It's All Too Much Page 17

  Always, always, always have a garbage bag for charity donations. When you try on a piece of clothing and it doesn’t look good on you, consider putting it in the bag. If you walk into your closet and see a picnic backpack that you’ve never used, put it in the bag. If you’re given a gift you don’t love, put it in the bag. When your youngest child outgrows an article of clothing, check it for stains; if it’s in good shape, it goes straight in the bag. Make putting things in the charity bag a habit—the same way you throw away (or recycle) an empty food container.

  When the bag is full, put it in your car. Depending on where you live, there’s probably no need to plan a special trip to drop it off. Just keep it in the trunk until you’re driving near your favorite charity. Get a receipt for tax purposes, and file it in your annual donations file (yes, you should have one).

  Do the Math

  I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it until I die: You need to do the math of value and cost. As soon as you calculate the cost of clutter, you’ll realize that it’s not worth holding on to things because of their value—because of what they’re worth. Remember to think in terms of the life you want to live and the vision you have for your home.

  Time costs

  Does it take you longer than five minutes to tidy and clean up a room? If it takes longer, there’s still too much clutter. How much time do you spend looking for your keys? Those minutes add up over a lifetime. Even if you only spend five minutes a day looking for lost items, that’s thirty hours a year. More than a day. Now are you willing to take some time to clean up? Wouldn’t you rather spend those five minutes calmly decluttering than running around in frantic frustration?

  Space costs

  No matter if you own or rent your space, you’re paying per square foot. I’m not going to make you do the real math here, but when you lose your ability to enjoy a room or to store your expensive car in a proper garage, you’re throwing that portion of your rent out the window. When you rent storage space you’re wasting money, not solving the problem. When you move to a bigger home (or just fantasize about it) because you can’t throw things away, you’re throwing good money after bad.

  Reap the Benefits

  There’s no point to putting all this effort into reading this book, much less cleaning up your space, if you’re not going to enjoy and take advantage of the change.

  Emotional benefits

  When your space is neat, clear, and free from clutter, you’ll notice a change in the way you feel about your life and your relationships. Your rooms fulfill the functions you’ve chosen for them. Gathering places are comfortable for friends and family. Your bedroom is a romantic oasis. Enjoy the peace, pride, and satisfaction that come with living the life that you’ve chosen for yourself.

  Financial benefits

  When you organize your papers, your financial life improves. You can work toward paying off debt. Bills are paid on time. Not only that, when you start looking at all the stuff you own but don’t use or appreciate, it should help you buy fewer items and spend less money. When you spend less time shopping, you spend more time finding new interests, being active in the outdoors, being with your family and friends.

  Time benefits

  Gone are the minutes and hours spent cursing yourself or blaming the dog for eating your homework. When everything has a place, getting ready in the morning takes less time. You won’t be late. You won’t forget important dates or arrive at a meeting without critical papers. Tax time is a breeze (except for the check-writing part). You will feel more relaxed, confident, and in control. Your time belongs to you, not your stuff.

  Space benefits

  The less clutter you have in your house, the more you can reap the benefits of free space. Now your family can sit down at the dining room table and enjoy a meal together. Now your family room is a comfortable place to relax. Now you can have friends over or host a spontaneous party. Gone is the shame and embarrassment of having a home that bears no resemblance to the person you want to present to the world. Revel in your space. Host parties. Show off! You’ve earned it.

  Step 5

  Cleanup Checkup

  DECLUTTERING AND GETTING ORGANIZED takes commitment, focus, and, initially, a significant time commitment. By now you should be seeing some major changes in your home, your sense of well-being, and your attitude toward the things you have decided to keep. You know if you’re winning the battle—you see the clear surfaces, feel the open space, have new, efficient routines, and experience the sense that anything is possible.

  Either that, or you’re still stuck in place, overly attached to stuff that doesn’t bring you happiness, and deluding yourself about how much change you’ve actually made. Just how well did you do? Go back to the Clutter Quiz to find out just how uncluttered your life is.

  Household Summit

  Now it’s time to meet with your family and discuss what you did and didn’t achieve. Create a forum for discussing important issues. Did compromises solve the problems? Are you able to use each room in your house for its intended purpose? Is your partner happy with your shared living space? Are your kids more relaxed and focused? Are you proud of your space? Is the anxiety about clutter gone? Is there a harmonious relationship between your home and the life you want to live in it?

  Ask your children specific questions about whether their reorganized spaces work for them. Is it easier to find your toys? Do your homework? Do you enjoy working at your arts table or is it still too hard to fit the paper on it? Do you put your things away when you’re finished with them? Is it okay to watch DVDs in the family room instead of Mom and Dad’s room? Do you like eating in the dining room with the whole family? Is there anything else that would make your space more enjoyable for you?

