De-Clutter Your Life

If you are at home, take a look around, is your house clean? If you are at work, look at your work area, is it clean? Is everything in it's place? Is there a mess? How do your surroundings make you feel? If everything is in it's place, and/or you are happy with everything as it is, then stop reading right now. If you are not happy, then it is time to read on, and take a step toward de-cluttering your life.

Why De-Clutter?
Simply put, clutter causes stress, there are many reasons for this.
Clutter will waste your time, and energy, two things that everyone wishes they had more of. De-cluttering your life will ease this stress, plus give you more time and energy.

How Do You De-Clutter?
A good place to start de-cluttering your life is simply to have a routine. Every action or item in your life needs a place, getting rid of the useless actions and items, and focusing only on the ones that are important.

Todo List:
I have found a todo list is the best friend of a routine. Make a daily todo list, in it list things that you need to do everyday, keep this separate from one you would use for work. I have attached a picture of the one that I currently use. You can use the numerous online options, or the super high tech option of a #2 pencil and paper; whatever you use, be sure it is the same each day. You just started a daily routine. It's the best feeling in the world when you look at that list, and see everything completed.


Cleaning:
This is the first step to getting those items in your life cleaned up, but the one that most people have the most difficulty with. You know you have to clean, but you don't know *where* to start, or if there is even enough time.
Choosing where to start cleaning is difficult, mainly because we are not breaking the problem down far enough. “I have to clean the house.”, is such a broad statement, while “I need to clean the bedroom today.” is a bit more narrow. Breakdown the house into rooms, and only work on one at a time. If you are not sure what room to work on first, make a list of all the rooms in the house, and choose one at random – though I suggest the bedroom as the first target, it's nice to wake in a clean room.
Having time to clean can be a problem for most people, so where do you find the time? There are a few options. Clean on your weekends, which will allow you to get most of a room done. Another option is to take 30 minutes before you go to bed, everyday, and clean, do this till a room is completely clean, then move on to the next room. The second option takes more time, but it is easier to fit into your life.

Everything Deserves a Home:
Have you ever lost your car keys, wallet, shoes, or cat because you could not recall where you placed them? The curse of clutter, is that it will randomly move your stuff when you are not looking; if you give everything a home, then it can't be moved. How many of your items are homeless (the bottom of a box and the floor do not count as homes)? All your items need a home, and need to go home when they are done playing; I think my mother may have said something like that.
Place those bills in a comfortable filing cabinet, sort them by name. Put those keys in a nice secure lock box on the wall. Your shoes would be thrilled to have a rug to call their own.
Once everything is in it's place, you should be able to put on a blindfold and find anything.

If you are not using it, chuck it:
It is part of human nature to not want to throw anything away, people fall into the trap of “It was a gift from Aunt Marigold!”, or “I might need that for something, later, possibly.”. The only thing those thoughts are going to do is lead to more clutter, and those homeless little items. Fortunately, there are some ways to get out of that trap. One way is to examine each item that you have, and ask yourself a few questions.

• “Do I use this?”
• “Do I really want this?”

If the answer to either of those questions is yes, then keep it item, if both are no, then chuck it.
For those items that you are not sure about, you can do what I call the Four Drawer Sieve.

Four Drawer Sieve:
This will help you decide if you really need an item.
What you need:

• One empty four drawer holder (each drawer needs to be the same size)
• One or more items you are not sure about

How the sieve works:

• Start with the empty four drawer holder, place the item(s) in the drawer that is second from the top.
• If you use an item from the second drawer, place it in the top drawer.
• After one month, move each drawer down one place – putting the bottom drawer on the top.
• Now if you use anything from the second or third drawer, it goes into the top (now empty) drawer.
• After another month, move all the drawers again.
• At the end of three months, any item that you have not used will be in the (now) bottom drawer, and all your most used items will be in the top drawer.
• Chuck anything in the bottom drawer, make a decision on the rest.

New Purchases:
Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with purchasing a new item. The problem arises when a new item is not found a home, that only leads you back to where you started. So when contemplating a new purchase, ask yourself these two questions:

• “Will it be replacing something I already have?”
• “Is it an addition?”

If it is replacing something, then be sure to get rid of that old item as quickly as possible. If it is an addition, then be sure you know where it's home is going to be before you purchase it.

Keeping the clutter at bay:
Remember that todo list? Be sure to add something to it, “Clean”. I don't mean getting on your hands and knees scrubbing the floor type of clean. Take 15-20 minutes each day to pick up the house, clean the dishes (or put them away), just give the house a quick once over before going to bed – you will be happy you did the next morning when you aren't tripping over your new $300.00 pair of sun glasses that somehow found their way onto the floor.

Copyright © 2007 by Duane Hubbard