Declutter 101: Where Do I Start?
Source of Recipe
Cynthia Townley Ewer, Editor OrganizedHome.Com
List of Ingredients
Here at OrganizedHome.Com, the e-mails arrive every week: "Help! I'm drowning in clutter and don't know where to begin!" Whether it's due to poor habits, a packrat spouse, or an advanced case of affluenza, too many home managers struggle under the burden of household clutter.
Clutter can clog the smooth workings of any home, imposing heavy costs on the household. Each day, time is lost searching for missing keys, phones or permission slips. A cluttered desk plays Hide The Credit Card Statement, yielding up the bill only after late fees are invoked. Belongings lost to clutter must be replaced, with the original surfacing just as soon as the replacement enters the house. Gotcha!
Time to declutter! But when you're peering over piles, mounds and stacks of stuff, it's hard to know where to begin and what to do.
These beginning declutter points will help free a strangled household from the clutter monster:
Start slow, small and steady
Clutter tolerance seems to run a fever cycle, much like the flu. Every so often, the cluttered household will become intolerable, sparking the home manager to brief, massive anti-clutter spasms. Piles will be shifted, boxes will be filled, stuff will be stashed--until the fever breaks. Then the clutter tide flows back in, confusion redoubled because of the flushed and furious attempts to get a grip in a hurry.
Just as clutter arises gradually, over time, so it must be fought gradually and over time. Beating clutter requires building new habits, applying new organizational methods, and creating new household routines. The clutter cure takes time, and can't be short-cut.
Resist the temptation to go all-out in fevered, short-term sorties against clutter. Like the fable of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the declutter race.
Schedule regular declutter sessions
A successful attack on clutter requires time, energy and motivation. There is no such thing as a declutter fairy, who works while you sleep!
First things first: schedule time to declutter. Even 15 minutes a day will make a good start. Better, schedule larger blocks of time, from two to four hours once or twice a week, for maximum declutter efficiency.
Scheduling declutter sessions brings the goal out of the stratosphere and into real life. By committing time to decluttering, you strengthen motivation and embrace the goal of a clutter-free home. By keeping the declutter appointments, you begin to create islands, peninsulas, then continents of decluttered space.
Trust me. It won't happen magically behind your back, so schedule your declutter appointments today!
Change begins with me
In family settings, clutter accumulates for myriad reasons. Adults shed newspapers and personal items with abandon. Children clutter with playthings, art materials, and school papers. Poor housekeeping routines land clean clothing in piles on the couch, paperwork in stacks on the counter and mail in jumbled heaps everywhere.
Tempting as it is to call a family meeting and lay down the clutter law, think again. Draconian measures can only be enforced so long as the enforcer stays on the job--and if you're not there first, coercive efforts are doomed to fail.
Instead, build credibility, knowledge and motivation by mastering your own clutter challenges first, then involving the remainder of the family.
You've resolved to work slowly and steadily, and you've carved out blocks of time to declutter. Now what? And how?
Time to consider weigh in with specific methods and strategies for decluttering. These tried-and-tested methods bring different strengths to the fight against clutter. Choose the one that's right for you and your family.
A classic: the Four-Box method
Clutter is evidence of many things: poor habits, lack of organization, sentimental attachment, too much stuff. But, at bottom, each item of clutter is a decision delayed. The mail arrives, replete with circulars and junk mail and catalogs. "Oh, I'll go through that later!" whispers the clutter monster, deferring the simple decision to cull and toss the unwanted paper.
The Four-Box method forces a decision, item by item. To apply it, gather three boxes and a large trash can. Label the boxes, "Put Away", "Give Away/Sell" and "Storage." Items to be thrown away belong in the trash can.
Take the four boxes to the declutter area. One at a time, pick up each piece of clutter. Ask yourself, "Do I want to put this away in another place, donate it (or sell it at a yard sale), store it, or throw it away?" You may not release your grip on the item until you have made a decision.
At the end of the decluttering session, reserve 10 to 15 minutes to empty the boxes. Put Away items are put in more appropriate places. Give Away/Sell items should be stored outside the house, in a garage, or in the trunk of the car for drop-off at a charity donation center. As each Storage box fills, make a brief inventory of the contents and put the box into the storage area. Finally, empty the trash can quickly to prevent second thoughts!
The Four Box method will work for anyone, in any declutter mode. Use it to clear a shelf or drawer each day, or apply it as part of a whole-house weekend assault on clutter. By forcing a decision, it will serve you well as you cull clutter from the home.
