So many times I have heard people say “I have no idea where all this stuff came from.” Then that statement is followed by “what am I going to do with all this stuff?” It is time to set the goal of D’Cluttering your home and I am going to give you some helpful steps.
l. Mark your calendar for a D’cluttering day, half-day, hour or fifteen minutes. Schedule it like you would a meeting or a date. Also, write down what you will be doing. For example, organize linen closet or hall closet.
2. Always have a donation box in a central location in your home and encourage family member to fill the box up with items they no longer use or want.
3. Designate zones in the garage, closets, pantry, and cabinets. Get rid of things that are broken or do not fit into your zones. Keep the basics under the bathroom sinks.
4. Get rid of all plastic containers without lids. Limit containers to no more that 12. Stackables with snap on lids work wonderful and do not take up much room in the cabinet.
5. Shred! We all get way to much mail and junk mail every day. Keep a shredder handy and immediately get rid of the papers you will never need. Get rid of old appliance manuals if you can get the information on line.
6. Downsize your cook books. My shelves were crammed with cooks books. Some held memories, some were gifts and some were filled with good intentions. I gravitate to the same cookbooks when I cook so I boxed up the rest and donated them to a thrift store.
7. Purge one drawer, shelf or closet at a time. Make a game out of it instead of a chore. Start small.
8. Set the timer for 15 minutes and clean your house until the buzzer goes off then STOP cleaning. It is amazing how motivated you will get when you know it will only last for fifteen minutes.
9. If you get something new look around to find something to put into the donation box.
10. “Keep the best and donate the rest.”
