Learning to Tackle Clutter

Clutter seems to encroach on our lives and make them frustrating. Some people claim to thrive in clutter, however, for most people, clutter tends to dampen imagination, and make creative thinking difficult. In general, clutter is a negative thing to have, and learning how to tackle clutter can mean good things for your life. The following are some great tips for learning how to tackle clutter:

Tip one: Eliminate.

The first step to tackling clutter no matter what the area is, is to eliminate items. You can’t have a cluttered area if you reduce and simplify. So, no matter whether you are tackling the clutter in your living room or your child’s bedroom the first thing you want to do is get everything into one big pile, and then go through it. Get rid of anything you do not use, have not used in a while, or do not need. If you are a packrat, this could take a while. If you really can’t part with something, put it in a box and put it in storage for a while, you may find that you do not need it as much as you think you do.

Reduce and simplify.

Tip two: Sort.

While you are going through the stuff in your house, and eliminating the items that you do not need, it would be wise to sort items into like piles. It would be wise to sort through the items you intend to keep. You can put the ones that are alike in piles. For example, as you de-clutter your child’s room, you should put all of their car toys together, all of their stuffed animals together, all of their books together, etc. Sorting things into like piles is a great way to start to tackle clutter.

Tip three: Organize.

Once the items are sorted into like piles, you have to do something with those items. How you organize them will depend on what room it is. For example, if you are organizing your kitchen you would put like items in the same cupboard. If you are organizing your child’s bedroom, you would want to get bins, containers, baskets, etc. for like toys. If you are organizing a closet, baskets or tubs might be the answer for you. Basically, once you have things sorted, put the items together in a container of sorts in order to keep things sorted and organized. It makes them easy to find, and easy to re-organize when needed.

Tip four: Store.

Once you have things in bins or tubs, it is important to have a place that they go. This means designate a shelf or a cupboard or a closet for the items. If you do not want things to be cluttered, everything needs a place, and things that do not have a place should not be kept.

Tip five: Keep it up.

If you want to learn to tackle clutter you need to do it one day at a time, but once something is de-cluttered, it is time to keep it that way. So, take the time to keep things un-cluttered. Once a week spend five minutes on quickly reorganizing the area, making sure things are still in their designated places, and that you have not started another collection of stuff.