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We all know how unsightly clutter is. We also know how our homes seem so much more spacious and how we feel better about them when we are free of it. And clutter is a big problem that affects many people.
Recently one of my readers wrote to me to too tell me about not only their clutter problem, but how they solved it. My reader whom I’ll call Laura and her family had a very disorganized, cluttered home. No matter how hard they tried the family just could not seem to become clutter free.
There were always dirty dishes piling up in the sink, magazines, newspapers and mail seemed to always collect on whatever counter tops were available. Pens, papers, books, CD’s and all kinds of junk just always seemed to be constantly accumulating.
Recently things were getting so bad that Laura was beginning to think that she was going to need to rent storage in a local storage facility. That is until she realized just how much it was going to cost.
In fact, that’s all that it took to motivate Laura to go on a campaign to get rid of clutter. I guess you could say that Laura finally had enough!
Have you ever felt like you were getting to your breaking point when it came to the clutter in your home, but just couldn’t get yourself to take action?
If so, besides realizing that it can hit you right in the wallet, here are a couple of other organizing tips to get you moving towards an uncluttered home.
1. Establish realistic goals – Don’t overwhelm yourself by attempting to unclutter to big of an area at one time. Do as much as you think that you can accomplish – and don’t forget to give yourself credit for your accomplishment, no matter how small you think that it is.
2. Music - Cleaning and organizing doesn’t have that unpleasant of a chore. Make the job fun!
3. Get help - Enlist the help of other family members. It may mean that you will have to offer something back in return, but it will also lead to good quality time and a project that everyone can be proud of.
4. Make money - See what unused stuff you could sell at a garage sale or on ebay. At the very least take a moment to realize, like my reader Laura how much money you will be saving when you get rid of clutter.
Clutter and being disorganized is a big problem that affects many people. Unfortunately many people also think that fixing their clutter problem is a very unpleasant experience when really it is just a matter of how you look at it.
What motivtes you to get rid of the clutter in your home, we would love to hear it!
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article….I have always hated clutter BUT on the other hand hate to throw anything away because I thought I might need it someday! I don’t do that anymore due to realizing that all I was doing was adding more clutter to yesterdays clutter.
How I began to realize that I had so many things I didn’t need and would never miss-I packed up boxes of things I hadn’t used in awhile and if in 6 months I hadn’t used it, I got rid of it…finally realizing that less is more.
Renee´s last blog ..do you have to travel for great photography
My wife is struggling with that right now. I’ll pass your suggestions on to her. I don’t tend to accumulate things. I rarely buy anything and I have very few possessions to begin with.
We were one of those families and we had an emergency so now it will be necessary to move somewhere else and I plan to make sure that we declutter this place.:) I had to throw out quite a bit of stuff and give away a lot of it too.
Great article and I hope that someone will get inspired to declutter their life. What clean freaks don’t understand is that many people whose homes seem “cluttered” can’t seem to give up these objects. People form emotional attachments to their stuff. It’s hard to give it up except when you have to.:)
Barbara Ehrentreu´s last blog ..A Very Productive Day!
Women are usually the worst on THINGS….lololol although I have seen a few men with more STUFF than you can imagine.
After going through a life changing experience with the passing of my dad…I realized then that I didn’t want a lot of accumulation to pass on to my kids to have to go through and deal with what I did….I was very thankful for all that my parents did for me..BUT…everything that I touched, there was story, a memory and deciding on what to do with each thing was sooo hard. The after thought now of living with each decision has been hard. You realize that things that are important to you aren’t always important to your kids or at least the kids now days….I wanted to keep everything, even the check statements from Alaska from the 40’s…but you can’t keep everything. So I just kept one thing from each pile of papers to add to my scrapbook.
Sooooooooooooo…I truly have learned that less is so much more.
Renee´s last blog ..do you have to travel for great photography
it is true Renee – less is more! I just read an interesting blog post on the exact topic that you went through where the kids where having a difficult time in getting rid of the parents stuff – for anyone concerned about avoiding this kind of a situation or if you are currently going through it you may be interested in reading http://bit.ly/9toGax
Thanks Barbara, I am sorry to hear that you had to go an experience like that, but it is common to have to get rid of a lot when moving – at least to some degree. Yes, people do form emotional attachments and things are hard to part with as you can see from the next comment, but the realistic side of it becomes what to do with it all!
I am sorry to hear that your wife is struggling with this situation Nothingprofound, but I hope that I am able to help in some way – Contact me if you need me!
online handyman you are right! I gave away pieces of furniture we had for about 15 years. I have a piano I need to sell. We have to give up most of our living room furniture plus lots of clothing! So it is easy to move, and we went through a lot of our stuff before the fire. None of our stuff was lost but the expense of cleaning it of smoke makes it imperative to divest ourselves of stuff:)
You see Barbara, clutter or un-cluttering is like anything else it is easier to maintain than have to do it all at once. One great idea that I think works really well is the “one in, one out” rule, every time one new thing comes into your home, one old one has to go out. This works in every area of your home, from clothing to the garage – everything.
The difficult part is just making sure that you follow it and remembering to do it.
Hi, Handyman!
You’re always so right on: If I didn’t already have a handyman (I married him!) I’d propose to you!
Since I can’t, I propose that you check out my take on clutter:
http://www.i-cant-believe-im-not-bitter.com/2010/january/the-closet-cleaner-cometh.html
Pat Fortunato´s last blog ..Oh no, it’s New Year’s Eve! Again.