Consider these amazing facts:
- There are 300,000 items in the average home.
- One quarter of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park their cars inside them.
- The average 10-year-old has 238 toys but plays with just 12.
- The average woman owns 30 outfits — a century ago that was just nine.
The message? Our homes are packed to the rafters with a whole lot of stuff! Yet most of us feel so overwhelmed at the prospect of tackling our bad case of clutteritis that we pretend the problem simply doesn’t exist.
But, with a new year on its way, maybe it’s time to clean up our mess. Right? Here are four simple ways to start decluttering right now:
- Take 30: Attempting to declutter your entire home is too big a mountain to climb. Start in one place, like your bathroom, and dive in for 30 minutes. Pull everything out of your medicine cabinet and on to the counter, throw out any expired prescriptions, ditch almost empty bottles of moisturizer or perfume or any items you haven’t used in over six months. Wipe down the empty cabinet and re-place your selected items. Sit on the floor, and repeat for the cabinet under the sink. There, that isn’t so hard, is it? If you’re excited and inspired, move on to the drawers or closet in your bedroom. Or tackle the pile of newspapers or magazines in the den. If you’re exhausted, set a reminder for next week and take on one room or closet at a time.
- Bag it and take 5: Grab two big trash bags and prowl around. Fill one with old newspapers and magazines, boxes and wrappers, used candles, orphan mitts and socks, and items that, let’s face it, you’re never going to use again. Fill the other with five toys your kids don’t play with anymore, five articles of clothing you don’t wear anymore, five books, CDs or DVDs you’ll never read, listen to or watch anymore and bring this bag to Goodwill or any nearby charity that accepts used items.
- Super bowl: No, this has nothing to do with men in helmets and tight pants. Set down a medium sized bowl wherever you enter your home and designate it as the receptacle for keys, sunglasses, gloves, wallets and loose change. Your days of dropping sundry items throughout the house are over!
- Teachable moment: If you’re a parent, enlist your kids. Instruct them to spot items of theirs scattered throughout the home — shoes, Game Boy or Nintendo, smartphone, books, clothing, half-eaten snacks, unidentifiable items — and take them to their rooms, or the kitchen or laundry, as the case may be. And warn them that, from now on, if it’s not in their room within 24 hours it disappears forever!
What decluttering tips work best — or worst — for you? Please share your ideas in the Shop Talk Blog community forum!
Did you know: The Ikea effect
Even as the price of furniture has dropped, we’re spending more on more of it. Yet the rate at which we’re throwing it out has risen only 1/13 as fast — in other words, we’re just hoarding it. (Source)
I am deffinetly going to use alot of your ideas I always save things to help other people. But it just gets to be more and more. No more…..
I just read an article it says Jan of new year in closet take all hangers and reverse them. When you take something and put it back put hanger right way. Come Dec all the hangers not turned are something you didn’t wear for over a year send to consignment store what you get for money put for vacation or new clothes Jan reverse again
I hope I get something out of this
I am always looking for ways to increase my usable space and since the house I live in has very little closet space I had to figure out ways to fit everything in. One trick I like to use which by the way is also very cheap is to purchase those shelves that hang from the bar in your closet. You know for shoes or purses or whatnot. I then have an extra 5-10 shelves that only take up about a foot of space across and utilize the empty part of the closet . I can use them for just about anything. Great for seperating scarves belts hats mittens. I can use them for extra bags and totes or stash jewelery. Its also great as a catch all for those items in the bedroom you dont quite know what to do with but you dont want it laying around on the floor or in sight. The only limitation is your imagination. The shelves can be found at any drug store or retail outlet for about $5 to 10 dollars. Sometimes they are only made out of a canvas or cloth like material but those still can hold a bunch of stuff. Another thing I have learned to utilize are baskets! you can get them really very cheap at any thrift store. I have little ones for small items all the way to big ones for my shoes. It keeps them together and no searching! I use wicker baskets for my laundry and all through my house-even the bathroom for those little soaps and shampoos. I put some little washcloths in and its pretty enough to set out as decorations and also for overnight guests who may not have brought that stuff. I hope this idea helps someone who has clutter.
I found that if the whole family works together in separate rooms we avoid the tears and drama. Doing this the whole house is usually clean in an hour or so. This works best in bigger houses. In smaller houses have the family teamwork it to get it done in a timely manner.(same room)
I USED TO CLEAN MY APARTEMENT. THROWOUT ALLJUNK AND CLOTING.I LOVE DOING IT.THANK YOU’ VERY MUCH.
In our homes, we as consumers have a hard time with getting rid of items we have brought, so we tend to create a lot of clatter in our homes.
