Instructions for decluttering your home (in less than 500 words)
Again we want to welcome guest author Alex Fayle, the writer behind the helpful anti-procrastination website Someday Syndrome.
One of the most frequent questions I ever get asked about organizing is the process. How do you make the decisions to get rid of things? While there are many tips and tricks you can use to ease the streamlining process, it all comes down to 5 easy steps:
- Set yourself a goal “I am going to sort half this room before bed” or “I’m going to streamline the contents of this one box.”
- Figure out broad categories and where you are going sort each category into.
- Sort your stuff, moving systemically through the space, and not bouncing back and forth.
- Purge what you don’t want.
- Stop when you’ve reached your goal.
Use the sorting time to reminisce about the objects — don’t make any decisions at this point. Allow the emotions to come up and clear themselves out so that when it comes to the streamlining stage you are free from the emotional ties and can make more objective decisions about them.
If the idea of sorting overwhelms you, give yourself some early victories and do a walk-through of the space, choosing to remove a few large things that will open up the space quickly.
After sorting:
- Take one category and if you can, move it out of the space in which you are working, and into a clear space (like the dining room). This allows you to concentrate on the one category and not have to face the rest all at once.
- Ask yourself two questions: Need it? Love it? If you can’t say yes to either then get rid of it. Life is too short to fill out our spaces with things we’re indifferent to.
- Take the things you are not going to keep out of the house as quickly as possible. The longer they stay the more likely they will come back into the house.
- Give yourself rewards – for example out of fifty childhood books you’ve never reread but have kept for sentimental reasons, keep five and store them in a place of honor where you can see them and appreciate the memories associated with them.
There are two instances in which you stop for the day even if you are not done:
- If you find yourself hitting a “brain fog” where nothing makes sense or you find yourself holding on to everything you are reviewing.
- If you have hit a manic state and start tossing everything without looking at it.
Simple, yes? So now tell us, what are you going to streamline this week?
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Posted by Alex on Feb 17, 2009 |
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19 comments posted
Posted by Tabitha (From Single to Married) - 02/17/2009
Great post and especially timely for me as my upstairs is getting a little ‘cluttered.’ I think I’ll have to start with the bedroom.
Posted by Simpler Living - 02/17/2009
I’ve started practicing “split-second decision making.” The longer I hold onto something, the harder it can be for me to let it go because I’ll find some reason or other to justify keeping it.
That helped me get rid of a lot of sentimental and “someday, I’ll use this” clutter before I moved last weekend.
This week, I’m streamlining the moving boxes and packing materials lying around our new house. That should be easy: I’ll give them away to someone else who’s moving.
Posted by Sherri at Serene Journey - 02/17/2009
I find it’s much easier to begin with the end in mind. If you take time to visualize what you want the space to look like when you’re finished it helps a lot. Then for each item ask does this add to my vision? If not then it’s likely best to get rid of it or use it in another place in your home.
For sentimental items that you really don’t need I would suggest taking a picture of it as it’s typically not the physical item you are attached to but rather the memories it invokes.
Posted by Imelda - 02/17/2009
The FRIDGE!! It’s cluttered!!!! It’s crazy. It’s getting cleaned out today or tomorrow.
Room wise, I’ll probably update my checkbook (starting to slack) and go through my finance papers that are in my accordion file. They’re at least in file slots, but need to be organized better.
That’s my task. I need to put it in my TV and bedroom door so I remind myself.
Great tips!!!
Posted by Tessa - 02/17/2009
I found a great way to de-clutter my wardrobe. I hung all the clothes hangers backwards – hooks turning out, rather than in, as normal. I switched each one back the first time I wore whatever was hanging on it. At the end of a year, I got rid of all the clothes that were on backwards hangers. If I hadn’t worn them once in the whole year, they weren’t worth hanging on to.
Posted by Another Deb - 02/17/2009
I began laughing when I read the two tips for when to stop. Yes, I am all too familiar with the brain fog state. The “manic” state got me giggling.. manically, perhaps. Remember, almost everything is replaceable if you get into a pitching blitz. (Try saying that real fast)
Posted by Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome - 02/18/2009
@Tabitha
My bedroom always gets cluttered when I’m doing to much. If I can’t see the floor, it’s time to slow down and unclutter my brain as well as my bedroom.
@Simpler Living
I tend to make that type of decision even before bringing things into the house and so I end up buying very little. And yay to giving the moving boxes to someone else. They’ll appreciate that definitely.
