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Here are the rules that are your path out of a life-style bogged down with stuff, immobilized by disorganization and stymied by interruption:
- When in doubt, throw it out. If it's broken, fix it or toss it. Don't put it anywhere just "for now" and keep it in a perpetual holding pattern.
- Use it or lose it. You can't use the excuse that it "might come in handy after the earthquake" — unless it's a flashlight or something sensible. Not your collection of lampshades.
- Efficiency counts, so store things accordingly. For example, if the recycling bins are in the far end of the garage, no one is going to use them. Since the kids normally throw their coats just inside the door (if you're lucky), move the coatrack there.
- Handle some things once. When mail arrives, don't just idly sort through it looking for something interesting. Instead, stand next to a recycling bin or trash can as you sort. Toss the appropriate pieces then and there.
- Recycle it. Almost any inanimate object in your house is a candidate for reuse by someone else.
- Pick a number and stick with it. If you use one mayonnaise jar every six months for drippings, and you purchase mayonnaise approximately once a month for consumption, you only need to save one jar to have a sufficient supply.
- Use a file cabinet. You can always use the dining room table as a temporary desk, but nothing else in the house is a substitute for a file cabinet.
- Do something. Much of the thinking we do about clutter can lead directly to inaction. Get the areas of clutter that bother you under control and quit beating yourself up over the rest.
- A place for everything, and everthing in its place. Some clutter is just stuff that belongs someplace else. The flip side of this rule means that if everything is in its place, you can find an item precisely when you want it.
- Items displayed in the house have to pass a test. After all, you have only so much space. Does it work? How does this item really look sitting there for all the world to see or to use?
Excerpted from Jeff Campbell's Clutter Control: Putting Your Home on a Diet.
Uncluttering Rules: Created on October 31st, 2003. Last Modified on January 21st, 2014
