House & Home Decluttering tips

From
The twenty-seven most important rules for keeping your house in order..

Everything except 8 and 14 makes sense to me.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: The twenty-seven most important rules for keeping your house in order.

To keep your house from falling into cluttered chaos:

1. Never buy “souvenirs.”
2. Somewhere, keep an entirely empty shelf or drawer.
3. Strive to keep surfaces bare. Put away kitchen appliances you don’t use every day; don’t cram stuff onto every ledge.
4. Get rid of newspapers and magazines as soon as possible. Never keep a newspaper overnight, and never keep a magazine for more than two months—unless you find a positive joy in keeping an orderly collection.
5. Have an exact place for everything.
6. Know where to give things away: books, clothes, kitchenware, toys. It’s much easier to get rid of things if you can imagine who will benefit. Figure this out before you start a major clutter-clearing effort.
7. Fight the piles that accumulate in the hallway, in corners, on bedside tables, on the dining room table.
8. Use dimmer switches.
9. Don’t buy things on impulse, particularly from bargain stores.
10. Storing a thing means you don’t need to use it. So before you squirrel something away, ask yourself, “Do I really need to keep this?”
11. Never accept anything for free, unless you’re thrilled with it. A mug, a tote bag, a hand-me-down toy, the lamp from your mother-in-law–if you don’t need it, don’t take it.
12. According to “broken windows theory,” signs of decay like broken windows or graffiti create an atmosphere that contributes to larger crime. Burnt-out light bulbs and empty toilet-paper holders are the broken windows of the home; don’t tolerate them.
13. Have enough hangers in every closet.
14. Make your bed every morning.
15. Keep your keys in the same place each day.
16. Every night before bed, do a tidy-up to put away everything that’s out of place.
17. If you have stacks of unopened CDs, unread books, unwatched videos of PBS series, or unopened spice jars, don’t let yourself buy any more until you’ve made a dent in what you already have.
18. Don’t let yourself run out of necessities like envelopes, tape, toothpaste, stamps, Band-aids, batteries, and the like. If you hate to shop, buy large quantities and stockpile them.
19. Don’t hoard huge quantities of things that you could never use up: binder clips, rubber bands, clay pots, florist vases, plastic grocery bags. Give the rest away.
20. Hang up your coat (this is probably the rule I personally violate most often).
21. Buy a box-cutter. They really are handy.
22. If you have lots of things that you’re reluctant to throw away because you’re not sure what they are (mystery cables, random remote-control devices, important looking screws that appeared mysteriously on the floor, obscure vacuum-cleaner attachment) put them all in one box. You’ll never use the stuff, but you’ll know it’s there.
23. For extra credit, put a date on the box, and if you haven’t opened it in a year, throw it away.
24. Never allow a drawer or a closet to get so full that it’s hard to open and shut.
25. Get rid of things that don’t work. If you’re like me, you’ll be amazed at how many things you have around the house that are perfectly useless.
26. Set aside a place where you put things to give away, and as soon as you realize you want to get rid of something, put it there. That way, you prevent clutter from accumulating.
27. If you can’t find something, clean up.

 

Yep - I am the de-clutter queen and it drives my husband nuts. Whenever he can't find "something" I always get accused of throwing it out (okay - often it's the truth).

I'm very much in category of "use it or lose it" ... if something isn't being used regularly - or brings me aesthetic joy to see - then it goes. I've given away to friends some amazingly beautiful (and expensive) clothes - Salvos love it when I ring to pick up - I've currently got some gold/diamond/ruby jewellery in for remodelling into something I would actually wear consistently - hmmmmm - time for another sort ... I feel the itch

 

Perfect, you sound exactly like me.

I am also the de-clutter queen. I don't understand why people have sh$t stored in garages, spare rooms etc. for years and years, it means you don't need it, why store it, give it to someone who may enjoy it today.

My brother and SIL are hoarders, they have moved onto my mother's house, she has a garage and some rooms full of their rubbish, its been there for at least 15 years. This behaviour causes chaos.

