Think of removing clutter as a new beginning, not an ending. You are giving your clutter a new life by sending it on.
Keep it simple. Ask yourself if you currently need it, use it or love it. If you cannot answer yes to any of those questions then you have found your clutter. You may have loved it in the past or think you may need it in the future, but the key is to think current only.
Ask yourself "What’s the worst thing that can happen if I get rid of this item?" In your response, be honest, realistic and ruthless. Can you buy, borrow or rent another one?
Find organizations that you feel good about donating to. Domestic abuse homes, animal support organizations and work training programs are just a few possibilities.
Find a nonjudgmental, honest and patient person to work with you on making the decisions to let go. Don’t partner with someone that may want your things; the conflict of interest will make it more difficult.
Take a look at how many of a particular item (say T-shirts) you have and ask yourself "Which of these would I pick first to use/wear if I needed one?" That will help you pick out your favorites and set free the others.
Make de-cluttering a positive experience for children. Ask them to pull out a specific number of their favorites. This way they are choosing what to say yes to. Explain that things that are no longer favorites or they have outgrown can go to someone less fortunate. I like to use this with an overabundance of stuffed animals or ball caps, for example.
If your children panic at the thought of getting rid of any toys, send the toys "on vacation." Put a portion of the toys in the attic to be rotated down later. They may find that they did not miss the "vacation" toys at all.
To reduce paper coming in the mail, get off the junk mail list by going online to www.dmachoice.org.
Establish boundaries for your troubled clutter areas. For example, give magazines a two-month boundary. Once the September magazines arrive you need to toss out the July magazines. Install a grocery bag wall bin and this will place a boundary on the number of bags you can keep. Once the bin is full that is all you can keep.
)