Out of sight, out of mind: the Box and Banish method
Box and Banish is an alternative to the Four Box method. Where the Four Box method nibbles away at clutter bit-by-bit, Box and Banish is a drastic, clear-it-out effort that transports clutter away from living areas, to be dealt with later.
Box and Banish is simple. Gather all clutter from counters, drawers, chairs, tables, floors, ovens, and bathtubs. Place the clutter into boxes or bags, and stack it somewhere outside the living area. Work until all surfaces are clear and clutter free.
Next step: open each box or bag of clutter, one at a time. As with the Four Box method, decide whether each item inside should be thrown away, put away, given away or sold, or stored. In extreme cases, declutterers have been known to throw away Box and Banish boxes, sight unseen!
Box and Banish has one big advantage and two big disadvantages as a declutter method. On the plus side, Box and Banish creates instant results. Often, impending guests or other emergencies force a version of Box and Banish upon the cluttered household. Clearing clutter quickly sparks enthusiasm and motivation.
On the minus side, energies often flag before the Box and Banish declutterer reaches the end of the boxed clutter. The effort stalls, the clutter remains, aging gently in the bags and boxes as it becomes surrounded by new layers of clutter. In a worst-case scenario, the need for some Boxed-and-Banished item can trigger formation of Mt. Cluttermore, as the frantic searcher upends each carefully boxed hillock of clutter, looking for the single missing item.
More important, while Box and Banish can create an instant absence of apparent clutter, the method does nothing to change the underlying problem. More gradual decluttering methods go hand-in-hand with other components of getting organized: building new habits, organizing stored items, creating new household routines. Box and Banish, for many, is a mere cosmetic quick-fix.
Still, if you're fiercely motivated and determined to complete the declutter process, Box and Banish is an option that jumpstarts organization efforts with fast results.
Ellen's Penicillin method
Often, decluttering efforts chase their tails in an endless loop. The home manager declutters the small table in the hallway and moves on. By the following week, a whole new species of clutter has returned to the cleared area.
The Penicillin method, devised by online declutterer Ellen in MN, uses a petri dish metaphor to get a grip on clutter. Imagine a petri dish full of fuzzy brown mold spores. A researcher begins to apply small drops of penicillin to the dish. Each little drop clears a small circular area; soon, drop upon drop, the entire dish is cleared of the distasteful intruder.
So, too, with the Penicillin method of decluttering. Today, the declutterer clears the kitchen table. From this point, no matter how bad the clutter becomes elsewhere, the kitchen table is inoculated with Penicillin. Daily clutter checks make sure no clutter is permitted to return.
Next declutter session, the declutterer attacks the top of the buffet. Thinking "Penicillin!", that clear space joins the kitchen table. Soon, the cleared areas link up, banishing clutter from the entire house.
By devoting declutter energies to retaining the Penicillin effect of each declutter session, the Penicillin method focuses the declutterer on prevention. The method is useful, creative, and works well to bring an entire house under control.
Closet-Go-Round: whole house declutter
Sometimes, you simply have to re-invent the wheel. Perhaps you realize, three years into a new house, that household storage needs a complete overhaul. Remodeling, a child's departure for college, or birth of a new baby can all signal a need for a whole-house declutter.
Call it the Closet-Go-Round. It's a two-part process of identifying and assigning storage, while at the same time decluttering and revamping existing areas in the home.
Like a merry-go-round, the Closet-Go-Round turns out, sorts out and relocates all the storage functions of the home. In the initial stage, you'll identify storage needs and match them to available storage areas, regardless of what's being stored where at the moment. You can find more complete information on making a household storage plan in our article Store It! The ABCs of Household Storage Plans.
Once you know what should go where, the active phase begins. You will need boxes, lots of them, and time--quite a bit of time. Starting at the front door, move from room to room placing boxes in front of each storage area: cabinets, drawers, closets, and shelves.
Then begin at the beginning once more. Start, for example, at the table in the hall. Remove any and all items from the table that are not assigned there: gloves, mail, keys, change, handbags. Place them in your box.
When the table is empty, except for the vase of flowers that belongs there, circle the house with your catch. Gloves are placed in the box before the coat closet where they are supposed to live. Mail is dumped into the box in front of the desk area. Handbags and change are delivered to the owner's launch pad area (OrganizedHome.Com - Tame Morning Madness with Launch Pads). Items to be thrown away are delivered to the garbage can.
