Six Tips to Cut Clutter

[David Baxter PhD]

Six Tips to Cut Clutter
By Sharon Anne Waldrop

Cut clutter and reclaim your space with clutter tips that will help you organize:

1. Organizing clutter means adapting spaces to meet your needs. ?You have places where things tend to pile up for a reason, so don?t fight it,? Janine Adams, owner of Peace of Mind Organizing in St. Louis, Mo. If you empty your pockets onto the dresser, buy a decorative bowl and put it in that spot. If you unload at the kitchen counter, pick a drawer near the door to store items.
   
2. Assign every family member a cubby. Whether it?s a plastic container in a closet or a built shelf near an entryway, assigned spaces lets them know where their belongings belong. An inexpensive, space-saving solution: Hang a pocket holder on the back of a door, such as those designed for storing shoes, to keep personal items handy, says Jill Graham, owner of Operation: Organize!, an organization consulting firm in Chandler, Ariz.
   
3. Handle mail every day. ?Immediately recycle or shred the junk mail,? says Adams. File what you need to access in the near future, such as bills, into an accordion-style folder, and store keepsake documents in a labeled filing cabinet.
   
4. Cut clutter by storing things where you use them. ?Think toothbrush. You never misplace it because its home is where you use it,? says Rosemary Chieppo, a professional organizer and author of Clutter, Chaos & the Cure (Kiwi Publishing, 2008).
   
5. Group like things together. This allows you to keep inventory, so you don?t end up with 67 AA batteries.
   
6. Put short items in front of tall things. Most people are visual; if they don?t see something, it may as well not exist, cautions Chieppo.

The following websites offer additional clutter tips:

• FlyLady.net, who recommends taking 15 minutes each day to cut clutter in an area and focus on zones.
  
• Peter Walsh, organizational expert who offers a free newsletter offering ways to stay organized.

 

[moomoo]

Oh - and stop buying things!

 

[Meg]

I have a big clutter aversion. My solution has been to spend 10 minutes before I go to bed at night as part of my regular wind-down routine putting things back where they've wandered from. That way it doesn't build up and you start afresh in the morning.

 

[Daniel E.]

Organizing Your Office to Reflect Your Goals, Priorities, and Personality
by Melanie Negrin

“I’d like to propose a new definition of organization: Organizing is the process by which we create environments that enable us to live, work, and relax exactly as we want to. When we are organized, our homes, offices, and schedules reflect and encourage who we are, what we want, and where we are going.” ~ Julie Morgenstern
​

...In Organizing from the Inside Out, second edition: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life

, Julie Morgenstern helps us establish a system of organization that is designed around our personal strengths, weaknesses, and behaviors so that we can more easily maintain it.

But first, you may need to change your perspective. Organizing is not tedious, boring work. It can be inspiring when you find a note your wrote to yourself two months ago after a seminar. Or it can be empowering when someone asks you a question and you know just where to go to look for the answer.

Getting organized is a process of getting comfortable. And no two people will be comfortable in just the same way.

So start the process with an open mind, and set aside some time to really think it through. When you’re done, if you’ve done it well, it will help you be as passionate about your work space as you are about your work.

Sounds silly, but when you come to work excited about what you’re going to do and you sit down to work in a space that reinforces that energy instead of draining it, imagine the consequences…

“Organizing from the inside out means creating a system based on your specific personality, needs, and goals. It focuses on defining who you are and what is important to you as a person so that your system can be designed to reflect that.” ~JM
​

In the first part of her book, Julie addresses what typically holds us back from organizing our clutter, like small mechanical errors that can be fixed quickly but usually aren’t (i.e., items have no home, inconvenient storage, more stuff than storage space), environmental realities that are beyond our control (i.e., unrealistic workload, transition, uncooperative partners, limited space), and psychological obstacles (i.e., need for abundance, unclear goals and priorities, fear of success or failure, need to retreat, fear of losing creativity, need for distraction, sentimental attachment, need for perfection). Understanding all three of these is critical to setting realistic expectations for your system and making sure you don’t sabotage the system you establish.

Once you have the right expectations, analyze what’s not working and what is working. Fix what needs to be fixed. Don’t reinvent what’s already working. Learn from it instead and apply the learning to your new system. It works because it fits naturally with who you are and what’s important to you.

If you’re not sure what isn’t working, finish these sentences.

