cleared of mold.
To apply the Penicillin strategy, use the STOP clutter method Front Door Forward
to clear clutter from a small area each day. The following day, The most straightforward path through whole-house clutter?
check to see that the first area is still clear, then move on to Use the Front Door Forward method. Start at the front door liberate another cache of clutter.
and move to the right around the house, decluttering as you go. Start each session next to the last area you cleared.
A Drawer-a-Day
The advantages of Front Door Forward are that you always Practitioners of Feng Shui believe that clutter and accumulated know which location is next in line for a clear-out. Better still, trash are traps for stale “chi,” the energy that flows throughout the house’s public areas are decluttered first—no more wincing home and life. Liberate the trapped chi step-by-step with the at the sound of a neighbor’s knock at the door!
Drawer-a-Day method: fighting clutter by attacking it in small, daily nibbles.
A Clean Sweep
Simply put, take 15 minutes to use the STOP clutter method Overwhelmed by a house full of clutter? Try doing a Clean ( see pages 20–23) on a single drawer, shelf, countertop, or corner Sweep. Once a day, grab a garbage can liner and circle the each day. Visualize restoring a free flow of life-giving energy as house, looking for trash which can be tossed without the need you declutter and clear each choked storage area or counter.
for decision-making. Grocery bags, unmated socks, broken kitchen tools, foods past their “use-by” dates, and makeup more
▶ Clutter Costs! Piled paperwork, misplaced bills, and hidden than a year old are among the suitable candidates. When the checkbooks get in the way of good financial management. Keep garbage bag is full, toss it!
clutter at bay to keep the household bottom line healthy.
Evening
Short and sweet, a quick evening sweep
makes for happy mornings. Before bed each
night, patrol the house for out-of-place
belongings. A records box or basket with
handles makes it easy to gather up discarded
shoes, magazines, plates and glasses, toys,
sweep
television remotes, and schoolbooks. Circle
the whole house and return items to their
proper place.
Families with children do well to build
family “put-away” time into the routines of
daily life. Just as in any good preschool or
kindergarten, returning playthings to their
places at day’s end trains children to habits of
order—and keeps parents from stubbing toes
on scattered toys in the middle of the night!
28
SKILLS FOR A WELL-RUN HOME
Keep clutter from
coming
back
Getting to clutter-free is only half the job; you’ll need to develop new attitudes and habits to keep clutter from coming back. Right-size household possessions with these strategies for sustainable clutter-free living.
Home, home on the range
A primary cause of clutter? It’s the homeless ... mail, toys, Cut the clutter—and fatten your wallet—
or newspapers. Without a home, common household items by selling unneeded items for ready cash:
wander, lose their way, meet bad companions, and make the transition to clutter.
Cash ▪ Hold a yard, tag, or garage sale. Take out ads, and be sure to note big-ticket items.
Establish good homes for your stuff. Newspapers may be Use group pricing—”Four for a dollar” or
folded and stacked on a coffee table before being read, then
“$5 per bag”—to encourage sales. Arrange
given shelter in a box while they wait for recycling. Devote for a charity to pick up any unsold items at
prime domestic real estate to use as a Launch Pad ( see pages the end of the sale to make sure you sell out.
182–183) for each family member: a location for purses, school Trash to
papers, backpacks, and briefcases. Give paperwork proper files
▪ Sell online. Online auction sites like
eBay make it easy to find buyers for
so it never has to huddle in lonely stacks on kitchen counters.
surplus books, craft supplies, collectibles,
With a home to go to, good stuff will never become bad clutter.
or electronics. Larger items find a new
home when listed on www.craigslist.org
One-In, One-Out Promise
for sale.
The simplest way to deny clutter houseroom? Make the One-In, One-Out Promise. For every new garment, video game, or
▪ Consign it. Consignment stores aren’t just for clothing anymore. Fitness equipment, baby
magazine that enters your home, resolve that one older items, and children’s clothing shops now offer
garment, video game, or magazine must leave. For example, an easy way to sell surplus items.
when this month’s issue of your favorite magazine arrives in the mail, set aside an older issue to share at the library. Pretty new
▪ It pays to advertise. Place low-cost
classified ads when selling big-ticket items.
towels may enter your home only if the older set is recycled for Many newspapers and community centers
use as car-wash rags or put in the charity bag.
offer free or low-cost classified ads for
private sellers. Use this service for a quick
The No-Buy-It Diet
way to find new homes—and a few extra
Go on a No-Buy-It Diet to build clutter-free habits and avoid dollars—for unneeded appliances, furniture,
buying more “stuff.” The No-Buy-It Diet is simple: find ways or fixtures.
to rent, borrow, or swap for items you need, rather than buy them. Try these No-Buy-It strategies to share the wealth and cut the clutter without buying new:
DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME
29
▪ Equipment for parties. Throwing a party or reunion?
