What Is Clutter?
May 21st, 2008 by Carissa SAHMmy Says"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful"–William Morris
Clutter is like obscenity: hard to define, but "I know it when I see it."
There are endless tricks and methods for neatly corralling your belongings, but deciding what constitutes clutter is generally a matter of personal taste. Take this quick quiz from Parents.com to determine your clutter tolerance (apparently I’m a Clutterholic) then check out these tips and resources for honing in on some common clutter categories.
Trash
All trash is clutter, but not all clutter is trash. Zoom around your home with a grocery sack and pitch all the empty envelopes, fabric softener sheets, and stale Cheerios you find on the floor.
Empty all trashcans at least daily; your home will certainly smell better, and your toss-out efforts won’t be thwarted by an overfull trashcan that can’t hold one more Kleenex.
Homeless Items
"A place for everything, and everything in its place." How many times have you heard that old organizing chestnut? It’s a pithy answer to a common problem: too much stuff, too little space.
From Everything in Its Place Saves Time, presented by FineLiving.com:
Keep the thinking simple. House items in the location that they are most often used. Everyday items should be housed within easy reach of all family members and should be easy to put away and retrieve. If items are not used often — say, vases — then they can be housed in a less accessible location, such as a top shelf in the garage or laundry room. Items that are used in many areas of the house — say, scissors — can be housed in those numerous locations.
Also, be sure that you’re housing location — for instance, for mail — is in the path that an individual would take naturally coming into the house. If you set the expectations that mail will be housed immediately upstairs you are only setting yourself up for disappointment. Work with the flow. Do not try to change where your spouse will drop his/her receipts at the end of the day. You know where the purse or pocket gets emptied, so create the location there for receipts.
Collections
My mom owns at least ten full sets of china. The dishes are in constant rotation, used for parties, church events, and setting a pretty table just for kicks. She’s devoted to her collection and has both the space to neatly contain it and the patience to keep it organized and dust-free. So for her, a huge china collection is not clutter.
I, on the other hand, have four deep cereal bowls that I never use because they’re ugly and hog space in the dishwasher. For me, those four bowls count as clutter (and since I just publicly convicted myself, they’ll be donated today!)
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Check out Organizing Shoes by Peter Walsh.
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Get tips on organizing your media collection from Julie Morgenstern at The Case of the Missing CD.
Collectibles
If you’ve graduated from Precious Moments tchotchkes to Lladro figurines, it’s time to reassess your collectibles organization. You can unload the lot on ebay, pass the collection on to a friend or family member who would enjoy it, or simply box it up and drop it off at your favorite charity.
- Learn how to organize sentimental items at Living With Your Past by Julie Morgenstern
- Peter Walsh offers solutions to keep collectibles from taking over your life at Keeping Collections Clutter Free.
Stockpiles
If you’re a fan of the Grocery Game, or quick to grab every great deal you come across, evaluate your family’s needs and consider working through your stockpile before buying more.
- How many cans of creamed corn will you really eat in a year? Donate canned goods and non-perishables to clear some space in your pantry.
- Do the math to determine if huge packages from your favorite warehouse store are truly a bargain. You may be surprised to learn that all you’re saving is the gas you’d use making several trips for smaller quantities–though with current gas prices that’s certainly a factor.
- If you’ve amassed dozens of toiletry freebies, consider donating them to your local shelter where they’ll be put to good use.
Duplicate Items
Author Mindy Starns Clark dubs inefficient storing of duplicates "Rabbit Trails." From CBN.com’s review of Clark’s book, The House That Cleans Itself:
“A rabbit trail is when you try to perform a task but the things you need are spread all over the house,” Clark says, “so you’re running all over to get all this stuff to do this one thing, when in fact if you would have them gathered already, you’d save a lot of time and trouble and mess.”
She suggests setting up stations for activities that regularly take place in that room. If you often do crafts or wrap presents in that room, keep the scissors and other supplies you need there. If you usually pay bills in that room, keep everything related to that task (including envelopes, stamps, a calculator, etc.) nearby in one convenient location.
Since every article I find specifically mentions scissors, I’ll toss my scissors solution into the ring. I keep a pair of scissors in just about every area of the house:
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2 in the kitchen: kitchen shears for cutting food, all-purpose scissors for slicing open bags and boxes.
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Guest bath: cutting rubberbands out of the baby’s hair before her bath.
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Master bath: trimming bangs and cutting loose threads from clothing.
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Wrapping station: one pair each in general and Christmas supplies.
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Nursery: opening diaper boxes and cutting off price tags.
Strangely, I do not keep scissors in the office; I’ve never needed them there!
I’m not usually a fan of storing multiple items: I have one crockpot, one shampoo, one umbrella. But having several pairs of scissors stashed in convenient locations keeps me from hopping down that rabbit trail hunting for them.
Your clutter definition is different from mine, different from your mom’s, or best friend’s, or neighbor’s. If you recognized your clutter issue in one of the above categories, focus on reigning in clutter in that specific area for a few weeks. If you recognized your husband’s clutter issue, hold off on dumping his stuff until you can have a talk about what clutter means to you–one woman’s trash is her man’s treasure!
Got a great decluttering tip? Join the discussion in the forum!
