Declutter Guide Part One: Where Do I Start?

by Cynthia Townley Ewer
Editor, OrganizedHome.Com

Here at OrganizedHome.Com, the e-mails arrive every week: "Help! I'm drowning in clutter and don't know where to begin!" Whether it's due to poor habits, a packrat spouse, or an advanced case of affluenza, too many home managers struggle under the burden of household clutter.

Clutter can clog the smooth workings of any home, imposing heavy costs on the household. Each day, time is lost searching for missing keys, phones or permission slips. A cluttered desk plays Hide The Credit Card Statement, yielding up the bill only after late fees are invoked. Belongings lost to clutter must be replaced, with the original surfacing just as soon as the replacement enters the house. Gotcha!

Time to declutter! But when you're peering over piles, mounds and stacks of stuff, it's hard to know where to begin and what to do.

These beginning declutter points will help free a strangled household from the clutter monster:

Start slow, small and steady

Clutter tolerance seems to run a fever cycle, much like the flu. Every so often, the cluttered household will become intolerable, sparking the home manager to brief, massive anti-clutter spasms. Piles will be shifted, boxes will be filled, stuff will be stashed--until the fever breaks. Then the clutter tide flows back n, confusion redoubled because of the flushed and furious attempts to get a grip in a hurry.

Just as clutter arises gradually, over time, so it must be fought gradually and over time. Beating clutter requires building new habits, applying new organizational methods, and creating new household routines. The clutter cure takes time, and can't be short-cut.

Resist the temptation to go all-out in fevered, short-term sorties against clutter. Like the fable of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the declutter race.

Schedule regular declutter sessions

A successful attack on clutter requires time, energy and motivation. There is no such thing as a declutter fairy, who works while you sleep!

First things first: schedule time to declutter. Even 15 minutes a day will make a good start. Better, schedule larger blocks of time, from two to four hours once or twice a week, for maximum declutter efficiency.

Scheduling declutter sessions brings the goal out of the stratosphere and into real life. By committing time to decluttering, you strengthen motivation and embrace the goal of a clutter-free home. By keeping the declutter appointments, you begin to create islands, peninsulas, then continents of decluttered space.

Trust me. It won't happen magically behind your back, so schedule your declutter appointments today!

Change begins with me

In family settings, clutter accumulates for myriad reasons. Adults shed newspapers and personal items with abandon. Children clutter with playthings, art materials, and school papers. Poor housekeeping routines land clean clothing in piles on the couch, paperwork in stacks on the counter and mail in jumbled heaps everywhere.

Tempting as it is to call a family meeting and lay down the clutter law, think again. Draconian measures can only be enforced so long as the enforcer stays on the job--and if you're not there first, coercive efforts are doomed to fail.

Instead, build credibility, knowledge and motivation by mastering your own clutter challenges first, then involving the remainder of the family.