  Ask your partner bigger questions about life. Does he feel relaxed now when he gets into bed? Does he feel there is a sense of balance and calm in your home? Does she feel clear about what you both hope to gain from the lives you are living? Is there anything she thinks you could change at home to bring it closer to the life you both imagine?

  Turn back to Step 2 and take out your Room Function Chart. Does each room do what you want it to do? Tour the zones. Is everything in the zone serving its purpose? Revisit the Questions for General Discussion. What is everyone committed to and are they sticking to their commitments?

  Relapsing

  You’ve done it. Are you pleased with the new space in your home? Do you feel less overwhelmed? Do you rise in the morning ready to greet the day, your job, your family, your life, the challenges and opportunities that life has to offer? Is there room in your life for adventure and relaxation? I hope so.

  Just because you’ve decluttered doesn’t mean you’re done. Vigilance is key. Clutter creeps back in. If you stay on top of it, you’ll never have to open this book again. The next chapter shows you how you can keep the clutter at bay, around the calendar, for good.

  Step 6

  New Rituals

  WHO WANTS TO SACRIFICE a whole Saturday to cleaning up the mess that your house has become? Who wants to spend the day before you host a party straightening up when you should be prepping food or getting a manicure? After all the effort you’ve just made, do you really want everything to slip back to the way it was? Because it can and will. With our culture of consuming—with all the junk mail and cheap clothes and short-lived trends—if you don’t control your clutter, it will control you. If you’ve gone to all the trouble to follow the steps in this book, your house is now clutter-free. Let’s keep it that way.

  The secret to staying organized and maintaining a clutter-free home is to make organization a natural part of your life. I’ve talked about daily rituals throughout this book. Everything has a place. When you use something, put it away. After you wear something, return it to the closet or put it in the laundry. When you open a letter that requires action, discard the used envelope and put the letter into the mail tray. These small steps all help to create the home and the life that you
want.

  Keeping your home clutter-free takes more than small steps. Things fall into disrepair. New hobbies fall by the wayside. You outgrow clothes. Stuff accumulates. Even the best intentions can get sidetracked, and your weekly bag-in-hand clutter control may have slipped a bit. The best way to manage the never-ending clutter creep is to establish an annual cycle of organization.

  Beyond Spring Cleaning

  We all know that spring has traditionally been a time of cleaning—after a long winter, the home was aired and every corner was scrubbed clean. This ritual dates back to Old English times. Well, times have changed. Before the industrial age, people had less and homes were smaller. Clutter was not an epidemic. Spring cleaning is still a great tradition, but it’s time for a new, year-round set of traditions that will help keep your home organized and clutter free.

  THE CALENDAR FOR AN ORGANIZED HOME

  January February March

  Fresh Start Shred Mania Reinvent Spring Cleaning

  April May June

  Explore the Black Hole Discover the Great Outdoors Teach Your Children Well

  July August September

  Have a Yard Sale Prepare for Back-to-School Make the Season Switch

  October November December

  Brace Yourself for Winter Gear Up for the Holidays Relax and Enjoy

  January—Start Fresh

  A new year. A new you! With the turning of the year, we all think about resolutions and what we can do better in the next twelve months. Make your resolutions realistic, write them down, and, most important of all, remember that a more organized life is a happier, less stressed life.

  The holidays are a busy time. Why? Everyone’s shopping. When you’re busy, things tend to slip around the house. Bills fall behind. And with all that shopping, more stuff sneaks into your home. Start the year right by taking control of postholiday clutter.

  Purge the holiday decorations

  When you take down your decorations—whether it’s the lights on the house or the ornaments on the tree—it’s a great time to discard old, unused, or broken decorations. Also limit decorations to the space you have, and clearly label the boxes in which they are stored. Use different boxes for each holiday to avoid confusion and help keep order. A little effort here will pay off next holiday season!

  Use the right storage containers

  Using divided boxes for tree ornaments and flat, sectioned boxes for wreaths will ensure that expensive items are not crushed or damaged in storage. Large, plastic stackable bins are great for lights, decorations, and larger seasonal items. Label them clearly and store them in the less-trafficked zone of your home or garage. Consider numbering bins and creating a master list of what each contains. Here’s a bin label sample:

  Bin number:

  Season:

  Stored in:

  Contents:

  Print out a stack of these labels and attach one to the front of each bin so that you can clearly and quickly find what you’re looking for.

  Holiday In/Out

  Remember the In/Out Rule—you don’t want more to come in than goes out. But holidays tend to be one-way. Items come in, in, in! What goes out? Now’s the time to examine your haul and see what items of equivalent size and use can go. Did you get a new sweater? Time to toss an old one. Donate old versions of new electronics. Don’t go from being a two-TV family to a three-TV family just because you were given a new one. By the time you die, every single room will have its own TV. Who needs that?

