photo credit: Mike Sun

Have you ever had a project so overwhelming that just thinking about getting started made you cringe? If you have a ton of clutter this may be you. The clutter didn’t get there overnight and now, just the thought of cleaning it up makes you run screaming from the room.

Okay, maybe it isn’t that dramatic but one thing I hear over and over again is “I know I have too much stuff but I don’t know where to begin”. My suggestion is start with the room you spend the most time in or feel the most stressful in. For some people that room may be the family room and for others it may be the bedroom but whatever room makes you the most uncomfortable is the room you should start in.

Now, you’ve chosen a room but how do you begin. Get 3 big boxes or and a garbage can if you can get it in the house and put them outside the room you are going to tackle. Label the boxes:

The Keep box is for items that you want to keep and that belong in this room. The Donate or Sell box is for items you want to give to charity, friends or family or sell at a garage sale, on Craigslist or eBay. The Goes Somewhere Else box is for items that may have ended up in this room but go in another room in the house (like dishes in the living room).

You need to take baby steps to get organize. Don’t try to do it all at once or you really will be overwhelmed. Get a timer and set it for 15 minutes. Pick up each item and quickly decide what to do with it. Be brutal. You should only keep the items you really need.

If you pick up an item with a price tag still on it that has been laying around for months and months, chances are you don’t NEED it. Sell it, give it away or return it to the store for a refund if it is still within the time frame for refunds.

Touch each object only once, decide what to do with it and move on. You have 15 minutes to get this part done. At the end of 15 minutes STOP. In the worst case scenario 15 minutes allowed you to make enough room in the doorway of your cluttered room to be able to step in and best case is you now have a path started. Great! Congratulate yourself because you just completed the first step to getting your room clutter free. Now, go do something else. Tomorrow you will spend another 15 minutes repeating this process.

Repeat these simple steps EVERYDAY on one room. Don’t attempt to clean every room in the house at once. You need to take baby steps and even just spending 15 minutes a day organizing you will see real progress in no time. You didn’t get disorganized overnight and you are not going to become clutter free overnight either.

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