I’d like to think that there’s a clutter fairy, who like the tooth variety, turns up in the night and leaves stuff under pillows, in corners, or just generally spread around the house. Obviously there’s not and I’ve only myself to blame! Both at home, and at work, keeping on top of clutter can seem like a fulltime job in itself, so how do you battle the worst efforts of this not so friendly clutter fairy?
Simple Steps to Clearing Clutter
- When I was younger spring cleaning once a year seemed to be enough, however, as both the house and office have filled themselves to the brim over the years, a spring and autumn clean seemed essential. It is worth picking at least one time every year for a seasonal throw out and organise, spring or autumn both seem good times but there’s no hard and fast rule. In terms of office clutter it can be useful to actually have a monthly or bi-monthly de-cluttering regime as, apart from clutter chaos, there can be health and safety issues in overfilled offices.
- Don’t plan to do everything at once, this way defeat lies. De-cluttering a room at a time will seem more manageable and you’ll feel that you are achieving something. For those with very busy lives, it also helps to take a bite-size approach to de-cluttering.
- Boxes are great for clearing out clutter. They come in a variety of sizes and usually those made from plastic are the best to use. They are useful for storage around the home and in the office and some have additional features for holding files.
- When de-cluttering, separate boxes will make the process easier to do. Have four boxes marked with the following categories; keep, put away, throw away and repair! The throw away category also counts as ‘pass on’ or ‘charity shop’ box. If you’re office de-cluttering you may want to label this ‘eBay’ to raise a little extra petty cash.
- Be hard on what you put in the ‘keep’ box. Ask yourself whether you really need the item and if the answer is ‘no’ then it has no place in this box.
Once those four really useful boxes are full to the brim, do a final check and get all four emptied out as quickly as possible. Anything that is being kept can be replaced in the room, while all other items should be put away, sold, or repaired. If the ‘repair’ box remains full for more than a couple of weeks, start transferring to the throw away box!
While it’s easy to blame the “Clutter Fairy” the fact is that we can be our worst enemy. With four really useful boxes to hand, you can make a real clean sweep of any office or home hoard!