Does your home need de-cluttering? The old maxim “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, has been around for a very long time and with good reason. Now you may say that cleanliness and being orderly are different matters but I tend to disagree. A home or office cannot be clean if it is disorderly as it is impossible to keep the area clean when it is cluttered.
For those of you whose living areas have deteriorated to this extent, there is hope and like any great journey it starts with the first step. What may seem daunting is always best tackled when broken down into smaller tasks. The first step starts with reducing all the baubles you’ve collected over the years.
When it comes to de-cluttering we strongly suggest you purge your “inner magpie”. Yes, it is you magpies out there gathering everything you see whether needed or not that have turned your homes into warehouse facilities by storing peripheral items that make negotiating the rooms of your house almost as dangerous as crossing a minefield.
Sit down and methodically go through everything you have stored over the years and see how much of it is relevant to your life and worth keeping. If you have trouble disposing of things, recruit another family member who is less sentimental when it comes to keeping minor items and divide the items into things to keep, items to trash, items to donate, and items to sell. Garage sales are a great way to raise money and de-clutter your home at the same time.
Now that your house is beginning to resemble something that approximates a home, the next step is to store like with like. For example, papers of a certain topic should be batched together and if there is insufficient or inappropriate shelving or filing, then now is the time to invest in it. Similarly, purchase your music and books digitally instead of the physical CD or book. An MP3 player and iPad or Kindle take up much less room and are easier to find. For your physical books and CDs, go through these to decide what you will keep, what you will give away or maybe sell at a yard sale or on eBay. You can index your paper files and other physical items, such as the books and CDs that you decide to keep into Paper Tiger Filing System Software to get organized so you can find what you need, when you need it.
Your outdoors areas are not immune from a thorough tidying up. Chances are that if you have remiss in your duties of keeping your indoors tidy, then this habit has flowed through to your yard. Deck boxes are a great place for keeping smaller and medium sized items stored out of sight. They come in a range of colors and sizes, and may also be designed to provide additional outdoor seating making them particularly durable. For larger items, buy a plastic shed. They are easy to assemble and resistant to the elements and great for storing gardening tools, bicycles, and other large items.
Once you can see your carpet, floorboards, and grass again, the trick is not to let your house and yard return to its previous state. When it comes to keeping things tidy, prevention is definitely better than cure.
Written by Sharon B. Robinson on behalf of Keter, who offers storage solutions from deck boxes to storage sheds. For more tips on de-cluttering or storage solutions for getting organized, follow us on Twitter @KeterTweets
I agree, take time to check the things you have collected through the years and determine if you are still using them daily.
A great tip on having someone who will assist you can can give opinion even if it will hurt your feelings about the things you have hoarded.
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Rose
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I totally agree with this! I love being able to find things within just a few seconds. I am currently DE-cluttering and packing for a state to state move for the first time in my life. I am sorting items as I pack, using my Paper Tiger program to make the transition smoother and help those that will be loading/unloading the moving van so it will go much easier! (I’m also hoping for FASTER!) I will know what is in each and every box, without a bunch of boxes being marked “miscellaneous”! Every thing will have it’s place, or OUT IT GOES! When we actually see all the things we have accumulated, the process of DE-cluttering becomes much easier. Thank you for a wonderful product.