Getting Rid of The Clutter In Your Home

Are you living with too much stuff? Do you find it difficult to clean because there is just too much to move? Having clutter isn’t a sign of being lazy; it’s purely a habit that most of have fallen into.

To establish positive habits that will cure our cluttering before it becomes a struggle, try the following five suggestions:

1. Complete Things. Do you know the biggest, not to mention sneakiest, clutter creator? Unfinished business. Those newspapers we’ll get around to reading someday, the projects we’ve begun but never quite completed, and the papers we started filing but then found something more enticing to do. Whenever possible, finish what you start. If you are unable to complete a project, finish at least a measurable amount; you can then write the next steps on your to-do list and tuck the project away without fear of forgetting about it.

2. Give your ‘stuff’ the one-hour test. If there was an emergency situation, and you had no choice but to gather up everything that was important to you--in one hour or less--what would you take? What would you leave behind? This should give you an excellent indication of the items that are truly important to you, and those items that aren't very important to you at all.

3. Give Items Away. If you don’t know whether you want to keep something or not, give it the six-month rule. If you put it away and don’t use it within six months, find a new home for it.

4. Limit What You Buy - We are bombarded with opportunities to increase the amount of stuff in our lives on a moment-to-moment basis. Therefore, it is up to each of us to set our own guidelines of how much stuff we will allow to enter our homes and workspaces.
Practice conscious purchasing. Buying something simply because it is on sale adds considerably to our excess. In addition to considering where you will put the item or what you will use it for once you get home, ask yourself – in all honesty – will the item truly enhance your life or help you fulfill your purpose? Is there something more meaningful for which you would rather spend the money? (A vacation, a spa treatment, or a personal trainer, perhaps.) Many thrifty people find it helpful to ask themselves how many hours they will have to work to pay for the item in order to determine its worth. Whatever your motivation, pay close and conscious attention to the items going into your cart so you can make healthy, life-affirming decisions.

5. Keep a log. Take a notebook and keep a log of every item you use for the next 2 weeks. If it doesn't make it to the list, it's important to question 'why not?’ The answer may be that it's a seasonal item, and right now it's not the right season to be using that item. The answer may be that it's an evening gown, and you wear it once or twice a year for special occasions.

However, if the answer is that you may pick up on your crocheting hobby in a few years, or that a dress may come back in style someday, or that you haven't found a good use for that gadget yet but an idea may come to you, then that item should most likely be donated, sold, or dumped.

Getting rid of clutter can turn into a rather hefty task, depending on the amount and the emotional attachments associated with it. Much easier, then, is preventing clutter from entering our lives in the first place. By implementing even one of these habits, you’ll notice a decrease in the amount of stuff in your life – which will make living a clear, clutter-free life a natural result.


Stephen Nickse is the founder of Closet Solutions, a leading provider of quality Boston Closets, strategically headquartered in the nation’s design capitol, Boston, Ma. For more information, please visit www.closet-solutions.com