Gordon, and now Ali, keep on linking to this website. It's called the Unclutterer and it's about getting and staying organised. Just seeing the links stresses me out. I didn't visit Ali's blog for a whole week because her unclutterer link was too near the top of the page for me to feel comfortable.
Now, I don't like clutter any more than the next person. But every neat system that I've ever tried to reduce it hasn't worked. But there's not a whole lot of junk around our place and I think I have some good advice to offer. Here's my top 5 tips for uncluttering your house:
1. Live in a small house. You'll buy less stuff because finding somewhere to put it will be too hard.
2. Throw things out all the time. You'll find that you'll hardly ever regret it. (Where is that group certificate?)
3. Don't go shopping much. Most mess comes from stuff. Most stuff comes from shops.
4. Don't bring junkmail inside. Junk mail is clutter and causes you to want to go out and buy more stuff to clutter up your house.
5. Take photos of your kids' artwork, upload it to the computer, then chuck out the original.
Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteNumber 1 is a great tip.
Also, while I still buy books I tend to say more often, "that's what libraries are for."
1. Yes I agree ... big houses are very over-rated and generally need more house work.
ReplyDelete2. Amazingly in Oxford we dont get any. I feel very very liberated.
3. We try to shop on-line... it also helps with having domestics in a shop.
5. PP thought I was slightly mad when I started doing this... now I'm very glad... Now I need to be more organised about putting it up on the computer.
Kate - not sure about online shopping. I've never had much luck with it. Might need to try again.
ReplyDeleteGordon - books are tricky. Worst of all is the denomination. I'm tempted to chuck out everything that comes to us in a pcq envelope without even opening it. I think it would be fine 80% of the time.
Despite my knowledge that I have too many books and need to get rid of a lot, I just bought a book for $1 today. When I've read it I'll donate it to charity so it can go through the cycle again or give it to a friend. Fortunately for my studies, my textbook is at least as interesting. Not often you can say that, eh? :-)
ReplyDeleteI did a post or two on decluttering last year. Sadly, that decluttered room is now cluttered again. It's actually the room to do the decluttering in, so periodically stuff from other areas is moved there to be decluttered (it helps me to have everything in one place before I start).
A real estate agent once gave us the advice to "move every 5 years" to keep down the clutter. I think the reasoning was that if you know you're going to have to pack every 5 years you'll be less inclined to keep "stuff".
At the time I thought he was mad because we have a tendency to go, "The movers are coming in 3 days - just get it in a box!" Now I think he's mad because we've moved about every 3 years or less and we've still collected too much "stuff".
Hey, well that was my one and only reference to Unclutterer. I much prefer Apartment Therapy, with all it's nice stuff.
ReplyDeleteI agree that systems are not that great, in general, and the main game is to keep the stuff going out. I only have half a two-bedroom flat at my disposal, but that is still plenty of room for clutter (though I do think at least part of the problem is the fact that my bedroom is also all I've got for an "office" - so I get clothes on the desk and papers on the dressing table).
But yes, the books, the books ... I don't need shops for anything else.
We bought one of those 40L plastic containers for each of our kids for their "special things" from school/church/play they want to keep. If it doesn't fit in the box with the lid on, they have to make a choice of what gets thrown out. Combining that with #5 is a good idea.
ReplyDelete