* I can never find …
* I have no place to put …
* There’s no room for …
* I am tired of …
* I can’t … because of the clutter.
* I’m losing a lot of money on …
* The disorganization makes me feel …
* When people visit, I …
​

If you’re not sure what is working, try reversing the sentences:

* I can always find …
* I have the perfect place for …
* There’s always space for …
* I love …
* I can … because there’s no clutter
* I’m bringing in money because …
* When people visit, I am proud that …
* When I’m organized, I feel …
​

Identify the items most essential to you. If there was a fire, what would you take with you? What do you have, that without, you couldn’t do your job?

Write down why you want to get organized. You have to be able to see the benefit in it. Post it on the wall to keep you motivated when your energy dips.

Write down what you think is causing the problem. Look back at some of the causes of clutter. Do you see something there that fits your situation?

Ok, now that you understand what works and doesn’t work and you see the value in moving forward, try this…

Follow the kindergarten model of organization.

1. Divide the room into activity zones.
2. Make sure each zone allows you to focus on one thing at a time.
3. Store items at the point of use.
4. Make sure everything has a home.
5. Create a “visual menu” of everything that’s important.
​

How do you apply this to your office?

1. Make a list of your primary activities.
2. Identify 3-5 functions for each activity zone.
3. Sketch out an arrangement of furniture that supports your defined activity zones and move furniture into place.
4. Working in one section at a time, sort, purge (if needed), assign a home for everything, and use containers to keep similar items together.
5. Commit to maintaining the system regularly, at the end of each day, then every 6-12 months. Make adjustments as needed.
​

Julie Morgenstern offers specific strategies for organizing briefcases and handbags, suitcases, traditional offices and filing systems, home-based businesses, cubicle workstations, mobile offices, household information centers, attics, basements, and garages, bathrooms, bedrooms, closets, kids’ rooms, kitchens, living rooms, and photographs “from the inside out” in her book. She also offers tips for tackling time and technology.

 

[Daniel E.]

How to Get Rid of Clutter Effectively
Organizing Clutter blog

A lot of people make the mistake of scattering their organizing efforts, working back and forth between several rooms at the same time. This system is called zigzag organizing and it is guaranteed to provide the minimum results in the maximum time. This happens because they don?t know how to get rid of clutter effectively.

For example, you start decluttering a drawer and find a book inside that belongs somewhere else, you go to that bookcase and discover the shelves are so messy there is no place for the book. So you stop decluttering the drawer and start organizing the bookcase. Then you find some papers on the bookshelves that really belong in your filing system. But of course, the filing system is a disaster, so you leave the drawer and the bookshelves and start organizing the filing system. Before you know it you have started five, six, seven different areas, finished none and quit in despair.

The opposite of zigzag organizing is to work on one section at a time. That means completing one room before moving on to the next, and within each room, tackling the space one section at a time. Decide upfront which corner of the room you want to serve as the launchpad for your organizing efforts, and complete that section before moving on to the next.

If you find something that belongs elsewhere just put it in the doorway for now, and take care of it at the end of your organizing session. Working one section at a time allows you to see progress. It also gives you logical places to take breaks to recharge your energy and determination. If you need a rest you can rest before you start with the next section.

When you come back to the room, the first thing you will see is that beautifully organized section and that will encourage you to keep going and move on to the next section.

 

[Daniel E.]

Spring Clean your Mind and Home ? Just B Living

 

[Daniel E.]

The Freedom of Living with 75 Things

 

[Daniel E.]

Clutter and Stress

 

[Daniel E.]

BTW, for those in the U.S., a new way to get rid of old books (besides selling them at Amazon.com):

The "Rebuild Haiti" Better World Book Drive

 

[Daniel E.]

Another exciting anti-clutter update:

Owning fewer things means enjoying what we do have more. It means actually getting to use those things. It means less time spent maintaining things. In turn, less clutter means fewer distractions from what is important like family, food, pets, nature, art and study. Less clutter means needing less space. Less space costs less money which translates into fewer work hours. And so on.

The Art of Doing Without

 

[Daniel E.]

YouTube - Erin Rooney Doland on WGN Midday News Discussing Unclutter Your Life in One Week
YouTube - Erin Doland of Unclutterer.com on the Rachael Ray Show

 

[Daniel E.]

Entertain Regularly to Keep Your House Tidy

Organize More Efficiently by Staying Put

Declutter Your Home with a Detailed Inventory

more at Lifehacker: Declutter.

 

[Daniel E.]

Tidy areas tend to stay tidy while messy areas tend to get messier:

YouTube - Fighting clutter? Clear a surface.

Also:
Housecleaning Help When Dealing With Depression
How to Simplify When You Love Your Stuff