Tag Archive: declutter tips

Reduce Clutter Information

Reducing clutter in you home is easy if you have the information that you need to know, in order to get your things organized. Most people do not even think that they have any clutter.

But what exactly is clutter?

Can you define it? Most of us would be hard pressed to define the word. But, we know it when we see it! Actually, though, the definition is easy and fairly straightforward. Clutter is any item which you own, but you don’t use or you don’t take care of.

Now, think about this. If you own and use an item, you’re probably going to take care of it — at least to some degree. But if you have some article you don’t use, you’re more likely not to take as good care of it.

For example, there’s the souvenir plate from Disney World that Auntie Vera gave you. Do you really love that plate as much as you say? Then why is it stashed up in the attic with your yearbook from high school? That souvenir plate has just passed “the clutter test.”

We find reasons — or sometimes we create — reasons why we just can’t start the decluttering process today. And even if we do start the process, we find many more excuses for not throwing items away.

Trust me, on my quest to make our personal spaces less crowded with items we neither need nor use, I think I’ve heard just about every excuse for not throwing individual objects in the trash. From wanting to sell them at a yard sale to donating them to a place that can sell them.

I know how hard it truly can be to part with some material possessions. And we now know why it’s not the easiest thing in the world. It can be very overwhelming. Especially when the memories, attached to the items, are of people that are no longer with us. Believe me, I get it! I’ve been there myself.

But at the end of the day, when you look around after you’ve tried to declutter and you still see a bunch of unused “stuff”, what have you really accomplished?

Nothing more and nothing less than merely going through the motions. Now you can tell everyone “I’ve tried.” Well, perhaps you assessed the situation and determined that it was hopeless. Or you surveyed a room or two only to find it a little too emotionally draining.

But as long as you’re carrying around even one of these excuses, you really haven’t “tried” at all. You’ve just successfully — for another day — avoided the entire process.

Hopefully you will use the tips and tricks (provided in my other articles and eBook) that have helped me through this process and begin to finally reduce all of the clutter that you have been accumulating in your home.

Great Tips To Organize Your Paperwork

Discover how easy it is to declutter your paperwork and other paper items. First of all, you need to get a filing cabinet. At the very least, get a filing box. Or maybe even several boxes. You can buy them online or at just about any office supply or discount store.

If you have a home office, it’s very important at some point that you purchase a filing cabinet, Even with the age of digital forms and cybersaving sites you still need to have a filing cabinet. I doesn’t matter what anyone says, the “hard copy” of many documents, warranties and contracts will never totally disappear from the face of this earth. Also, keep in mind that every major appliance you buy includes with some type of operating manual. From that hot water heater to your refrigerator to your car, there are papers that need to be kept from each of these. It’s best to have them all stored together, rather than spread out all over the floor and cluttering up the drawer space in your home.

Instead of thinking about all the clutter that you currently have, begin visualizing your home as clutter free. Seriously, visualize it as clutter free. You’ll realize that as you go through your day that you’ll not only notice the clutter more, but you’ll slowly start to do something about it! It sounds weird, but after a while you have a mental picture of your home as (it should be) clean and organized. And the next thing you know, you’re taking steps (maybe just baby steps) towards your vision.

A lot of the clutter builds up in our homes simply because we refuse to deal with it “in the moment.” This concept is best demonstrated by the daily mail delivery. Every day your mail person drops mail off in your mail box. What exactly do you do with that mail? If you’re like the majority of people, you browse through it and then put it aside. Maybe you planned to deal with it after dinner or after the kids are in bed. However, you forget all about the mail and instead you end up reading a book or watching television.

Then you discover that a particular sales flyer for your local grocery store, that you set aside, is actually two weeks old and the sale is over. It either ended up being buried under a huge stack of junk mail or it fell under the couch. Yes, that is the nature of clutter. Instead of setting everything aside for later, you should have dealt with it in a more efficient way. You could have spent a few minutes separating the bills and placing them on your desk in a specific container, where you would then have them ready for the next time you need to pay them. Next, take the junk mail and start to prioritize that. Mail that you do not want should be thrown out immediately.

Sales ads that you may want to look over later, such as supermarket weekly sales ads, set aside in a basket where you can look at them later. Place this basket close to where you sit in the evening, that way you will remember them and at least glance through them. Now, at least you know where it is when you decide to write out this week’s shopping list.
 

