Keeping Clutter Out

How about this for a New Year’s resolution – keep the clutter out. You should guard your home against clutter like you guard it against dirt. People worry about keeping their home clean, yet they don’t hesitate to fill it full of un-necessary stuff. Here are some tips for safeguarding your home:

1- Don’t buy it. How often do you find yourself in a store’s clearance aisle thinking “I am not sure what I could do with this, but at this price, I will think of something!” Stop right there. Why are you willing to pay (even if it is only 75 cents) to add to your clutter??? Walk away.
2- Don’t keep it. It is during the holidays that we get so much stuff – often stuff we don’t need, won’t use or just don’t like. Return it if you can. Give it to Goodwill or have a garage sale. Or you can even make it fun and have an exchange with friends where everyone brings stuff they don’t want and swap with each other. No matter how you do it, get it out of your house. If you put it away, chances are really high that it will stay there, taking up valuable storage space and a small piece of your sanity.
3- Give it a temporary home. If you get a gift that you just don’t want/need, but you feel like you owe it to the giver to hold on to it, give it a temporary space in your home. For example, if your mother-in-law gave you a sweater that you just don’t like/doesn’t fit, but you feel like you need to keep it, only do so for the season. After sweater season is over, you can clean out your sweaters and let it go. She won’t expect to see you in it in July and by the following year, she will be focused on what she gave you this year, not last.

The bottom line is that you are in charge of what lives in your home and takes up your valuable space. Don’t be afraid to be selective.


Meagan Farrell, professional organizer, is the owner of Clear the Clutter organizing services. She can be reached at (360) 631-7268 or at clear_theclutter@yahoo.com. Check out her blog at http://cleartheclutterprofessionalorganizing.blogspot.com/