 

There is nothing like moving house to cure clutter

 

I'm planning to start afresh re: the clutter, but I need the partner on board....

 

I might need consultation with you and @MTR (having difficulty of throwing things unless they have been used until they're broken.)

 

Hehe, unfortunately I am in Perth cant help.

Just get a skip on the front verge, nice and easy

I only keep the important stuff for me, my children's special memories, ie awards, drawings etc.
I frame their drawings, they are all around the house so I enjoy it, they get a kick out of it as well.

MTR

 

This is why I hardly buy anything anymore. Books, CDs, Games, forget it. If I can't download it I don't want it. Even still the clutter just seems to build up over time. When you have kids it gets even worse! My son just got more Christmas gifts this past week than I got in my whole life!

We're thinking about moving to a bigger house at the moment but I'm in two minds about it. The reality is it will just be so we can cram more clutter into the house.

 

I have twelve months to get rid of 13yrs of crap in this house. I was considering walking out the door and throwing a molotov over my shoulder

Today I have gotten rid of a giant kids train table, train set and some toys in exchange for a litre of vodka and a carton of beer. Alcohol doesn't count in hoarding There is a Perth Beer Exchange group where you can swap/trade goods for alcohol.

 

The train table person just came and picked it up. Turns out it's his 2yo's birthday on Monday. I managed to give away 3 boxes of toys and some hand me down boys clothes at the same time.

 

ooooo - I just twigged - did you send me the gorgeous painting of Spot and Bindi? I have to send you a photo when I've got it on my "things that I like" wall that includes random little artworks and sayings.

p.s. hubby won't let me near his 3 bay shed - I despair if he dies before I do - it's full of old paint and "really useful" bits and bobs and lengths of timber and piping and tools and things hanging off walls ... and the occasional dead thing behind the piles of timber and piping and ...

 

I wish my wife would declutter. She is a semi-hoarder - 'may need it some day'.
Also buys from auctions and resells things.
Anyone want 250 mobile phone covers / protectors, or about 400,000 loom bands?? Going cheap....

 

Haha yes please

 

I've been trying to declutter. We have sooo much stuff and so many boxes. Each time we move we drag the same unopened boxes with us. A week after we moved into our current place we had a big storm and our garage was flooded. Quick way to throw out a third of our boxes.

Keeping up with the kids stuff is tough. Now that my eldest is at school she needs a lot less clothing, so I can be tougher on the cull. I have API mags in boxes since at least 2007. They should be the next thing on my list to go.

 

I would of replied to this discussion sooner but i have only just found the laptop, if i leave anything on the lounge, kitchen bench , coffee table it gets moved and it gets "put in its place" drives me nuts.

 

I like the local council bulk rubbish verge collections as a reminder to declutter. Seeing some of what is put out in the neighbourhood is a great motivator to never have that much in the beginning.

 

Now that's quite an idea. I could be missing out if that exists near me, will ask around tomorrow...

 

Don't worry - it took 30 years for hubby to finally throw out his box of uni thesis notes. He's a hoarder of terrible dimensions, with jars of obsolete screws/nuts/bolts ... that's why he has his shed and I have the house ... and never the 'twain shall meet.

 

When I gutted my ppor this year for its reno I put everything in the garage. After renos, I only brought back in things that were useful or needed, everything else went in a skip or given away.

Ended up with only about a quarter of what I started with, feels great to be clutter free.

 

OMG I could have written this post!!

About 5 years ago I did a massive clean up and threw quite a few things away including my husband's fish ties (remember those?) and a rusty old slinky.

Literally the very next day my husband confronts me about his missing slinky and after searching the bins (too late, rubbish had already been collected) demands a replacement (not going to happen). He didn't notice the missing tie for a few years but then also demanded a replacement calling the fish ties "collectibles"!!

He also accused me of throwing a few other things away that I actually hadn't so next bin day I threw them away since I was already accused of it anyway