 

Decluttering Life: Tips For Decluttering

When we think about decluttering our life, we first have to consider how it all got started. Our clutter begins to accumulate even before we are born — and we are not even aware of it. So it is not even our fault yet! At this point it is what others people are “doing to us.” Have you ever noticed that?

I’m referring to the continuous accumulation of material things in our life. Think about the concept of a baby shower. Even before we’re born we begin acquiring items through this ritual. Then our family discovers any number of reasons to “shower” us with even more material gifts as we grow up.

Now, gifts are great, but . . . eventually our room of gifts and toys and stuffed animals morphs itself as we get older into a house of stuff — some needed and some, well, not so necessary.

A favorite saying of people lately is “life happens.” Life, in fact, is exactly what happens while we ‘re making our plans for the future. Before we have our plans set in stone, it seems our life situation has changed — and well, so much for our plans.

This is the same thing that happens when it comes to our possessions. “Clutter happens.” Look around you. It’s hard to believe that, at one time, your home was empty – completely empty, to be redundant! What would you do, if someone told you that you had to leave it all behind, how would you react?

Could you, in fact, willfully walk away from all your material possessions right now?

It is time to find out what items are really important to you. Time to assess the items that you have and determine what is necessary and what items are just clutter.
 

 

Declutter Ideas for Your Bathroom

I going to provide some great decluttering ideas for your bathroom. If your bathroom is really cluttered, then we need to tackle it right now! The bathroom is probably almost as frightening as your closet (at least mine is) but we can have you back on track in no time flat – guaranteed.

First, let’s tackle that medicine cabinet. If you open this door will “things” fall out of it? Take a critical look at your medications – both prescription and over-the-counter. (If you wear reading glasses, I suggest you bring them along!) You’re about to toss everything out that has expired. If you have any medicine that is no longer current, you’re going to toss it. No questions asked. This is more than just a clutter issue. Not only is this just wasting space, but this could be dangerous. Taking expired medicine has untold ramifications – so be sure to go through each shelf in your house where you may be storing any type of medication (many of us keep it in the kitchen!). Toss what’s old and expired!

Got beauty products you haven’t used in at least three months? Whether they’ve officially expired or not, toss them. Once they’re opened, the oils with which they’re made can go rancid. You needed a good excuse to buy new ones anyway.

Take all those old toothbrushes. Toss them as well. Dentists recommend that you buy new toothbrushes every two months. But how many of us really do? Now is a good time to do it.

One more thing. See that toilet bowl brush sitting in the corner. You might want to trade that thing in now too. I’m certain its packing quite a bit of bacteria. You can go to your local discount store and find disposable toilet bowl cleaners. If you’re environmentally conscious, you can buy either buy a “green” cleaner or create a home-made cleaner of your own.

One bathroom decluttering hint is to use baskets for organizing items. You can place some of the smaller items in baskets. These baskets can be separated into categories of what they hold – all hair items are contained with one small basket or container. Or they can be divided by family member. Your teenage girl’s bathroom necessities can be stored alone in one (or more reasonable several) container. Once you’ve done this all you need to do is find an appropriate home for this container. Some individuals like to store them in the bathroom itself. But if your bathroom is small, then you may not have the storage space in it for these containers. You may need to consider that these “bathroom bundles” be stored in the family member’s bedroom – or even a nearby linen closet. And each member totes his own to the bathroom when he needs it.

I know, I know! For such a small room, I seem to have much to say about it. But precisely because the room is small and storage space is normally at a premium, is the reason I’m spending so much time trying to help you declutter it. Look at your walls. You may want to consider putting in either shelving or a wall-mounted cabinet to help store necessary “stuff.” You can either put towels in these areas or you can place your toiletry bottles out of sight. If you decide to store towels, consider rolling them for storage instead of just folding them only. Give it a try, especially if you’re using only shelving and the towels will be “on display” so to speak.

Got enough room in your bathroom for a “tree” coat rack? If you do, then consider buying one. Your family members can hang their pajamas and robes here as well as that change of clothes instead of using that floor (even though the floor is a nice convenient “hanger”.) And onto one of the biggest problems we have with bathrooms, especially small ones. You’ve just returned from your favorite “big box” store – whether that be Costco or Sam’s Club or whatever is available in your area. And you’ve bought an extremely large bundle of toilet paper. So large, in fact, that you’re sure you won’t have to buy toilet paper for another six months. If you can’t find any place to store the toilet paper, then you may need to re-think your cost-cutting strategy.

