I need your *BEST* decluttering tips

Mominator

I feel like I am constantly buried in *stuff*. Where I live right now is a rental of sorts. It is my Grandfather's house (he lives with my Mom) but his health is failing so when the time comes and he passes, I will literally have a month to move because the State is going to come in and take his home to sell it. This could be next week or it could be in 5 years, I just don't know. Because of this, I try to keep "stuff" to a minimum and am trying to keep my storage area organized, but it just all seems to get away from me. The shoes and clothes in this house are enough to drown in. Please, give me all your best decluttering and organizational tips!

CleoKitty

Well, considering that I've spent the entire weekend hauling crap from my house (2 van loads to the dumpster, 1 to Goodwill, and about 15-20 large boxes for a yard sale) I may not be the best person to give advice, LOL.

Regardless, I really think that the solution is just not to bring home so much crap in the first place.  Buy less. Make do with what you've got. When the kids need new clothes I need to remember that more is less. They don't need a closet bursting with stuff when they tend to wear the same handful of favorite outfits over and over anyhow. And instead of boxing up those old clothes and tossing them into the basement, I need to get rid of them ASAP!

When sh!t wears out or is outgrown, don't run to replace the item unless it is truly necessary.  So yeah, buy less. That's all I've got.

Mominator

Oh, I know buying less is huge, and that is definitely hard for me. It's also the toys, the toys, the toys. Since Nate and Alyssa share a room, there isn't any room for toys up there and I don't have a playroom, so it is all in the living room. It seems like every time I get rid of stuff its another birthday or Christmas. And don't even get me started on my stuff, the mail piles alone are a freaking fire hazard. Ugh!

jen5-03

At one point I was dreaming I'd have a 3rd kid. Or maybe I was dreaming that I'd sell all their old clothes. I finally gave up on all that and just started giving it away. It feels great. I'm just a little embarrassed to see how much clothes I had for DD, but the girl who is getting them loves it. If I don't have anyone to give boy clothes to I just send it to goodwill right away. No holding on to it. I pass goodwill all the time and I don't even have to get the kids out of the car, they'll come get it from my trunk so there's really no excuse for me to get a huge pile of stuff.

meghans30

I give it away. I tried consigning and do give a ton to goodwill, but lately I post on FB that I have x,y,z sizes to get rid of. I get a ton from my DH's cousins who have 3 boys . I get shirts in triplicate; so many shirts Trev could wear a different one everyday for 2 or 3 months.I just went through 3 bins of clothing he could wear this fall; held on to what I really like and am giving the rest away. As soon as K outgrows a size, I pack it all up and pass it along. So much easier and makes me feel good too.

brightning

I know this sounds ridiculously obvious, but the two best tips I've learned from a super organized friend of mine are to make everything have a "home" and to not put something down until you put it away.

DD has really helped me be accountable for having homes for all of her toys because she helps put them away and wants to know exactly where they belong.

And when I'm cleaning, I noticed that I would just be moving stuff around but never actually putting it away. It's better to spend 5 minutes putting fewer items away than to spend 5 minutes tidying up piles but never actually diminishing them.

marigolds

Start cleaning/organizing one room or one space of a room at a time.  Finish that one space before moving on.  An easy way to do it is to set a timer for 5/10/20 minutes - that way you will at least accomplish something and you can always do more if you feel like it.  It will also prevent you from getting distracted or overwhelmed by the rest of the house.

Mail - As soon as you bring it in the house, go through the pile.  Open all the bills, clip coupons and throw out the junk.  Put the bills and coupons in their assigned areas.

Keep your counters clean.  If they are already clean, you're more likely to keep them clutter free. 

When my dd goes to bed, I spend about 20 minutes cleaning/decluttering.  I put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher or I put the clean dishes in the cabinets.  I fold the laundry and put it away.  I put whatever random stuff we used for the day in it's place.  That way, I'm not overwhelmed by a dirty house when I wake up.

