August 27, 2010

What is your Objective?

When your starting out the task to declutter your stuff, you need to ask yourself three key questions:

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• How do you plan to get to the goal?
• What tools do you need to get these things done?

By asking yourself these questions, in advance, your mind is focus to cleaning. It helps to understand your focus.

After 25 minutes of activity, you may want to refresh your mind with the answers to the above questions. I find this technique useful, because while you declutter you tend to zone out and focus on why you have the stuff instead of how can you keep this stuff.

If you have old monitors, TVs and Microwaves, check your local town for special recycle weekends. You can recycle some of your unused electronics for free.

Notes:

• Try to visualize the area on what it will look like when you complete the decluttering process. Imagine how simple it will be not having all the clutter. Go and make that visualization a reality.
• Setup a donation box and donate some of your items to others that may need it more than you do.

July 16, 2010

Realization Principle

In the world of decluttering, one way to help get a better place is to understand the Realization Principle:

Realization Principle - Vision what you want, and then make it happen.

How do you want the room to look, then removed everything from the room til it looks exactly how you want it.I usually get several boxes and dump everything into those boxes. After the room looks exact how I want it. I justify why I should keep the things in the boxes.

June 03, 2009

Labeling Boxes

If you have boxes or bins in your basement or attic, you should label the contents so that its easy to find things later on. This is pretty obvious, but most people don't do it and they pay the price when it comes time to look for things.

Use White Duct Tape
I highly recommend using White Duct tape to label the storage containers. This makes it easy to identify what's in the storage containers as the tape is strong enough not to fall off in the heat and cold. The tape can be easily removed or replaces as contents of the storage container changes. I tried using labels and they fall off pretty easily.

You should tape one side and the top of the box so that its easy to identify stacked storage containers. Also be sure to label exactly what's in the box, saying "Christmas Decorations" isn't too vague. A better solution would be, "Snowmen and Raindeer for fireplace." The more descriptive you are to what's in the container the better off you will be to finding what your looking for.

Boxes of Books
If you have a box full of books, take the time and record the title of the books and tape it to the box. The few minutes that you spend on doing this will save you a lot more time later! Also you may find that some of the books aren't worth keeping anymore.

May 02, 2008

Clutter Quote

From the book Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life by Mike Nelson:

"Hearses don’t have trailer-hitches"

April 29, 2008

Busy Cleaning Weekend

This past weekend we did some serious cleaning in our apartment, here's what were able to accomplish:

• 150lbs of trash on Saturday
• 7 Bags of Clothes donated to St. Vincent de Paul
• 12 Small Boxes of Misc Items to Goodwill

Overall it was a very successful weekend, We were able to remove a lot of things that we just don't need anymore. Note that we have been cleaning all week and just did several trips on Saturday to the Recycle center and Goodwill.

We saw a lot of people out and about doing spring cleaning but none were as aggressive as we were. Spring Cleaning is well underway.

We aren't done yet, we still have a lot more things to get rid of and still have some things in cue ready for this weekend trash and goodwill run.

Later this week I'll be putting things on eBay to see if there's some demand for some of the things I have been collecting over the years. I have done some basic research and have found that some of the stuff isn't as valuable as I thought they would be.