one in each drawer as needed. Also it makes carrying cleaning supplies easier since you can just pick up the bin & carry wherever you need.
Thank you Pooja for your comment. I love hearing about organization for the kiddies!
Karen, good idea about the plastic bins! Thanks for your comments.
I love the idea of donating. This would even work for adults. Thanks for giving me a new approach.
Many years ago, I created a Perfect Week Calendar. At the time, as a Realtor, my schedule was very hectic. Over the years, I have modified my perfect week and have gotten closer and closer to living it.
Two tools that helped me immensely were my telephone system and putting my schedule on my business card. Of course the schedule on my business card was focused on my clients.
As an example, on Mondays and Fridays, my voicemail system says I will be returning calls between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm.
On my foldover business card, I define my week as follows:
Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday: Client Appointment Days
Monday & Friday: Client Service Days
Saturday: Weekend Team
Sunday: Recovery and Discovery Day
These two strategies are the most important key to getting my schedule under control.
Karen, what a great idea! Thanks for sharing with us.