Practical Tips for Controlling Clutter

The only way you can have a clean and organized home is if you are able to control clutter. Once clutter in your home goes out of control, you’ll find it very challenging to do some real cleaning such as vacuuming and dusting. Clutter can eat up all of your time and energy. You’ll need to de-clutter before you can even get down to the business of real cleaning. And when you’re finally done clearing the kitchen counter of clutter, you’re just too tired to continue cleaning, or perhaps you’ve run out of time to finish cleaning up. So how can you control clutter so it doesn’t become overwhelming? Here are a few tips.

Paper clutter is the most common clutter in homes. It can be mail, magazines and newspapers, the papers your spouse brings home from work, your kid’s school projects, statements, etc. Paper clutter can accumulate fast and before you know it, you’ve got a mountain of paper clutter you have to plow through.

You can tame the beast that is paper clutter. One, go through the mail right away – as soon as they hit your mailbox. Designate a garbage can for junk mail. Keep this can and every week or other week, shred its contents. Shred the contents before disposing of it. Why? Two words: identity theft.

As for the other pieces of mail, place bills and statements that need to be paid in a “To Do” basket. Place this basket near the phone or by the computer so you’re constantly reminded to get them settled. File away other important papers; don’t leave them in a pile and tell yourself you’ll deal with them later because you’re likely going to forget all about them. Deal with them as soon as they come.

The same goes for your spouse’s work papers and your kid’s school projects. Designate a spot in the computer room or living room where your spouse can file his “to do” paperwork in one spot. If your child has a study room, place a basket on his desk where he can put his current home work and projects.

Of course, you may want to keep everything your child makes, but these can easily and quickly clutter up your child’s room (or desk) unless you have a filing system in place. Get a larger plastic container for storing old art projects and school work. You can place this bin under your child’s bed, in the garage, attic or basement.

Unless you love collecting old newspapers and magazines, don’t let them pile up in the living room. You can recycle these items but make sure you store them neatly. You can place a bin by the garbage can and put old newspapers and magazines in this bin. Whenever you empty the garbage can, you can also empty the bin.

There are other types of clutter that you need to deal with. It can be old furniture, broken appliances, old clothes and other items. When you’re de-cluttering, you may be tempted to keep things for some reason or another. However, here’s an easy way to decide whether to throw or store something away or keep it: ask yourself if an item is something you’ll use again. Be honest with your answer.

If you haven’t used an item in a year, you aren’t likely going to use it again so you’re better off getting rid of it. It’s clutter. You can either donate it to charity (if it’s in a good enough condition and someone else is definitely going to be able to use it) or sell it. If you aren’t sure about keeping or throwing away an item you don’t use frequently, put it in storage and give it six months. If in six months you haven’t used (or found a use for) it, toss it.

Seasonal items like clothing can be put into storage – whether it’s in the attic, basement, garage or a designated storage room in the house. For storing seasonal items, consider buying large storage crates you can stack on top of each other. So you know what’s in each crate and to make it easy for you to find things, label the crates. Include a general description of the contents, such as “Charlie’s winter clothes,” “Christmas decorations – ornaments and lights”, “Sandy’s paperback books”.

What about broken, damaged or stained items? Unless it’s an heirloom (even if it’s broken) or has some family or historical significance, throw it away. This goes for all items, seasonal or not. If you don’t get rid of these things, they’ll simply continue to be a clutter in your home and your life.