BellaOnline Forums Money Home Ownership Don't know what to do with clutter?

Here are a few ideas of why to declutter and what to do with it at What To Do With Clutter

Rosemary
Editor
The Home Ownership Site

Some good ideas. De-cluttering is important.

A couple of things I have found intersting in terms of decluttering:

A programme in the UK called THE LIFE LAUNDRY which was about helping people declutter with Dawna Walter. I liked the combinaton of practical and psychological.

A book called Organising From The Inside Out by Julie Morganstern also explores psychological as well as physical aspects of dcluttering.

When I moved to Scotland from England I picked up a book about clearing clutter related to feng shui by Carole Kingston at a local recycling centre = whover had pased the book on had obviously cleared their life enough to not need it. It was great and helped me evaluate a lot of things I had kept in boxes for a number of years.

Asha
Scottish Culture Editor

That's very interesting. We probably all should evaluate why we keep things too long. It is usually after I see someone else's clutter that I get the urge to clean out my own things.

Rosemary
Editor

One good rule of thumb that has stayed in the back of my mind is.. If my family hasn't used it in the last 6 months and won't use it in the next year, we need to get rid of it. There are a few exceptions (hand me down clothes, etc that I keep boxed up and labeled.) But just asking myself questions about certain items helps me to evaluate whether I need to get rid of it or not.

Dealing with clutter is an ongoing problem. While getting rid of a lot is what you need to do when selling a home, the best way is to get rid of stuff you don't need daily, and not let it pile up in the first place.

A technique I found helpful with office work was to put a sticker (usually a red dot) on things I had handled and not dealt with/made a decision about. I reckon this could also work for other types of clutter - it's a great reminder...

I find it really helps to take just ten minutes and do a sweep of an area and remove even just one thing. Every little bit helps!

Today I dumped my desk drawer and cleared that out. It's really wonderful to have a clean desk drawer, and it didn't take that long to do! Plus I found some gift cards!

Well done you Lisa. Were the gift cards in date so that you can still use them? (or give them to others to use).

Paper clutter is the worst. It's easy to move it from one spot to the next.