Declutter challenge, part 2: using the pile method

Yesterday’s declutter challenge was all about getting the trash out of your home.

Today’s declutter challenge is about putting things away. To do that, you are going to use the pile method. As this piece explains:

To use the “pile method” to declutter a room, start by gathering everything that’s not in its place into a basket. Then, dump it all in the living room, start sorting, and then put items away.

It seems counterintuitive, but it works. I’ve used it for clothes especially, but it can work for any bunch of things lying around.

Some thoughts:

One good thing is once you remove all the clutter, you already feel confident the place can be restored, even if you still have a pile to deal with.
If there are things you know have a place to go, put them to one side. If there are things to go in the trash, put them right in the trash. Hopefully at this point there is a place for everything in the pile. For those things that do not, consider donating them to someone. Or try than the box and banish approach.

Declutter challenge, part 1: a 30 minute trash run

Inspired by this piece here in the Washington Post, I am going to challenge myself to do a “trash dash” and see how many of these things in my home I can get rid of in less than half an hour:

Expired food, including spices.
Branded freebies and promotional items like plastic cups, water bottles, koozies, insulated tumblers.
Takeout detritus including plastic utensils, takeout containers, sauce and spice packets, and paper menus.
Food storage containers.
Reusable bags.
Plastic dry cleaning bags and unused wire hangers.
Clothing that is torn, stained or stretched, including items in need of repair
Promotional swag like T-shirts, tote bags and bandannas.
Orphaned socks.
Paper bags.
Receipts and product manuals.
Magazines or books you’ll never reread.
Calendars and newspapers.
Junk mail.
Expired or barely used beauty and personal care products, including makeup, sunscreen and bug spray.
Hotel toiletries.
Dried-up markers and pens.
DVDs and board games you don’t use.
Completed coloring books, puzzles with missing pieces and other kid stuff that has run its course.
Decorative items.
Unused hobby gear.

Give it a try. And if even that seem too overwhelming for you, set a 5, 10 or 15 minute timer and see how much you can collect. I bet you’ll be surprised by how much you get rid of, and how inspired you are to do more.

Don’t make it hard by overthinking it: just grab any old garbage bag or old box and start throwing things in it. If you aren’t sure, toss it in the bag/box and reconsider it AFTER the challenge. The need here is for speed, not contemplation. Go fast, toss things in the bag, and move on.

Not making progress on your resolution to declutter? Start with your fridge!

a clutter fridge.

I came across this advice and I highly recommend it: Don’t Try to Declutter Your Whole Life. Start With Your Fridge. | Wirecutter.

Let’s face it: decluttering can be a hard thing to do, and an easy thing to avoid. To get over that avoidance, start the practice of decluttering by tackling your fridge.

There’s some good reasons to do so. One: the amount of decluttering you have to do is limited, so it doesn’t end up feeling like a never ending chore. Two: you are less attached to items in your fridge than you are old clothes or books or photo albums, so tossing old food that you will not eat is less emotionally difficult (I hope). Three: you will see benefits right away and that good feeling should help you move on to your next item.

So get a move on that decluttering resolution this weekend and clear out your fridge!

P.S. If your fridge is in good shape, then start with your pantry. Or where you store your dry goods. If all that is in great shape, then pick one closet.

The 20/20 rule for decluttering

The 20/20 rule for decluttering is simple and good:

First, ask yourself, “Could I replace this item for less than $20?” Then, ask yourself, “Could I replace it in less than 20 minutes?”

If the answer to both of those questions is YES, then toss it without thinking any more about it. Note: replacing it in 20 minutes means can I replace it by ordering it online.

PS: For more decluttering advice I’ve recommended, go here. In that list is the “Box and Banish” approach, the 90/90 rule, and more.

Speaking of more, if you want to learn more about the 20/20 rule, go here: Ask Yourself These Two Questions Before You Keep Something ‘Just in Case’ at Lifehacker.

For people whose mental health affects their home’s cleanliness (and vice versa)

The New York Times has a good piece exploring the link between mental health and messy homes — as well as and how to deal with it — here, Why Clearing Clutter Can Feel Impossible.

For some people, a chaotic home can lead to more mental health problems which can lead to more chaos. The spiral needs to be broken. That article can help.

Decluttering 101

I like this piece: Why We Clutter, and What to Do About It – The New York Times. If you never decluttered your place before, it’s a good place to start.

Decluttering is like dieting though: you can make an effort to cut back, but unless you address the thoughts and behaviors that lead to clutter/overeating, you may end up back where you started.

I recommend while you are decluttering to take note of what you have excess of. Is it too much paper, clothing, books, utensils, tech stuff, or something else altogether? Those are the areas you need to focus your analysis of if you want to have any hope of living with less clutter. In the end you may be fine with periodically paring down the amount of clothes or books or stationery you have from time to time.