Bag it and take 5: Grab two big trash bags and prowl around.
WOW, now why didn’t I think of that? duh – it’s because I’ve gotten so overwhelmed that my brain has stopped ‘seeing’ the giant pile of clean laundry that’s towering as tall as I am in my rarely visited bedroom -and have instead become blind to it!!!
Anyway – thank you! I’m gonna walk around this place with a giant bag/box etc… and put stuff in it! every little bit helps.
Merry Christmas, and God bless
I once read a book that said to take an inventory of everything in your house to see how much stuff you have and assign a value to it. EVERYTHING. That was a daunting task. It definitely makes you want to rid yourself of some things, while treasuring others.
is very fantast
I think the best way to clean, get rid of junk and get it together is to JUST MOVE?
No kidding. I keep telling my husband it is time to move again. We have been
married sense l958 and have moved 10 times it has worked out great for me and
by the way people have always said I keep the cleanest house of any one they knew. My husband has joked that when he get up to use bathroom in middle of
night, he comes back to a made bed. Have fun and Happy Holidays and Cleaning.
Jo-Anne
I can read that not one of those posting a msg has lived with a women that has worked for Disney for 33 years and has collected anything she feels that sometime in the near to very far away time these items will become valuable. She even goes as far as to collect those items that Disney is throwing out and will offer them to their employees (as a way that Disney doesn’t have to spend time and money disposing of the items) my wife will bring them home. She even tries to say that she is doing it for her grandchildren so they will have memories. These are children with IPADs and Nintendo’s! Even counseling is money down the drain and the positive thinking is gone when she has to actually put the items in the trash or even sell the to someone. Glad to read that the above article has worked for others.
My clutter! Between me and my boyfriend…we have so much crap! I want to get rid of everything, but he wont even get rid of a 12 year old box of mail…I am tired of asking him to just throw it away…I will donate all of my old stuff just to have room in my house for normal items. But he will not get rid of anything…So Lost in CRAP!!!!!
Excellent
I moved from a large house to a small house after my husband died. My 3 children lived with me. I was asked to save some of their things, which I do, & its all upstairs all organized. Downstairs however, my desk has clutter because I save things to read that I think are important to pass on to others. So I purchased some unusual clear zip folders I found at Dollar Tree & now I am organizing them bit by bit in the folders. I have names on the folders of the people I want to pass it on to. So far so good. Now for the other stuff. I have arthritis and I am sick most of the time. My youngest daughter has been hostile towards me about this. I see it as a denial that I am ill. I will keep trying anyway.
I am frequently told how organized I am. My husband has filled up the two car garage, the day room, the shop, the barn and the tool shed!
He can’t find anything he needs, but I can’t throw anything away because he MIGHT need it someday!
How do I get through to him? It has been like this for 39 years, in several different homes, and I have organized for him only to be undone in a month’s time.
If I kept my kitchen the way he keeps his shop, etc. We would starve to death.
Any suggestions?
It pays to get rid of stuff, before you get buried in it.
Yet we do have organized clutter in boxes that are marked and
stacked in out of the way places.
Thank you!
Good ideas. I just moved so I really use the timed sort and organize tactic so I don’t get overwhelmed. We downsized slightly so I now have a lot in storage in bins. My goal is to finish the paper monster sort and then begin on the bins once or twice a week, around family and work.
I’m looking forward to the idea exchanges.
My new word is ruthless! Use it or lose it!
Just lost husband of 27 years trying to deck utter the house having very difficult time. He just passed in March was only 57 years old. I have a colonial type house with 4 floors. I can’t seem to part with anything that was his or even my mother’s who lived with us. I feel close to them when their stuff is here with me. I have a lot of stuff that I’m pretty sure is worth money but don’t know who to call to get appraisal for this that doesn’t charge an arm and leg. We live off $ 2145 a month that’s for bills and food. Also have 2 teenagers. I need some advice and someone I can trust either to help appraise or to come to my home to help me declutter.
I know how it is to declutter. I married a pac-rat. I have been getting rid of things and taking the items to the Salvation Army over the years, I got rid of clothes, books, and kitchen stuff I didnt use. I just went through the kitchen cabinets and sorted out several sets of dishes. I felt like somebody lifted a weight off my shoulders. Im still facing more crap to get rid of. Hang in there, youll feel so much better when you lighten the load!!!
I recently took a 30 day challenge.. I got an empty box and each day, I put one item in the box after the 30 days I called for pick up. It was fun.
I definitely agree with the take-one’s-time approach. It’s the least stressful, and helps to build patience – a necessary skill in this life.