Don’t let things on their way to the thrift store or the dump hang around too long. Apart from the fact that the boxes of stuff are clutter in themselves, it’s too easy to change your mind and decide to pull something back out of the box.
If you have a lot of boxes, or large [...]
If you’re buried in clutter, a goal to declutter even one room can take a long time to reach. Small daily or weekly goals can be a lot more reachable and give you motivation to keep going. They can be of the “spend x minutes” type, or the “toss n items” type. For example:
Declutter for [...]
…try some of these techniques.
Stop rescuing them as far as practical – don’t find their keys when they lose them, or wait for them when they can’t find a clean pair of pants. Maybe, just maybe, they may get motivated to deal with their own stuff.
Detach your stuff from theirs – declutter your own stuff, [...]
If you design for low maintenance from the beginning, or spend time making a few changes designed for low maintenance, you can reduce your regular chores for years into the future, a great way to get a really huge time-savings payback!
Reduce the amount of mess and dirt coming into the house
This is your first line [...]
I’ve just added three new decluttering and organizing articles to the articles page which I hope you’ll enjoy:
How to Get Started on Decluttering Your Home
How to Declutter the Kitchen
Decorator-Style Organizing
Don’t miss the existing articles by Stephanie Roberts, author of Clutter-free Forever, also available on the articles page.
Toys with lots of small parts (like LEGO and other construction toys) are an ongoing storage and organization problem. The pieces tend to spread themselves about during play, and then it takes a long time to gather them all up to put them away. And if you’ve ever stepped on a LEGO brick on the [...]
No matter how much you love books, eventually you’ll have too many (unless you plan to move them into their own house and found a library!).
Good places to donate books are: your local library (make sure they can use them), shelters, schools, daycare programs, literacy programs, hospitals, hostels, and of course used book stores.
Ways to [...]
Merlin Mann of 43folders has an excellent thread on ways of getting rid of clutter – not just throwing it away, but recycling and reusing in ways that are environmentally responsible and useful to others.
http://www.43folders.com/2007/07/04/clutter-reuse-vox-pop/
very definitely worth a read!
If you have a hobby that uses materials, you probably have a “stash”. If your hobby involves equipment, you may have older models or versions. These are prime candidates for decluttering.
Ask yourself:
will I ever use this again?
Does it still meet safety or environmental standards?
Is it still in fashion or totally dated?
Is the quality up to [...]
