Dec 29 2010
The Quickest and Most Effective Way To Get Rid of Clutter
Perhaps you are getting ready to move out of your current home. You’ve been packing up boxes and discovering that there is a lot more that you thought. Or maybe you are just moving things so that carpet cleaners or painters can come in to do their work. Regardless of why, you’ve discovered that you need to de-junk your home. For most people, this is a scary idea. To the naked eye, it’s hard to know what is worth keeping and what needs to go. One option is to have a trusted friend work with you on this project. I helped a friend de-junk one time and it seemed to help her a lot. Another option is having a system in place that takes the guesswork out of the process. For this process all you need is some boxes, a marker, and some tape.
Before you start sorting through anything, set up the boxes and label them as follows: junk, sort, donate, and emotional withdrawal. If you are a serious packrat, this may be all the further you get that first day. But when you are finally sick of seeing those boxes sitting around, you are ready to de-junk for good.
This is where the sorting begins. Do not be tempted to put everything in a bunch of “sort” boxes and call it good. This will get you nowhere fast! Start with the donate box. A good rule to work with is this: if you haven’t used it in a year, donate it. That gives you four seasons to use it. No excuses about saving it for the winter. If you haven’t used it for four seasons, someone else can use it. Find your favorite charity. Make an announcement at church. Check with family and friends.
Next is the true “junk” pile. It’s outdated, expired, or broken, put it in the junk box and don’t look back. This is a good place for puzzles that are missing pieces, socks without partners, keys to automobiles you don’t own anymore, and the like. These are things you can’t even donate! So why should they be cluttering up your home?
The “sort” box takes all the things that you want to keep but they need to be moved in order to be useful. Nails in the bathroom? No! Earrings located with the pencils? That’s not very useful.
Finally, the “emotional withdrawal” box is for those things you just aren’t ready to part with. The idea is to put things in this box until you are ready to give them up.
Lastly, if you’re looking for new camera to take pictures of your clean home, you can find information about some of the best compact cameras online at sites such as http://www.BestCompactCamera.net to help guide your decision.