If you haven't used or worn something in the past year, get rid of it.  Chances are you won't use it in the future.

The best way for me to declutter is by always having a semi-clean house. 

EMT

marigolds:

Start cleaning/organizing one room or one space of a room at a time.  Finish that one space before moving on.  An easy way to do it is to set a timer for 5/10/20 minutes - that way you will at least accomplish something and you can always do more if you feel like it.  It will also prevent you from getting distracted or overwhelmed by the rest of the house.

I have trouble with the above because organizing one room affects others. Like I start thinking "oh this stuff would be better in this cabinet [which is in another room]" and then I either end up sidetracked in another room or with piles of stuff that belong elsewhere. It's very difficult for me to do it piecemeal because of this so then I just quit and am back to the whole house being an "S" hole. I think it's my undiagnosed ADHD

The only thing that helps me is constantly getting rid of stuff. I hate cheap toys because the disorganization = chaos in our house. There are pieces of toys everywhere but none of them actually work because the pieces are all over the house. I am trying to stick with quantity vs. quality as far as toys and that is helping.

But poor DD was looking for her zhu zhu pet the other day. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I trashed it months ago.

I also am working on having "homes" for all their toys too. I am trying to get DD to start cleaning her room. But, I don't feel like it's fair for me to demand that she do that when there really is no organization in there. We are working on closet organizers for the kids closets.

Anyway, this got long and rambling but I mostly just want to let you know that I have the same problem!

UGAbride

I am on a major organizing bent right now, and I'm probably not going about it the right way since nothing is finished yet...but I'm actually making progress!  We cleaned out our basement last weekend, so I've sold 3 or 4 things on Craigslist this week, and have a list of more to go up.  I'm also reorganizing the laundry room so I don't hate going in there so much, bought more hampers to help control the volume, and getting bins for all the things I want to store in there (lightbulbs, batteries, extra buttons, loose change, vacuum attachments, etc will all have a separate bin in the cabinet). 

Paper clutter - even if it's just boxes, have a place for each type that comes in your house (ie. coupons, bills, kids artwork, catalogs you want to look through, etc). 

Toys - "like with like", have containers for anything with small stuff, and a place where the kids can put it back and find it later (ie. label the shelf with a picture of the toy that goes there). 

These are all my in-progress projects

joy143dh

I use storage/organizing things to help me.    Huge tupperware tubs, plastic drawers, baskets, closet organizer cubes, and lots and lots of tupperware containers. 

Purge one room or one closet at a time (one a week if you have too).   FreeCycle or Craigslist items you don't want to keep. 

Clear your counters and dresser surfaces and keep them clear.   

Stair baskets are huge help for me - I have one on the bottom and one on the top of each staircase for things going up or down. Otherwise, I'd just leave the stuff in another room.

ridesbuttons

1. Go no mercy on clothes, toys etc. (your stuff too).  If it hasn't been worn/used in 6 months, get rid of it.  Throw it away or donate or give it to someone.  Tackle the job closet by closet, drawer by drawer, bin by bin.

2. If something new comes in, something old goes out. 

jlw2505

Each change of season - I go through all of my clothes and get rid of anything that I didn't wear that past season unless its a super dressy thing which I just didn't have the occasion to wear.  I go through the kids clothes and as I move them out of the closet to change the season, they go into 3 piles - save for my younger DD to wear the next year or donate to Goodwill (or wherever) and a pas onto my SIL's pile.  The donate stuff gets bagged right away and a few times a year, I make a trip over to goodwill and get rid of it.  I do toys a few times a year and books as well and do the same basic thing.  I am not a keeper of a ton of things so a few times a year - I take a day and just go through stuff - my DH on the other hand - he has stuff in his closet that I have never seen him wear - he is finally starting to go through it.  I made him do his shoes over the weekend by moving them into a big pile and reogainzing the closet where we keep the shoes - I told him we didn't have enough space and to let me know what he wants and doesn't - he got rid of 6 pairs!!!