I need help organizing and getting rid of th clutter in my house?

Question

Hi All,

I never realized what a packrat/clutterbug I am until I have to clean things out for projects etc,

Does anyone have any suggestions to keep on top of things?

It has carried over into my car, work and especially at home.

Thanks for your input

Answer 1

It's great you've realised you've been a clutterbug.  It is definately an ongoing project, but once you start shifting the energy by sorting, deciding, donating, selling, returning, throwing away etc, you will feel a difference straight away.  Once you start exercising your decision muscles you will gradually gain the strength to let go.

When you let go you open yourself up to new opportunities.

I've put together 11 steps to reduce clutter on my website under tips and links.

Answer 2

Start with the car.  Grab three large boxes or laundry baskets... label them "keep", "give", "throw".  Pick a spot in the car and pick up an object.  Put it in the correct box.  When the "throw" box gets full, put it in the garbage.  When the "keep" or "give" boxes get full, replace them with a new one.  When you get done with sorting out the car, put the "give" boxes in the car and immediately drive them to the nearest charity accepting donations.  Sort the other stuff into boxes for whatever room it should be in -- e.g. "keep-kitchen". If you find a few more things to throw or donate while you're going through the keep boxes, feel free!

Now you've got a car that you can put the next set of donation boxes in and not worry that you're going to accidentally give away something you wanted to keep.

Pick a room and do the same thing... pick up each object in the room and decide keep-donate-throw.  When you've got the room emptied, give it a good cleaning, and put the good stuff back in an orderly fashion.  And start on the next room.

Do not let yourself feel overwhelmed.  If you have to, make an appointment with yourself for something like "half hour 6 days a week", and then keep it.  Set a kitchen timer, and when it rings, reward yourself.  It didn't get that way in a week or a month -- it probably won't get undone in a week or a month.  Just keep working at it.  Once it all gets done, pick a drawer or closet once a week and give it a thorough sorting and straightening.

As far as work goes -- do the same thing -- one drawer or shelf at a time.  Spend the last 15 minutes of the day dealing with one small section.  Pretty soon you'll only be spending the last 5 minutes of the day putting stuff back in order for the next day.  <g>

Suggested reading: Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett.  (Borrow it from the library!)

Answer 3

It's an ongoing project.  I started about 18 months ago.  You can't believe how much junk you accrue until you start getting rid of it.  

I started with 1 room.  Take your time.  Take everything out of the closet and and make 3 piles.  Keep (only if you have used it in the past year or it truly has sentimental value); throw away, and Give away/yard sale.

After you finish the closet, move to a dresser, under the bed, nightstands.  Then move around room to room.  

You might want to start with your car, because it will be easy and give you motivation to keep going.  Just take your time and whenever you have a free half hour or so, clean out another drawer or closet.

Answer 4

Most people don't actually know how to organize or clean....here's a system and explination that might help.  Generally people will start to clean randomly and after a few hours not much looks done and the job gets frustrating because there is so much more to do.  Its really hard to find motivation to do anything like that.....

Lets use a house as an example

find a room or a closet or someplace out of site or out of the way and designate that your messy place.  Run around the house and get everything thats unorganized and bring it the room.  This should take 15-30 mins in a 3 bedroom house.  Move quick and grab anything messy even food and dishes if you have to.  

Now what will happen is very quickly your entire house will be clean except one room.  Now you still have alot of work to do but it feels more rewarding because the house is already clean and if you have to stop halfway through then rather than having a half clean house, the house is clean and only the room is half done.  

Its easy to clean one place then the entire house, it even feels better to say

You can do the same with the car...use the trunk as the dirty place or even the same room .....or you can have a messy drawer in the kitchen or chest in the living were you throw everything, because when your house 'looks' clean you will be motivated to clean more.,

try it, it works

Answer 5

Get shelves, cubbies, or rubbermaid drawers to put things. Label them so you know what's where. If you have old shoe boxs use them for the little things that like to take up more room than they should. If it isn't something you use very often pack it in a box and put it in your storage room, garage, or basement. Take time to go through everything and decided what you need and what you don't, then go through what you don't need and through away anything of lesser value or lesser sentimental value. Never second think when you throw something away, as soon as it's in the trash it is trash and rethinking will lead to doubt and saving the unimportant.

Answer 6

Boxes, nifty baskets, shelves, and rubbermaid bins! Preferably clear ones.

Box up the stuff you can't get rid of and shove it in the garage or under the stairs. Even box up the stuff you don't use regularily, but it doesn't need to be in your living space today.

Get some nice looking baskets, deep ones if you can find them - these are your junk containers. Stick one in every room where you accumulate bills, pens and pencils, and odds and ends. I shove all my hair products into a big one in my bedroom. I shove my paper-stuff into one in my kitchen. I shove my make-up into another one in my bathroom, etc. I like them big and deep, that way they hide all your junk while they still look appealing.

Rubbermaid bins for all those things you want to access seasonally. Christmas stuff can be viewed through the clear plastic. If they're not see throught, make labels. Gardening gear in another one. Mitts and scarves in another one. ETC!

Don't be Martha Stewart if you're not Martha Stewart. Who says you have to fold all those mitts and scarves? Just throw them in there for now and get them the heck out of the way!

You'll find that after you've cleared away your clutter (however haphazardly) you can think more clearly. You may even "want" to sort through one of your bins or baskets, just for the joy of organizing something. DON'T START WITH THAT STEP. Just get it all somewhat sorted and packed in a reasonable manner so that you can still find stuff.

And getting RID of what you don't use, haven't used in eons, think you should keep, but it takes up a lot of prime real-estate cannot be underestimated. Get a box of garbage bags and dump, dump, dump all that stuff. Get a box of kleenex so you can cry as you take the bags to the good will. One week later you won't even REMEMBER what you dumped. And you'll just feel so much better about your living space.

Oh, and pace yourself. Don't try to do it all in one day. A little bit here and there is the trick, slow and steady. You don't have to be an office depot all in one day. Get a few baskets and just clear some surfaces ... then go have a martini. It's a beautiful day and you want to keep your spirits up and not get bogged down in too much organizing or you'll never, ever want to do it again. It's a lot like exercise. A little bit a few times a week, don't over-do it, and pick tasks you can actually handle in whatever head-space you're in that day, and before you know it (drum-roll) you'll be efficient!

Good luck.

P.S. Label makers (even cheap ones) make chores fun.

Answer 7

throw broken things and things that are no good to anyone away. Fill boxes with things you want to donate to a thrift store like the salvation army. Fill other boxes with things you may want to sell at your garage sale.

Having to many things that you don't use is selfish, I'm guilty of that too. i have on occasion donated some of my stuff and have felt real good afterward.

My apt is getting cluttered again and i feel weigh down agin (bad fung sui). I will be getting rid of stuff soon it gets easier to do each time.