Sep142009
Divide and Conquer Your Clutter!
Print 
PDF80% of what we own, we never use. –Blueprint Magazine, 2007
Every once in a while, I imagine getting news that our family has to suddenly leave our home, for whatever reason. I picture myself scrambling to grab clothes, photo albums, birth certificates, and all the cash I can find, all while yelling commands at the kids and husband. What a panicked scene that would be, and I have to admit, it would be made far more difficult by the clutter that has recently infested my home.
I can so relate!
It’s time to declutter, moms! Not just for evacuation or emergency purposes, but for our own sanity! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purchased something like nail glue, only to find two bottles hidden in my medicine cabinet or have scrambled through every pile of papers looking for a sales receipt so I can return something! When my daughter was born, I started a “Memory Box” that has now morphed into a “Memory Garage!” If we’re forming a line to declutter our homes, I’ll be at the very front!
Susan Stewart, owner of Perfectly Placed Organization & Design, suggests choosing just one small area at a time to declutter and gave me these five categories for dividing, and conquering, all the clutter in our lives. Choose your “battlefield”, and begin sorting into these five piles.
- Give to someone special. — This pile will contain things that have either a sentimental or practical value to someone you know. For example, a book you’ve been meaning to give to your best friend.
- Donate. Sometimes I’d rather have a receipt from a non-profit organization for my donation than go through the trouble of a yard sale. Choose your organization(s), set a date for delivering your goods, and you will have made someone, somewhere, a happier person.
- Trash. Much of what we hold on to is just trash. Stained clothing, old receipts, expired coupons, magazines. Just trash it! Grab the biggest garbage bag you can find, and get to work!
- File. Use this guide to decide what you can toss and what needs to be filed away. If you don’t have file folders or filing boxes, take care of that today. Otherwise, this pile will just become another unmanaged mass of papers by the weekend.
- Move to another location. Those Hotwheel cars do not belong on my kitchen counter! Enlist your family’s help in putting things where they belong!
Whew! If I can do this, you can do it, too! Our homes, our lives, and our minds will thank us!
© 2009, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
(12) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
An Interview with Professional Survival Mom Suzanne
Thanks, PJ! There are so many great people in this community. Lots o
An Interview with Professional Survival Mom Suzanne
The shop looks great. Going to get the book now. Thanks!!
My Story: Surviving a flood and planning for long-term survival
I've never been in a flood before. Where I'm at in the Northwest they'
dlpt
My children and I became separated in a crowded room…my daughter reassured her brother by casually but factually stating…just look for the colors red or blue …those are mom's two shirts! I have learned through several estate sales that most things once cherished can be easily discarded. I will take a few things at a time… clothing, toys, household items, and put them in a box . If we haven't missed them or needed them in a months time..it gets donated!
TheSurvivalMom
An estate sale is a sure eye-opener, isn't it? What we hold on to is usually the perceived value of an item. Having said that, I'm not sure exactly how I'll deal with dd's Memory Garage. All those tiny little ballet slippers are soooo cute!
Lisa
Rudy Kearney
My wife and I watch a show on A&E (I think) called Hoarders. It's amazing the lengths some people will go to in order to keep 'stuff'. I'm blessed that my wife is a natural 'declutterer' and usually doesn't try to keep too much 'Stuff' from piling up. She is often far more brutal about getting rid of stuff than I am!
Our garage though…. not going to be fun to clear that up. We have boxes there that haven't been unpacked from the last time we moved. Six years ago.
laura m.
I too declutter on a regular basis. There are group homes and other charities in my city that take everything in decent condition. Hoarders are extremely self centered, and don’t believe in donating to charities. One friend has ten bathrobes. I asked her to pick out five of least favorite and I’d take them to a group home for battered women…she never called me. Kitchen items pile up we buy but end up never being useful, some given to us. I sold crystal I never used, a nik nak cabinet, other furniture. Got rid of books, donated to several places. If shtf, all this will be useless except for a few how to books. Best to cull out “stuff” in our way. same goes for useless relationships with shallow people. Get with close trusted friends and network; stay out of political gatherings; voting is useless..America is tanked.
Pingback: Today’s Featured Post: Divide and Conquer Your Clutter | Preparing Your Family
Katie
I have a cluttered mess!! I've started with 5 things a day. Those old receipts you mentioned& junk mail…I toss at least 5 things a day & have a bag for donated items. When the bag is full it goes in the car for the next trip to town. Our goodwill now just gives me a blank form to fill out myself! It's been very freeing & the house feels much larger!
TheSurvivalMom
Hi there, Katie! I think I actually breathe better when I'm in a space that is free of clutter. Right now we're getting ready for the Mother-of-all-garage-sales, and I can't wait to put that money to better use — in our savings account!
Katie
Yes, I have quite a bit stored in the basement. We were going to have one this fall and weather was against us. By spring I should have a huge load to clear out.I've really enjoyed your site. The list of lists has been very helpful. I forgot the light sticks also! There will be a few on sale after halloween also.
Evelyn Mae
Hi!! I am brand new to your site, directed here by my DH. This is one area I have recently started to conquer, albeit slowly, but I have started! In your list of 5 categories you say nothing about selling things on places like Craig'sList, ebay or Amazon!! I have spent a few hours for the past three days pulling off our shelves all the CD's, DVD's and books that we no longer wanted to keep. In the past 5 days I have sold 18 items and have "recouped" about $160 or more to use in our preparations. This would also count toward our article on a woman having more than one way to earn some money. It does take effort, but I don't have to leave home in order to "work", and the sales happen without me physically present or even awake!
Blessings,
~Evelyn Mae
LizLong
I'm trying to get our whole community to declutter a bit – we're having a big used media sale (books, movies, computer / video games, audio cds) and the money will go to help enlarge our local library. The county doesn't have money to expand it, but we *really* need a bigger one. This won't get us much more space, but hopefully we'll be able to add a small amount to the current space until we can build the big new one.
People hate to just toss things, or put it off. This way, they have a motivation and we're helping ourselves. Fingers crossed that it goes well!!!!
TheSurvivalMom
It is such a great feeling to not be burdened down with crap. The other day I was looking in my kitchen cupboards at my THREE collections of crystal. What on earth was I thinking?? We use four water goblets maybe three or four times a year when I treat the family to a special candlelight dinner (the kids LOVE it!), but I could so easily sell or donate all that crystal, and there's more STUFF where that came from! In the areas of my house where I have been diligently decluttering, it's just nice to go in those rooms and just sit and be at peace.
) Also, if we ever had to bug out, it would be a whole lot easier without tons of belongings to sort through. Good luck with that fundraising sale! If I lived near you, I'd donate all my stuff!
LizLong
Just FYI, we ended up raising $11,000 and the county will probably pay the rest of the cost to build an addition onto our current library until the economy improves and a new one is built. Since the building belongs to Parks & Recs, that means we'll have a bigger hopefully better building for the Park when the library moves on. Before this effort, they weren't going to do anything at all until the new library eventually was built (or not). They were also going to cut library hours. Sometimes, a small thing can make a huge difference.