How to get rid of those things you can’t seem to part with? Use the Box and Banish method

If you are trying to declutter and you are struggling, why not grabs some boxes and practice the Box and Banish Method? Essentially what you do is take all those things you consider “maybes”* and put them in a box and…

… close it up. Yep, close it, and put it somewhere out of the way, like the back of a closet. Then set a reminder on your phone or in your calendar for a date about six weeks from now.

And after six weeks (or six months, but not six years), take those boxes and either trash them or give them away.

If you don’t trust yourself, recruit someone to do it for you. You’ll be glad you did.

(* Maybes are all those things you aren’t sure of that you may want to keep but aren’t sure. )

It’s a good time to pare down the things in your life

The pandemic is a good time to pare down your life. No doubt it has already helped with that. Now it’s time to take it further. For example

Cut back on possessions — get rid of the extraneous clutter that is just weighing you down, and find joy in owning little.

Sounds good, right? I thought so. I took that quote from this piece: Paring Down Your Life : zen habits. I recommend you read it and consider what else you can eliminate from your life in this life changing time.

(Photo by todd kent on Unsplash)

Two good decluttering projects for you to do this week

One is analog and one is digital.

The analog one is to declutter the space you are using to work from home. Apartment Therapy has a plan to not only declutter it but to make it better. (I find it easier to declutter if you can image the space looking good at the end).

The second decluttering plan is for your phone. Let’s face it, you have tons of digital clutter. Here’s another Apartment Therapy plan to tackle that.

(Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash)

Extreme Decluttering

I recommend this piece on a family that had to do extreme decluttering because of a move. There’s lots of good advice in the piece, and worth reading if you are feeling the need to declutter. You may not feel you need to do it in an extreme way, but does this sound familiar?

Decluttering was an item on my to-do list for years. One I kept putting off.

Yep. Never a fun thing to do. But in their case, they had added pressure:

… we decided to sell our house and downsize to an apartment less than half the size. Then, getting rid of stuff became priority number one. It was an essential step in selling our home fast and for top dollar and critical for surviving a long distance move on a shoestring budget.

When I brought in professional movers to estimate our long distance move, I was shocked by estimates that we’d have 90+ boxes of stuff to move, which did not include existing storage totes. My first thought was How could four people possibly need that much stuff? The short answer is we didn’t, and I made it my mission to get that box number down.

In fact, not only did we want less stuff but we also wanted to move it ourselves on just one rental moving truck.

Needless to say, once you have such goals, extreme decluttering becomes mandatory.

We started extreme decluttering. We ended up moving across the country with one 26 ft. moving truck that was only about three-quarters of the way full. And no, we didn’t get rid of everything. We kept enough to furnish our new apartment fully.

With half of our stuff gone, we were able to downsize from a 4500 sq ft home to a 1768 sq ft townhouse-style apartment. Now we are living comfortably in 61% less space.

A good piece. Recommended, regardless of whether or not you are downsizing.

(Bold emphasis added by me. Image from here.)

Decluttering tips for people who have a hard time with it.

If you struggle to declutter your places, then Apartment Therapy has two good guides on how to make some progress on it:

Decluttering is always a good idea. You can live easier, and you can appreciate the things you have better.

The 90/90 minimalism rule to declutter

If you are looking to declutter your place, consider this: 90/90 Minimalism Rule | The Minimalists. Simple, effective, obvious. Be honest about the second 90 though.

Simplify and organize your life in five easy steps – both physically and digitally.

I love this list, and likely everyone from 5 to 105 could go through this list and apply some if not all of it: 5 things to get rid of – Organizing Ideas – Organizing – Style At Home.

I want to reprint the list for a reason. The things you should toss out are:

1 Clothes that don’t fit.
2 Objects you don’t like even if they were gifts.
3 Outdated papers (newspapers, magazines, invitations to events, expired coupons and calendars).
4 Things that you have more than one of. How many do you really need?
5 Broken items that are too expensive to fix.

First off, try applying this list. In an hour, you can easily clear out alot of physical clutter. If you donate it or give it away, you’ll be benefitting yourself and someone else.

Now I reproduced the list to show that you can do the same thing with digital clutter too. By adopting the list, you can also use it to get rid of:

1 Software you don’t use, especially obsolete software.
2 Hardware you don’t use. (Ditch that 8 MB USB key, and recycle that old cell phone)
3 Outdated folders of information. (Presentations, Word documents, spreadsheets, anything a few years old that is not vital or essential)
4 Things that you have more than one of. (How many of those iPhone/iPod touch applications do you need or use?)
5 Broken items that are too expensive to fix. (e.g., any old laptop with a defective motherboard).

Now you have alot less clutter in real life and digitally, thanks to Style and Home and yours truly. 🙂

P.S. Check out the Style at Home site. They have lots of great advice on organizing and much much more. Plus, the people I know who work there are great!