Got Clutter?

Join the crowds! Seems like that’s the big title on magazine articles! There has even been a surge of new TV programs to talk about ways to declutter the house. And professional organizers are popping up all over. I’ve seen bumper stickers that ask, “Want to clear out the clutter?” with a phone number. It reminds me of the movie “Ghost Busters”…who ya gonna call?

Signature HomeStyles, of course! Most of our readily visible clutter is there because we want things close at hand. When we tuck it away, it just creeps back. That’s where our beautiful baskets come in. They organize all the things we want to have within easy reach in a decorative and tasteful way. If you want to test whether you need a basket in a particular spot, just watch what keeps creeping back!

When I need to get an area organized, I sort in three categories: Toss, donate (or garage sale) and keep. The best way to make sure the toss pile is larger than the keep pile is to ask myself, ‘Why am I keeping this?’ It’s especially true for the highest shelves in those cluttered closets. Things I’m not ready to let go of yet get moved up…maybe next time I’ll be more willing to part with them! And somehow donating or moving things via a garage sale feels better than tossing so I find that I am much more willing to get rid of things. After all, we have all this clutter because we have too many things!

As hard as it is to toss things, I also have a couple of ways to force myself to do this. When I have worn things, I put the hangers on the rod backwards. Then I can clearly see what I have not worn and make a decision to either wear it or donate it. I have baskets in most of my drawers and when one becomes full and I have to dig to find something, I set it on the counter and find 5 minutes to sort that basket. I also try really hard to donate an equal number of things I no longer use whenever I purchase something new.

Organized Attack

Now and then I’ll have an area that simply needs a full fledged “attack,” not just a small basket at a time, but big cardboard boxes at a time: One marked ‘garbage’ and one marked ‘donate.’ There’s something about having those marked boxes sitting just outside the door of the room when you sort it that forces you to fill them up. Why do we keep paint cans when we no longer have that color in the house? Last week I tossed wallpaper that is no longer in the house! I keep things I don’t need. We all do and we just have to take the time to toss and reorganize. I felt so good when I cleared the clutter out of my furnace room!

A recent research report on home organization states that organization products have grown at a rapid pace over the past five years because consumers have a penchant for purchasing a lot of “stuff” which has led to clutter-filled homes which has led to the need for organization in nearly every room of the house. The research further reported that consumers can’t bear disorganization in their homes and feel a sense of calmness when things are organized. They are looking for new ideas to rid their homes of clutter.

So Signature HomeStyles Clutter Busters are here to answer the call!