The linen closet isn’t quite as scary as the clothes closets. But you still need to examine this space with a critical eye. Why may I ask are you keeping those frayed and bleached out towels when you’ve just bought a new set. It’s time to get rid of them. Can’t stand to get rid of them? Then donate them to an animal shelter. Many shelters use them to help keep their dogs and cats cozy. It keeps them from sleeping on the hard floor. So how many towels does one family need? Every family should have enough towels to sustain each member for two weeks. For example, you should have two washcloths, two beach towels, two bath towels (four for those individuals who use a towel to wrap their wet hair) per family member. Additionally, you’ll want two sets of hand towels as well.
 

 

Five Quick Bedroom Declutter Tips

Today is “declutter day” for the bedroom. Pick a bedroom, any bedroom. It can be one of your childrens or if you’re brave enough it can be yours. Every bedroom seems to be a natural magnet for clutter.

If you wonder why, just think about it. It is out of the way of guest traffic and easy enough to close the door instead of declutter or clean. A hallway with the doors to the bedrooms closed looks quite nice.

That being said, you just may be in need of the “turbocharged” decluttering system. Here is a quick way to make any bedroom look a little bit right from the very start.

Step 1: Empty the waste basket.

Yes, it’s that simple. Of course, even you can see that it is already overflowing with trash.

Step 2: Straighten up those piles of books and magazines.
If you don’t have time to put them away properly, then just pile them up neatly and place them along the wall. This will instantly make the room appear much neater. Especially if they were scattered all over the floor and the bed.

Step 3: Get a basket and use it for temporary storage.
This is especially helpful for a girls bedroom. Take all that stuff from makeup to earrings and necklaces and place it in a basket. Now you can actually see the dresser top (and you won’t step on any earrings lying around the floor). You actually haven’t solved the problem yet, but you’ve certainly tamed it some – and sometimes that’s all we can hope for.

Step 4: Make the bed.
A bed that is actually made helps a room look more organized and well, civilized. Even if you replace some of those books that your children are using back on the bed (perhaps you can arrange them a little nicer),it will still appear to be more organized.

Step 5: Run The Vacuum Cleaner
Performing this one single task can make the room look vastly more decluttered and clean. It is truly amazing. Of course, this isn’t so easy to do if there are a 100 items laying around the floor!

If unexpected company calls and you can do nothing else with a bedroom, run the vacuum quickly through the room (and by all the means, the rest of your house). Then stand back a moment before that doorbell rings and check out what a difference that one small thing made.
 

Organizational Tips For Your Living Room

I am going to offer you some suggestions for the organization and declutter of the living room. For most of the people that I know, the living room is usually where everybody gets together to watch TV, play video games and hang out time together. Therefore, this room usually end up being cluttered.

Resolving this issue is not as difficult as you may think. It just takes a little bit of work and planning. Before you know it, your living room will neat and organized.

The first thing that you need to do is to determine what you would like the primary use of the room to be. Narrow your focus of what you really would like the end result of your living room to be. If you don’t have that end goal in mind when you start, you’re not going to be going anywhere.

Now that you have a good idea, in your mind, of what items you want in your living room; The next thing to do is to remove absolutely everything that doesn’t belong and find a place for it in another room. But don’t just toss it in there, either – we’re not looking to create more clutter – find an appropriate place for it.

Get rid of any items that you no longer use. Gather them together and give them away. The ultimate goal of decluttering a room is to get rid of the clutter, after all – and there’s nothing wrong with giving something to a friend, or donating it to your local Goodwill. Somebody else may be able to use it.

Many people try to fit as much furniture as possible into their living rooms. I have no idea why, or how this started, but having oversized furniture or just too much furniture in a room (that it doesn’t fit) just makes the whole room seem more cluttered.

If you have any furniture pieces that you are not using, then consider selling them on a websites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. Even if you don’t end up sell everything, by getting rid of furniture pieces that are just taking up space and are not used, can make your living room seem more open and comfortable. And an extra added bonus, of course, is some extra cash in your pocket.