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 furniture, some organizations will pick them up, so take advantage of that. Does your community have a day for putting out large items at the curb for pickup? Make sure you use it!

Instead of piling boxes by the door to take outside, take them all the way out to the car so that next time you pass the thrift store they are ready and waiting to be dropped off.

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 15 minutes every day
Declutter for 2 hours each week
Toss 7 items every day
Get rid of 50 items this week
Donate 100 items by the end of the month

For ongoing goals, you can set up a wall chart to track your progress - even give yourself a colored star every day you meet your goal, and a gold star at the end of the week.

…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, and have spaces which are “yours” (clear and organised) and “theirs” (cluttered)

• Be pro-active - agree ahead of time whose spaces are whose, how you can deal with their mess (bag or box it up, throw it out, move to a specific room…)

• Prepare for chaos - decide how you’ll deal with it when their clutter encroaches on your space, or causes you problems.

• Model decluttering - but don’t force it on the other person: when they see how positive the effects are for you, they may join in.

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 of defense. Mats should be placed outside and inside all doors. The kind of mats you want are the ones which really remove dirt from shoes, not the kind which are decorative only. If your family tends to have REALLY muddy shoes and boots, a bootscraper outside the door is an old-fashioned item which still works well.

To cut down on airborne dirt, seal and caulk all gaps round windows and doors and other building penetrations like pipes and wires. This will help with heating and cooling bills too. If you need to in your area, use insect screens on your windows and doors.

Inside, corral the mess and limit its spread

Assuming you do actually want to LIVE in this house, not just exist, it’s impossible not to create any mess at all - but you can take steps to make it easier to clean up.

Do mess-creating activities in one specific area, preferably with a closable door. If you’re doing something that makes dust, shavings, fumes etc, close the door to keep them out of the rest of the house. Make sure to clean your filters frequently if you have a forced-air heating or cooling system, to stop dust and dirt being spread around the house.

Simplify everything:

• create built-in seating and storage (no spaces underneath or behind to clean)
• reduce the number of decorative objects and twiddly bits
• keep window coverings to the fewest, simplest number of layers that will do the job
• limit open display to only those objects you really love, and keep everything else behind closed doors
• reduce the amount of stuff you own (declutter!)

Choose easy-to-maintain finishes:

• brushed plumbing fitting finishes instead of shiny.
• easily-cleaned paint finishes (usually gloss, satin or eggshell rather than flat)
• hard floors with few joints (avoid the hardwood or laminate floors with chamfered groove joints between every plank!)
• wall-to-wall carpets instead of area rugs
• smooth kitchen finishes instead of textured

Resource List

Get Organized and Stay Organized
Garage Storage Systems
Home Organization Tools
Kitchen Organization
Pantry Organizers and Shelving

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.

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 accumulate fewer books: use the library (including inter-library loan if your local library doesn’t have what you want), trade books with friends, create a special interest library for club members, institute a “one in, one out” rule.

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 what I now use?
• Do I still have the tools needed to use or maintain it?
• Is it worth more to someone else than it is to me?
• Has it degraded in storage?
• Could I use the money I’d get by selling it, or the space it’s occupying, better for something else?
• Would it be easy to replace if I ever needed it again?

You may also have information resources for your hobby - books, magazines, videos, CDs etc. More questions:

• Do I have the technology to use/read/play this?
• Is the information still relevant, or outdated?
• Are my skills now well beyond this level?
• Am I still interested in this facet of the hobby?
• Can I find this information elsewhere?

Decluttering your hobby or craft “stuff” can free up space, energy, time or money to actually DO the thing you want to do!

More information on decluttering…

Every room in the house has some clutter – but some are worse than others. On the other hand, I spend a lot more time in some than in others. It’s a tradeoff between how much junk there is to get rid of, and how often I see it. If I were to pick Most Cluttered, it would be the basement laundry room. Most Lived In would be my home office – but the clutter in there is mostly my daughter’s and when she moves out it will go with her. Hmmm.

See more progress on: declutter my house