Tips for winning the battle against clutter for good.
By Ann Springer
Everyone has it. No one can escape from it. But you can fight the beast that is clutter and win.
First, you have to understand the enemy in order to conquer it. As stated in the dictionary definition of the word, clutter is basically anything that stands in your way of being organized.
Second, you have to recognize clutter in its many forms. Like many great enemy fighters, clutter is a shape-shifter and can take on many faces to attempt becoming victorious. Clutter in one house may appear as piles of unread mail and unpaid bills mixed in with to-do lists and important documents. In another home clutter may be endless toys and clothing (most of which have been outgrown by the children they’re intended for). Clutter comes in many forms so you have to look at which areas of your home are not working well for you.
Next, you must diagnose why clutter has gotten the best of you so that you can dismantle its power source. Do you have clutter in your garage because the tools are too hard to access so you just keep piling up tools instead of replacing them to their intended home? Is your home office a mess because you don’t have an updated filing system to include new clients and projects?
Finally, you’ve must slay clutter through the heart to kill it once and for all. Once you’ve removed the unwanted, unneeded items you can easily find and enjoy the possessions you use most often and cherish the most. Remember to continually sort and sift through things before they pile up or you’ll be back to where you started – fighting the clutter bug!
Papers. Thanks to work, school, children, and mailboxes we all come into a lot of contact with paper in a day. Taming the paper monster is no easy feat, so you must have a plan for papers or they will overtake your life, even in a supposed paperless world we know strive to live in.
Kitchens. Grandma gives you her hand-me-down casserole dishes. Your mother buys you a new dinnerware set for Christmas. Your husband gives you another vase for your anniversary. Before you know it, your kitchen is overflowing with dishes than any one family can dirty in a year. The kitchen pantry is also an enticing place for clutter to accumulate . Chuck items with past-due expiration dates and put older items on your menu planning calendar to use up before they go bad.
Bathrooms. How many shampoo bottles can one person use at a time? Really? What about over-the-counter medicines and supplies? The cough medicine you bought last Christmas is probably no longer effective. It’s time to toss it and utilize that space in your medicine cabinet more effectively.
