I am trying to organize and declutter my house. Any tips/ideas to help me get started?

Question

I guess I am wondering, how do you motivate yourself to do this? What strategy do you use when you are working on a big organization project?

Answer 1

Here is how you do it.

Pick a room to de-clutter

Have a date set for a garage sale

Have an area for stuff that you want to keep out and readily accessable, an area of stuff that you want to put away (in the attic or something), an area for stuff that you can sell/ give away, and a trash bag for well, trash!

AND you need to pick a day that you know that you have NOTHING else to do.  

Answer 2

The only thing that works for me is to set a whole day aside and have plenty of room to make piles for things (Outside works best if you have the yard space). Just like they do on those TV shows you have to make 3 piles. 1. Keep 2. Throw/Donate 3. Maybe (For those things you just don't know what to do with)

Start with you're "keep" pile and begin putting it back in the house in an organized way. Don't forget that everyone's idea of organization is different. Once that is done you have to move back to the "maybe" pile and decide if you want to keep it or not. Put it in it's place and bring all of your unwanted stuff to the Salvation Army or drop it in donation bins.  I hope this helps - believe me, I know it's tough but you have to just plan the day like you would plan a dinner date.

Answer 3

Visualize what your house will look like once it is completely organized. You have to know what you want the end result to look like in order to make real progress in your home. I recommend sitting down in every room of your home that you want to organize and asking yourself these questions: What do I want this room to look like? How do I want to use this room?

Then start small. Start with the room that has the least clutter. This helps give you a "running start" for getting the rest of your home organized. It helps you figure out how you best organize and gives you a small success that you can build on.

Answer 4

Just get it done and imagine the reward of you work make it fun

Answer 5

Sometimes you have to be really cold hearted. What doesn't fit, is broken or is worthless jettison. Being Retired Military, we've learned that if it's not an antique or collectible, it goes. We moved 17 times in the past 35 years, we know how to pare down fast.We just took an electric organ to the thrift shop. Did you know you can write off your donations on your taxes?

Answer 6

Start by making a big mess in one room at a time and see that you complete it before beginning in the next- a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Separate yourself from things that you know you will never need again and discard them without any regrets and realize that missing them was merely due to finding them again in the first place.

Answer 7

I think to myself that in the end it will be clutter free so I work, if i dont do it then more work piles up and then there is more to do and i stress even more. Use fun cute jars, boxes, even crates! Paint a lot of boxes though so it looks like it is supposed to be in the area it is. And it is like when you were young, you got rewards for doing things! Pretend you are going on a very big trip and when you come back and recover from jet lag you do not want to have to clean up everything. And you won't have to because you did it before you left.