Borrow special-use equipment like punch bowls or coffee urns from friends or community sources. Churches, community groups, and fast-food restaurants offer clutter-free access to specialty equipment for your celebration; at the end of the event, the items are returned for others to use.
▪ Youth sports equipment. This can be costly and is often outgrown from season to season. Band with other parents to organize swaps of uniforms and equipment for children’s sports activities. For example, ski swaps can outfit youngsters inexpensively before each season, and find new homes for outgrown ski boots at year’s end.
“Organize a wardrobe swap
with friends to keep clothing
in circulation—and out of
the landfill.”
▪ Maternity and infant clothing. Expecting a baby? Other moms are an excellent source of gently worn maternity and infant clothing, so swap and recycle instead of buying new.
Circulate a “maternity box” of maternity clothing among a group of young-mom friends. After the child is born, remove worn-out items, and add any new clothing before handing the box on to the next expectant mother.
Observe oosouji
▲ Consume creatively to cut clutter—and lend a hand to To hold the line against clutter, and start the New Year fresh, Mother Earth! Repurpose or donate gently used clothing, or borrow a Japanese custom. To prepare for a happy and organize a wardrobe swap with friends to keep clothing in prosperous New Year, the Japanese perform oosouji, cleaning circulation—and out of the landfill.
and organizing homes and offices in the run-up to New Year’s
▪ Video and computer games. Stream or rent videos Day. By this practice, they tie up the old year’s loose ends and and computer games rather than buying them. Streaming outstanding pr
ojects, and make room for the blessings and media services bring movies to you without creating video challenges of a new year.
clutter at home—and you’ll have access to a large library of Take a tip from the Japanese, and ring in the New Year movies and TV shows. Borrow video games from the local from a clean and decluttered home. At year’s end, create space library, or arrange a swap with friends and neighbors for a in each shelf, cabinet, and closet for the new possessions that clutter-free alternative.
will come with a new year.
30
SKILLS FOR A WELL-RUN HOME
What’s your
clutter
personality?
It’s silent. It’s sneaky. It creeps about in corners: clutter. While it’s tempting to launch an all-out battle in the war against clutter, it’s best to know your enemy first. There are as many reasons for household clutter as there are clutterers. Target your household’s clutter problem by going to the root of the problem: your own thinking.
The hoarder:
The deferrer:
“This might come in
“I’ll think about
handy someday.”
that tomorrow.”
Know a hoarder by his or her
Those of the deferral mindset
collection ... of the most
are guilty of the great set-
unlikely objects. Hoarders save
aside. Bills, notices, old
everything, and I do mean
newspapers, items that need
everything: plastic shopping
cleaning or repair, and
bags, newspaper flyers, and worn-out clothing. Hoarder household projects are all set aside to be dealt with another creativity knows no bounds. Ask a hoarder why she’s holding day. The deferrer will leave dinner dishes in the sink, wet onto three years’ worth of local newspapers, and she’ll laundry in the washer, and dropped fruit underneath the describe the papier-mâché angel figure she hopes to craft backyard apple tree.
from them. Problem is, hoarding knows no limit, so our friend Deferrers need to be reminded that tomorrow has no more can’t see that she has enough materials to create angels for time or energy than today—and that deferring decisions drags each home in the subdivision ... and then some!
down each new day with yesterday’s unfinished business. Since Hoarding is rooted in insecurity, financial or otherwise.
this behavior is grounded in procrastination, apply the best Deep down, hoarders are afraid that they’ll never have the remedy: action. For deferrers, simply making a start creates the resources they need if they let go of any possession, no matter momentum needed to finish the job. Remember, it’s easier to how worn, useless, or superfluous. If cabinets and closets are keep a rolling stone in motion, than it is to pick it up and start crammed with cracked margarine containers, small kitchen it rolling the first time!
appliances that haven’t been used in decades, and old catalogs, How to push the inner deferrer off the dime? Force action there’s likely hoarding behavior underlying the clutter.
with a cut-off date. For example, when you find an unfinished Hoarders need to remind themselves that resources will always cross-stitch project, circle a date on the calendar, and make a be available. Where can a hoarder look outside the home for a note. If you haven’t finished the project by that date, the item substitute hoard? Reassure yourself! Stuff will be with us always.
must go—but by making a start on the project, you’re liable Find magazines indexed at the library, kitchenware marked down to keep going until you finish it. The jump-start of taking at yard sales, and every small appliance known to man can be action is often enough to spark even the most confirmed found (cheap!) at the thrift store. Think of these off-site treasure deferrer’s battery, so harness this effect to resume momentum troves as attenuated household storage areas. Dare to dump it!
on stalled clutter issues.
DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME
31
The rebel:
perfect shelf paper, lid holder organizer, and color-coded
“I don’t wanna and
folders and labels. As a result, the massed and crowded you can’t make me!”
containers stay put, falling down onto the feet of anyone Somehow, it’s all Mom’s fault.
hapless enough to open the cupboard door.
Rebels were forced to pick up
Perfectionist clutterers need to remind themselves of the after themselves as children; as
20–80 rule: 20 percent of every job takes care of 80 percent adults, they’re still expressing
of the problem, while fixing the remaining 20 percent will the mute and stubborn
gobble 80 percent of the job. By giving themselves permission determination of a four-year-old who refuses to pick up his to do only 20 percent, perfectionist clutterers get off the dime toys. Rebel clutter can be anything, but often centers on and get going. It is perfectly fine to tell the inner perfectionist, household activities. No, the rebel won’t put his or her clothes
“Today, I’ll do the important 20 percent of that job: sorting, in the hamper, cereal bowl in the dishwasher, or car in the stacking, and organizing those food containers. Later, I’ll do garage—even when the clothing gets wrinkled, the cereal the other 80 percent, buying organizers and putting down bowl hardens into yellow goop, and the car gets damaged by shelf paper.” If later never comes? Well, you’ve outwitted your roadside traffic.
inner perfectionist clutterer...congratulations!
Rebels need to remind themselvwves that the war is over.
They don’t live at home with Mom and Pop anymore—and The sentimentalist:
their own family deserves an adult on the job, not a sulky child.
“Oh, the little
Tell that inner rebel, “It’s okay—I’m the parent now, and I want darling!”
a house that’s nice to live in.” By switching places with the Sentimentalists never met a
old authority figure, it is possible for the Rebel to find a way memento they didn’t like—
out of the “I don’t wanna!” mindset. By reminding yourself or want to keep. Children’s
that you are in control of your decisions, you can defuse the clothing and school papers,
inner rebel’s imaginary power struggle.
faded greeting cards, souvenirs
from long-ago trips, and jumbled keepsakes crowd the The perfectionist:
environment of the sentimental clutterer. Problem is, there’s so
“Next week, I’ll
much to remember that the truly endearing items get lost in a organize everything
flood. Who can find the first grade report card in an attic full
... perfectly.”
of boxes of paper?
Perfectionists are wonderful
The sentimental clutterer needs to reduce the mass of people, but they live in an
mementos to a more portable state, changing his or her mindset all-or-nothing world. They do
from an indiscriminate “Awwww!” to a more selective stance.
wonderful things—when they
Remember, what’s important to the sentimental heart are the do them! Perfectionism forms an inner barrier to cutting memories and emotions. So, for example, a sentimental clutterer clutter because the perfectionist simply cannot abide doing a can corral each child’s school papers into a single box by less-than-perfect job. Without the time to give 110 percent to selecting one best drawing, theme, or project each month—
the project, the perfectionist clutterer prefers to let matters—
everything else goes in the trash can.
and the piles of stuff—slide.
Other ideas for reining in rampant sentimental clutter include For example, plastic food containers may be overflowing scrapbooking the very best photos and papers, or photographing from their kitchen cabinet, but the perfectionist clutterer won’t surplus sentimental clutter
before letting it go. Sort it out, choose scrabble them to rights until he or she can purchase the the best, keep the memories, and dump the rest!
32
SKILLS FOR A WELL-RUN HOME
Fighting clutter
from the inside out
It isn’t just our homes that are clogged with useless stuff. Clutter takes hold of our minds, too. Psychological issues like fear or sentiment can prevent us from giving excess stuff the heave-ho. Solution: confront the inner forces that stand between your clutter and the trash can. Try these counter-measures to release your grip on clutter.
Scarcity thinking: “I might need it.”
considering whether to give the item houseroom or let it go as People with scarcity thinking refuse to part with clutter out clutter. Online auction sites are wonderful allies in this process; of fear that they will not have—or will not have enough of—
they’ll give you a quick, real-world value for any product.
the goods and items they need at some future time. Result: Knowing what something is worth today will shift your thinking drawers filled with folded aluminum foil and stacked egg and make it easier to part with the item and move on.
cartons, garages drowning in bent nails and broken tools.
Deal with scarcity thinking by dragging your fear into the Thrill of the chase: “It’s a collection.”
open and staring it down—then move past it to release the Collecting can be fun, but it can also lead to immense clutter hold on your thinking. For example, confronted with a cabinet problems. In the thrall of pursuit and acquisition, little else full of empty yogurt containers (no lids), ask yourself, “When matters—until you have to find homes for the new additions was the last time that I ever used one?” An answer that ranges on already-crowded shelves. By the time a cherished collection from “never” to “about 25 years ago” means that scarcity must be stored in dusty attics or on high shelves, it’s crossed thinking is behind the clutter problem.
Cut the Clutter Page 3
