In my post last month we started to look at what being organised means, and I said that it’s perfectly fine (and unavoidable when you have kids) to have “stuff”. Remember though, that “stuff” is ok, clutter is not. Your stuff becomes clutter when it has no useful value to you, is not contributing anything to your life, or is awaiting an overdue decision or action. The prospect of decluttering is often overwhelming for people, but it really doesn’t need to be. If you break it down into this simple 3-step process, you can easily reduce your clutter!
1. Stop > 2. Decide > 3. Act
Before I explain these 3 steps, here are 3 important tips to make sure your efforts are successful:
- Only work on ONE area at a time. This could be one room, one cupboard, even one shelf – just decide before you start which area you’re going to work on. If you come across an item that belongs in another room, go and place the item there but don’t get sucked in to sorting that room out too until the first space is complete.
- Some questions to ask to help with the decision making process – Have I used this in the last 12 months? What value is this adding to my life? Is it worth the space it’s taking up? Is it worth the time and effort it takes to clean / maintain it? Does it have a designated home; and if not, is it sensible and possible to make a home for it?
- I coined the phrase “Clutter exists due to lack of decisive action” – so make decisions and then take the required action! When you pick something up and “umm” and “uhh” and put it down again, you are delaying your decision and not taking action, and therefore allowing clutter to form.
And so, the 3-step process…
Step 1: Stop
The first step is to stop any more clutter coming in to your life, home, handbag, inbox etc. Put a “No junk mail” sticker on your letter box; don’t bring show bags full of useless brochures home from expos; unsubscribe from promotional emails which you never read; opt for electronic bank statements and bills; and so on. The less that comes in, the less you have to deal with, and the easier it is to manage.
Step 2: Decide
This is where you sort through your items and decide what needs to happen with them and where they need to go. Start with setting up some containers to sort your items into, and label them. Avoid just creating piles on the floor or desk as they can easily get out of control and confusing. You can use reusable shopping bags (they can stand on their own and you can move them around easily), plastic storage crates, or even nappy boxes (they’re sturdy and have carry handles on the side) – just whatever containers you have available. Here are some category suggestions: ‘Toss’, ‘Donate’, ‘Recycle’, ‘Return’, ‘Archive’, and ‘Place’ (as in ‘place the item where it belongs’). If you are really struggling to decide what to do with some items, you can allow yourself an ‘Undecided’ box, but when it gets full, make a decision on something in there before adding another item. The archive box works with clothes too – packing your winter woollies away is a form of archiving – it’s stuff you need to keep but don’t need it on hand in the near future.
Step 3: Act
The key to success with this whole process is taking the required action as soon as possible. This is why I advise only working on one area at a time, because then the amount of stuff requiring action at the end is not overwhelming. Slow and steady wins the race!
You have now sorted your items, purged the clutter, and hopefully stopped much of it at the source. Next month we will be looking at ways to ‘Toss’, ‘Donate’, and ‘Recycle’ the stuff in those containers correctly. From old clothes and toys, to old mobile phones and bank statements, items need to be disposed of in the correct way, but many people don’t know how. I look forward to sharing next month’s post with you jam-packed with all this useful info. Until next time…
Beverley
Originally posted 2014-10-08 22:39:14.