@Sheri
The picture thing is always a great idea as is the vision exercise before starting. Knowing what you want and why is a great way to define the keep/give away distinction.
@Imelda
Deep fridges can get horribly cluttered. We try to keep everything up front so that food doesn’t go to waste.
@Tessa
I love those sorts of slow organizing tools. It’s organizing without having to make an effort to do so.
@Another Deb
I’ve had to replace things that I’ve gotten rid of and it’s irritated me to have to spend the money again (as well the eco-waste I created). All as a result of a pitching blitz. (yes, I’m one of those organizers who learned to be so by making all the mistakes first.)
Posted by whyioughtta - 02/18/2009
I find it useful to approach all cleaning/decluttering tasks in a clockwise fashion…i.e. I work my way through a room clockwise, starting at the doorway. That way I know what I’ve already dealt with and it gives my brain less of a chance to bounce around all over the place.
Posted by ReformingPakRat - 02/18/2009
I just lost my job, so now I have time to clean out. I started with the never-ending stacks and boxes of paperwork. I’ve shredded about a 3 foot stack so far. I got tired of that so I’m taking a paper break for a week or so.
Now I’m working on my aburdly large CD collection. I’m deciding what I don’t want and selling or donating them. Next project I’ll start on my enormous book collections.
I’ve found that it helps to have a list of projects, big and small. I put the approximate completion time next to it. When I have some time, I pick a project that fits the time framed, or schedule a day to do the project.
Large projects are broken down into smaller units. For instance, I won’t tackle my entire pantry at once. I’ll pick a shelp\f or two at a time. If I still have time and energy, I’ll do one more.
I find this keeps me productive, without getting stressed out.
Posted by Catherine Cantieri, Sorted - 02/18/2009
Total agreement w/Sherri re: beginning with the end in mind. Starting with a vision is crucial for organization; it makes all those “keep or not?” decisions more sharply focused. When you know what you want, it’s harder/less legitimate/sillier to say “Well, I might need it…”
Good post!
Posted by Another Deb - 02/18/2009
@Reformed PakRat,
Your idea about having a projected time frame is great! I am guilty of assuming that every task takes forever and that I need the whole day, week, summer to do them. I end up just worrying about the task for the whole day, week, summer…
Your idea about coordinating the projected time with available slots if also wonderful. Do I do that automatically or have I never thought of it that way before? It seems like a novel apporach to me.
Posted by Decluttering My Childhood - You 2.0 - 02/19/2009
[...] I had a new goal: declutter my [...]
Posted by Jack of Most Trades. - 02/19/2009
“Need It? Love It?”
That’s solid GOLD!!!
I’m putting that into practice immediately!
Posted by Cliff - 02/19/2009
The “purge it” part eludes me.
HOW? I can’t just throw away tons of valuable stuff. It’s not particularly valuable to me, except as cash, but it’s irresponsible to just trash it. Some of it is family heirloom, some of it is simply high-cost. Your thoughts?
Posted by Jeri Dansky - 02/21/2009
Cliff, here are some ideas: http://tinyurl.com/ak88dy.
Posted by Sterling - 04/15/2009
I’ll try to keep this in mind for my midweek unclutter tomorrow. Especially the bit about stopping when you get manic and begin tossing everything. I’m pretty sure you were referring to tossing into the trash or donation pile- but it’s just as applicable for those (like myself) who get frustrated and begin tossing their wares in all directions like a tantrum-throwing child.
It’s not just me, right?
Posted by Ally - 05/23/2009
Always remeber LESS MEANS MORE thanks for the article =)
Posted by Gregory Thomson - 08/26/2009
I’m a techie that has a terrible time with paper clutter. I keep articles, procedures, notes, how-to’s, etc… and they tend to pile up until overwhelming, after which I put them in a box somewhere, and then can never find what I need again – too much work to go through the box of stuff. But much of it doesn’t have a logical place to be filed, and some I may not need for a year.
So, being a programmer-type person, I wrote a program to help. It lets me easily maintain and search an index of the papers/docs, and then stick in a ‘misc’ folder in numerical order. It helps me declutter the office of piles of paper. I wrote it for me, but also just decided to make available for others. I put up a simple web page, and have the program available here for anybody interested – http://www.findthatdoc.com. It’s for helping with paper documents, not digital documents.
Posted by Instructions for decluttering your home | The Paper Tiger Blog - 10/20/2009
[...] Instructions for decluttering your home by Alex Fayle (in less than 500 words) taken from unclutterer.com [...]
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