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DeCluttering Your Home

Those home improvement shows on TV make decluttering your home look so easy, don't they? You can put the sample principles to work before the mountain of clutter falls down on your head.

Start small. You'll have much more overall success – and gain more confidence – if you take your decluttering project in stages. Don't tackle the packed storage room first because you'll get discouraged and quit before you've begun. Instead, pick a small area, such as a closet, an end table or coffee table, or the top of your desk.

Now get three boxes and write "keep" on one, "donate/sell" on another and "toss" on the third. Start taking things off the pile one by one, whether on a table on the closet floor and decide whether it's "keep," "donate/sell" or "toss." If you use it for operating your household or business, or you can't stand to part with it, it's "keep." If it's out of date, broken, stained or otherwise unusable or irreparable, it's "toss." Finally, anything that falls between "keep" and "toss" is automatically "donate / sell."

Now grab hold of the box marked "toss" and take it straight out to the trashcan. Don't wind the clock, don't pet the cat; dump that box immediately!

Once you've emptied the "toss" box, store "keep" items away properly. If you can't find a place for everything, then it's another opportunity to ask yourself if that's really an object you must keep. The way to decluttering your home is to keep asking whether you really need to keep something.

Regarding the "donate/sell box," you can sell the items yourself if you think you can hold a sale within 30 days. If you can't do that, then take the "donate/sell" box straight to the nearest charity and give it away. You'd be surprised at how many people have furnished their homes and clothed their families from these secondhand charity stores.

Doesn't it feel good to look at the clean space you've created. Keep at decluttering your home through these small projects, and soon you'll be amazed at how much space you really have.