She’d say, “Take it easy. With baby steps.”
• Pick an area that needs de-cluttering. The corner of a room. Your home office. A closet.
• Discard or put away two items. Then stop.
• Discard or put away two items every day from now on (okay, take the weekend off, or at least Sunday).
• If you’re on a roll one day and feel like doing more and have the time, go ahead until you want to stop.
• BUT, the next day, discard or put away two more items. No resting on your laurels.
• Repeat until done.
Then you can pick another area to work on.
To keep the clutter permanently gone from the areas you’ve worked on, be sure to discard or put away any items that have accumulated in that spot before you go to bed every night. After a while this will become such a habit that you won’t be able to go to bed without having everything put away.
This is how I do it. I have two hot spots. Home office and kitchen. I make sure all surfaces are clear before I head off to bed every night. The rest of the house I keep up with as I use the space—the closet, for example, or the table next to my chair.
I hope this will help anyone who has trouble with excess clutter. Let me know how it goes if you use this system. And if you have any other tips, please leave a comment.
Every season I go through my closet and pull out clothes to donate to the local thrift shop, which supports a food bank. I do the same with books. I keep a paper bag near by desk and when it’s filled, I take it to the library for their book sale. I also take things to a consignment shop that’s open only in the summer, so that gives me time to gather things throughout the year and then cart them away. I wonder if people in other countries have as much “stuff” as we do.
Susan, sounds as if you could give Tina lessons. What a great system. For other items, a box in the garage or an out-of-the-way spot to place items as we come across them for donating, is also a good idea. Thanks for stopping by!