This past weekend I spent part of it conquering my incredibly messy room. To cleanse myself of all the piles of “stuff” surrounding me wherever I went, in the past few weeks I’ve put up some toys that were given to me a few years ago up on eBay, and put 9 of my books on Half.com. Christophe asked me to write up how to sell things on Craigslist, eBay, and Half.com – a 101 if you will, just for those people who have never used it before. So in one of my future entries, I will write a (hopefully short) blog post about just this.

I’ve read countless posts and an excellent book by How To conquer the clutter. One of my favorite sources for organization is “Organizing From the Inside Out” by Juliet Morgenstern.

The following tips I found to be incredibly useful:

1) Ask yourself: Do you need it? Do you love it? When was the last time you looked at it?

If your answer is a yes, no and don’t remember, it might be about time the item was either thrown away, sold, or donated.  Many of the books on my shelf have not been touched in many years. They’ve taken up lots of space and dust. Perhaps some of you are in the same boat as well. Lots of items might have meaning, but did you really remember you had it until you actually saw it? This is not to say that one should throw out their great grandma’s family heirloom, but realistically, if you haven’t seen the darn thing in years and only remember it when you look at it, perhaps it’s high time you got rid of it. This applies to not only books, but magazines, pamphlets, dvds, cds, and a whole slew of small little objects that might be hiding in your closet. What’s stocked up in my closet is .. .believe it or not: letters. I still have not been able to part with them.

I have so many souvenirs – the playbills from theatres, small little pamphlets from the vacations I’ve been on, all in hopes that I will one day scrapbook my memories. Honestly, they should all go in the trash, because that trip from Europe was one and a half years ago, and there are other things in the same bag from 7 years ago. It takes up not only the space, but it constantly occupies the back of my mind as “one more thing I have to do”. Either I do something with it, or throw it out.

2. Conquer one area at a time.

It’s easy to get distracted by certain things in the home. You take one piece of paper and take it to another to recycle. But you see another mess to deal with and start dealing with that mess. You walk from that mess to another mess. Sit down and just deal with one area. Sort the clutter by “keep, sell, donate, throw, recycle.” Other systems may have different labeling schemes, but the idea is fairly simple. Label it however you want, but stick to the labels. One you have cleared out one area, move to the next. One doesn’t have to do the entire home in one day, and wouldn’t even be suggested. It’s easy to get discouraged.

3. Set Goals.

Make realistic, attainable goals. Judging by the amount of clutter or excess material a room may have, you have to make realistic goals in order to reach the main objective. If a room is filled with piles of clutter, you can’t really expect for it to be clean in one day. Instead, make more specific goals. “Today, I will look at this pile of paper and decide what to do about it. If I finish that, I will organize all the outstanding mail that I have yet to open.” Start small and work your way up.

4. Organize a bit everyday.

People tend to wait for some big “spring cleaning” event before they tackle the piles of clutter occupying their room. However, if they spent just 15-30 minutes a day to clean a different portion of their home once they’ve got everything cleared out, it’s possible to maintain the same level of cleanliness.

5. Containers are your friend.

Buy filing cabinets to store your important papers – whether it be bills, your paychecks, information about your healthcare, registration information. These kinds of information deserve to be in its own secure place and it really helps if you keep this organized. A file box such as this one works fairly well, and it’s easy to take with you in case there is ever a disaster. (I lugged this with me when a fire evacuation and it was invaluable.) As for pens, stationary, if you do crafts, there are many one dollar stores that sell small container boxes for an affordable way of organizing all the small little items that are hard to keep track of. Don’t forget to buy little sticker labels, because once you’ve placed your items in your containers, it sure will be hard to figure out which container you used to place the item you were looking for!

6. Buy less.

It doesn’t help if you your area is clean and organized if you keep on buying new things that you don’t need that will adds to the mess.

7. Cut down on the credit card mailings and advertisements and paper in general.

I don’t know about you, but I used to receive plenty of credit card mailings. Not only was it an annoyance it was a pile up of wasted paper. I mentioned earlier on how to Opt Out of Credit Card Offers, and the same link applies to retail mailings.

8. Clear out and pack up your clothes depending on the season

Wardrobe Oxygen wrote up an excellent article on choosing the right clothes for you, and only purchasing clothes that you love and looks good on you. Typically this applies mostly to females, but may apply to males as well. Before packing up your clothes into a container for the season, evaluate whether you really like that piece of clothing you are putting away. It’s better to have a group of great fitting clothes that you love and will last for years to come than pieces that are maybe “a bit too itchy”, “a bit uncomfortable”, “sits a bit off”. Instead of occupying so much space, it might be better off just being donated.

Not only do physical places have the problem of clutter, but virtual places as well. At the workplace, I’ve found many computers to be just cluttered beyond recognition. In addition to how to list and sell things on Craigslist, eBay, Half.com, look for a post on de-cluttering your computer hard drive.

Have any other tips to de-cluttering? How do you approach the clutter in your life?

Tags: containers, minimize, organization