06/01/2012
Clutter Control
Do you have a door mat to prevent dirt from coming into your home? What about a system to keep clutter from getting in? The best way to control clutter is to prevent clutter.
sort your mail over your garbage can or recycle bin. Junk mail will never make it into your home or on your counter tops!
avoid impulse purchases. Keep a wish list in your purse or wallet. When you see something you want (but don't really need) add it to the list. After waiting a week or so, look over your list. Decide if you truly need, love, or have-to-have anything on your list. If so, go get it and enjoy! If not, throw out your list and pat yourself on the back! You just prevented clutter and saved some of your hard earned cash!
when shopping, do you ever say “I can always return it"? Clutter alert!! How often do you actually end up returning these items? Instead, do these things ultimately become clutter in your closet? If you don't love it in the store, there's something wrong with it. Either it isn't exactly what you're looking for or you don't need it. Let it go ... find something better.
create homes for your belongings. Clutter often results when things don't have a home or the home is inconvenient. Look around your house. What things are causing clutter? Do they have a home? Is the home convenient? For me, a chronic source of clutter was my daughter’s pony tail holders. They were always scattered all over the bathroom counter. I added a simple ceramic dish to collect them. Now they look neat and tidy -- not at all resembling clutter. Once several have collected, I return them to their home in her bedroom.
store items where you use them. Keeping items where you use them will help you conquer clutter in your home. Here’s why. When you store things where you use them, it is easier to use the item and put it away when you’re finished. This last step, putting the item away, is a critical step in controlling clutter.
When you see clutter in your home that is a result of items that haven’t been put away, double check the item’s home. Is the item kept where it is used? If not, look for ways to carve out space for your items closer to where they are used. When you do, you’ll be taking one more step in the direction of a clutter free home!
I can always use another. One of the toughest things for people to let go of when they’re organizing are the inherently useful items. It’s the pencils, pens, cleaning rags, plastic drinking cups, Tupperware®, craft supplies, office supplies, and sticky notes that cause us to say “I can always use another one of those.” Sound familiar?
Keep this tip in mind: No matter how useful something is, you only need so many of them! We don’t need 300 rags to wipe up spills, or 1000 pencils to write notes. No one does. :) And all this extra stuff just leads to clutter!
Next time you’re organizing, if you hear yourself saying “I can always use another _______,” stop and figure out how many you really need or how much space you have for that inherently useful thing. Then, when you’ve reached your limit, send the rest to a happier home—someone else’s home!
“Take Only Pictures. Leave Only Footprints.” Maybe you’ve seen this saying before. I saw it often as a child when my family and I would visit the National Parks. On those vacations I always wanted to pick a few wild flowers, or take home a seashell. But there was always that sign: “Take Only Pictures. Leave Only Footprints.”
This sign would remind me to leave everything just as I found it, so the National Parks would be just as beautiful for the next person (and generation!) as they were for me.
This is terrific advice not just for vacationers, but for those of us on an organizing journey as well. How great would your home look if every single day, you left nothing but footprints? If you put your things away, as soon as you were finished, wouldn’t your home look terrific? Wouldn’t you feel great? And wouldn't you be a great influence on others (like your family members) as well?
Give it a try by taking action! Start today by putting away everything you use today. If you take it out, put it away — and leave only footprints.
Decide to Decide. How much of the clutter in your home is the result of indecision? Not sure? Here’s an example.
A flyer comes home in the mail announcing an upcoming event. You hold onto it because you may want to go…but you don’t really decide if you will go or not. So the indecision known as the flyer sits on your counter for a few days until it is buried by the next few rounds of indecision. Should I go on this field trip? Should I use this coupon? Should I donate to this cause? It’s a good organization…I probably should…but I don’t know. I’ll decide later.
And on and on it goes.
A key strategy to cutting through this clutter is deciding to decide. Certainly not every decision can be made the minute it lands in your mailbox or on your kitchen counter…but which ones can? I bet it’s a lot of them.
Decide to decide on everything that you can decide on NOW and you’ll dramatically reduce your clutter. Part of the reason our clutter feels stressful is that it represents lingering indecision. When you decide to decide, you free yourself from both clutter and the stress that goes along with it.
not sure where to start?
Clutter (and the stress that accompanies it) can be extremely overwhelming. Sometimes it feels next to impossible to dig out. I suggest starting with the area that’s causing you the greatest stress. Focus solely on this area, working on it slowly and methodically. If your clutter hot spot is a single room in your home, start with one corner of the room and move clockwise around the room, sorting and purging as you go.