  When you give, be sensitive to the clutter issues your friends and family may have. Make it a policy to always give a gift receipt. That way it can be exchanged for something the giftee really wants or needs.

  February—Shred Mania

  All my clients complain that paperwork gets on top of them at some point. It’s inevitable. But if you make a concerted effort to clean shop once a year, you can keep the paperwork under control.

  Get a jump on your tax return

  Prepare your taxes and file as early as you can to ensure a quick refund. Discard and shred financial records and other documentation that you no longer need to back up your returns. Label and file current tax records.

  Now is the time to go through important papers, files, and documents. Go through your files and throw out old files or paperwork that you no longer need or use. You’ll find that papers that seemed important six months ago are irrelevant now. Perhaps a few months of unnecessary utility bills have crept into your files. Refer to Tax Stuff to remind yourself of what you should be keeping. Update any insurance policies or legal documents, such as wills, as needed. Make a photocopy of any new policies, credit cards, or other critical documents acquired in the last twelve months and store the copies in a secure location. Once you’ve made sure that everything is up to date and accurate, give that shredder a workout.

  Create a message center

  Designate a specific area in your home to post announcements or invitations, a family calendar, and messages. You can hang your keys and keep your loose change in this area, too. Mail should be processed right nearby. Maintain and update a list of frequently used telephone numbers in this area, as well as emergency contacts and any other information that might be needed at a moment’s notice. Divide the board into areas for each family member so that everyone knows where to post a note or message for someone specific.

  March—Reinvent Spring Cleaning

  We all know about spring cleaning—in theory. Here’s how to put it into practice in today’s world. These tasks will leave your home sparkling, inside and out.

  SPRING CLEANING TASK LIST PERSON RESPONSIBLE MATERIALS NEEDED

  INSIDE:

  Clean windows.

  Dust and clean tops of cabinets and electric appliances.

  Steam-clean carpets.

  Launder winter bedding and blankets before storing.

  KITCHEN:

  Deep clean all appliances inside and out.

  Clean behind and under refrigerator.

  Thoroughly clean inside cupboards and refrigerator.

  Discard outdated food items from your pantry and freezer.

  Organize like items together around the “magic triangle.”

  Discard pots, pans, and utensils that are seldom or never used.

  Clear all flat surfaces.

  Restock kitchen cleaning caddy.

  Thoroughly clean the black hole under the sink!

  CLOTHES:

  Discard clothes that you no longer love, wear, or look great in. Donate unwanted items to your favorite charity.

  Arrange like items together in your closet.

  Color coordinate your clothing so that you can clearly and easily see what is in your wardrobe.

  Store away winter clothes.

  Replenish cedar blocks or mothballs to protect from moths and insects.

  OUTSIDE:

  Remove storm windows, make sure they’re labeled, and then store carefully to avoid damage.

  Clean outside of windows.

  Store your snow-moving equipment.

  Do a quick maintenance check on your lawnmower and other gardening equipment. Reseed and fertilize your lawn.

  Check your garden hoses and breathe the first scents of spring.

  Make a schedule

  Revise the above list to suit your particular needs. List all of the spring cleaning tasks inside and outside the house that need doing. Assign responsibilities to each family member and post the list on the fridge or in some central location so everyone can check progress.

  Save the list so you can use it next year.

  THE TEN-MINUTE GRAB BAG

  Brainstorm with your family to come up with any organizing or decluttering task that can be completed in ten minutes or less—put toys away, organize one drawer in the kitchen, arrange T-shirts neatly, find old magazines and put them into the recycle bin—anything at all. List these tasks on small cards and place them into the “ten-minute box.” Every night before dinner for one month, everyone grabs one card
and completes the task. Lots of small steps will make a huge difference in thirty days.

  Clean house party

  Have a family celebration—a special meal, outing, or day trip—to mark the beginning of spring and the completion of spring cleaning. Let everyone celebrate their role in decluttering and organizing the house at the end of winter.

  April—Explore the Black Hole

  Whether it’s the garage, that space under the stairs, the basement, the spare bedroom, or the attic, everyone has a favorite black hole for things that they don’t need right away, might need someday, or just can’t get rid of. It’s time to tackle your storage areas!

  Divide and conquer

  Divide your home into four areas and tackle any storage closets in one zone each week during this month. The four areas might be the basement, bedrooms, living areas, and laundry—choose areas that make sense to you.

  Spread the load

  Ask friends or family to help if the amount of stuff in storage is large. This can help make the task manageable. Volunteer to return the favor.

  Remember—you only have the space you have!

  Cull the items you have stored to fit the space you have. Specify areas in your home for needed temporary storage—yard sale items, gifts for regifting, or borrowed items like books or videos that need to be returned.