When the box is empty, move on to the next storage area in the hall: the coat closet. Empty the coat closet of all unassigned items, while adding the gloves to their assigned area. Again, circle the house with your coat closet box, delivering items to the new storage area where each belongs.
As you work, you're sorting and decluttering in two directions. You're removing clutter and improperly-stored items, while collecting and replacing the things which belong in any given area.
A Closet-Go-Round is a big undertaking, and it doesn't work well if performed in fits and starts. Choose this method if you have a block of two or three days to devote to a major declutter. While you'll work hard during that time, a Closet-Go-Round can take giant strides toward a more efficient, easy-to-manage home.
Staying Decluttered:
There's a bedrock belief among the clutter-afflicted that if they could only get rid of all the clutter, just once, the clutter problem could be solved.
It's not quite so simple. True, it's easier to maintain a decluttered environment than it is to achieve it, but there's more to the problem than the mere absence or presence of clutter.
Clutter doesn't arise out of nothing. If everyone in the family dumps book bags, briefcases, handbags and outer clothing on the living room sofa, clearing the sofa today isn't going to prevent tomorrow's deluge. Twenty-four hours later, the clutter has returned. Decluttering alone will not cure the real problem: the lack of family launch pads, and the failure of family members to use them.
Once clutter has been banished, the real work of change begins. To conquer clutter once and for all, focus on these clutter prevention ideas:
Home, home on the range
A primary cause of clutter? It's the homeless ... mail, toys, or newspapers. Without a home, common household items wander, lose their way, and meet bad companions and make the transition to clutter.
Establish good homes for your stuff. Newspapers may be folded and stacked on a coffee table before being read, then given shelter in a box while they await recycling. Devote prime domestic real estate to use as a launch pad for each family member: a location for purses, school papers, back packs and briefcases. Give paperwork proper files so it never has to huddle in lonely stacks on kitchen counters.
With a home to go to, good stuff will never become bad clutter.
Establish clutter preserves
There's no such thing as clutter-free living. Even the tidiest among us still tosses clothing on floors from time to time.
Accept reality by establishing dedicated clutter preserves. Like wildlife preserves, these are limited areas where clutter may live freely, so long as it stays within boundaries. In a bedroom, one chair becomes the clutter preserve. Clothing may be thrown with abandon, so long as it's thrown on the chair.
A kitchen junk drawer can house vitamin bottles, rubber bands, clipped recipes, expired coupons and shopping receipts unwelcome outside their clutter preserve. Children may use a flat-bottomed plastic laundry basket to corral stray playthings in bedroom or family room. A large magazine bucket in the living room is fair game for catalogs and magazines, so long as they can fit inside the bucket.
Build good habits
Focus on stuff-related household activities to get a handle on the clutter process. Build good habits to choke off the tendency to create clutter.
For example, establish a "returning home" habit or routine. As you shut the back door, hang the car keys on a hook just above the light switch. Remove jackets and coats two steps inside the house, and hang them on the coat rack. Place purse or briefcase in the launch pad area next to the coats.
Bringing in the mail? No more slumping down any old where to review the day's catch. Instead, form a new habit: sort mail over the trash can, dumping the junk, then file it quickly in a plastic pocket filing unit on the adjoining wall.
Habits, once adopted, kick in as a mindless protective device. To stay clutter-free, work hard on new clutter-busting habits as you declutter.
One comes in, one goes out
For more exotic clutter contenders, adopt a one-in, one-out rule. From here on out, when you buy a new pot, shirt or magazine, an old pot, shirt or magazine must be discarded, recycled or donated. One-in, one-out keeps the level of stuff below the clutter point by limiting total numbers.
Observing the rule can also save money. Think of it a cure for affluenza. Charmed as you may be with that colorful Italian pasta bowl, buying takes on new importance when one of the old bowls will have be discarded as a result. Old friends are best!
Rely on outside resources
Finally, focus on out-of-house resources to whittle down the sheer number of things that enter home. For example, there's no need to buy, keep, sort and store back issues of magazines once you realize that the public library provides this very service for free!
Rent, don't buy, paint sprayers and specialty tools for home repair projects. Swap garden tools or hobby equipment with a neighbor. Borrow books, CDs, and videos from the library or video rental store.
The less you permit stuff to get a foot in the door, the less clutter will grow in your organized home!
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