Sometimes your home is so cluttered that it is hard to know where to start. Heck, even if you do know where to start, it’s hard because clutter brings on feelings of overwhelm.
You are not alone! Clutter even overwhelms organizers who know what they are doing, like me. However – it’s an easy fix!
This post (part of a quick start series on organizing) will show you the fastest way to declutter your home — all in five quick and easy steps.
Concerns about where to start an organizing project keep many from ever starting. If you don’t start, it will get worse over time. Learning the Real Cost of Clutter will put you in the right frame of mind. Let me reassure you, it doesn’t matter where you start. Just pick a room. I like to start at the room that is bothering you the most.
It might help to define clutter in the first place. Clutter is Unmade Decisions. Get started with the five steps below and practice making decisions. As you get better at decisions, less clutter will happen. It’s all connected.
I have a few tricks to organize the typical clutter in certain rooms (they can happen anywhere though). Lessen the overwhelm by doing these things first. Then you can then approach the project from a motivated place.
In every area you organize, start by tossing the obvious trash. Look for packaging and the broken bits first. Get them out of the way. Expired coupons, empty used envelopes, bottles, and dried up glue can also go. We are looking for less volume of stuff here. The physical space that trash takes up hinders your ability to make good decisions about the rest of it. Reducing the volume of stuff first will help the end result last.
Everything ends up in the kitchen! Before you start arranging the stuff in the cabinets, get non-kitchen items out of your way. Create a pile of stuff that belongs in another room. Next, subdivide the pile by room. For example, all the toys go in the kids room pile, and the tools go in the garage pile.
Now that you have your piles, make the trips to the other rooms with the appropriate stuff in your hands. Leave it there, even if it doesn’t have an official home yet.
Reading material tends to pile up in the living room. While you look for the TV remote, magazines and newspapers get scattered and scooted out of the way. They end up bent, spilled on, dusty and outdated. In other words, it becomes overwhelming and unpleasant to work on.
Minimize that unpleasantness by squaring up paper piles and reading materials. A heap looks like twice as much clutter as it actually is. A neat pile of magazines looks like it is supposed to be there. A heap looks like you dropped it and never came back to fix it.
Eliminated most of the overwhelm in the bathroom by working on one drawer and shelf at a time. Quickly toss all unused open items. Also, toss expired medications. Yes, I know that some of those pills are technically still effective. However, this is a decluttering exercise. Now with a bit of clear space you can focus on turning your bathroom into a wonderful relaxing place to perform you absolutions.
Your home office is notorious for harboring lots of clutter. I’ve seen it before. Now is the time to let go of items that are not complete enough to work. Start with that stuff you have kept until you get, find or buy the part that will make it useful. Because, you haven’t used it in the meantime, you have just felt bad about it and that’s not fun.
Don’t know what that cord goes to? Think you need that one part because someday something might happen? Think again. What to do Boxes and Cords will set you straight.
Did you notice the consistent theme through all the tips? Start with the obvious, decrease the volume, then, focus on what’s left one area at a time. Let Go of Unintended Clutter will give you some more good stuff to lighten your load.
