Spring Cleaning - Operation Declutter

Clutter. I hate it. I loathe when papers pile up in various places around the house and when the junk drawer in the kitchen gets filled to overflowing with randomness that has no home elsewhere. Clutter is my kryptonite. I have a hard time thinking clearly when all I see around me is a mess. So, about once a season, I attack it ruthlessly. Much to the Irishman’s dismay, I’ve been known to just throw everything away. With all of my neurosis, one thing I don’t suffer from is the, “I may need that someday” affliction. If I need it, I’ll just buy another one. End of story.

Okay, now that my inclination to throw everything away is out in the open, I’ve found that there is a better way to declutter your house - one that doesn’t cause your spouse and child to gasp in horror. Here’s the method to my madness.

1) Pick one room at a time. You absolutely do not want to stop in the middle of clearing things out because it might be weeks before you can get back to the task at hand. Commit one entire afternoon or day to starting (and finishing!) a single room in your house.

2) Clear out the room when you are home alone. Arguing with someone over whether you need this or that only wastes time.

3) Have boxes ready to load up with stuff – one box for trash, one box for donations and one box for “not sure if I’m ready to part with this.” Stuff that the Irishman thinks is important, but doesn’t use also falls into this third category.

4) Only keep things that you have used in the last 12 months. If you haven’t used it once, it is not essential to your daily life and it’s only taking up space.

5) Only move things once. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Do not simply move something off of your dresser and onto your nightstand just because you don’t know where it should go. Decide on the spot where you think its new permanent home should be. If you can’t think of a place, have a separate box for your “orphans” that you’ll sort through once all spaces in your house are cleared out.

6) Be ruthless! I promise that you will not miss the random shirt that you’ve never worn once it’s gone from your closet. In fact, I guarantee that you’ll feel quite liberated by the freedom that you’ve gained from being able to easily locate clothes that actually fit you.

Okay, now that you’ve gone through every single item in one particular room, do the following with the separate piles – The trash goes straight outside, the donations go straight to the trunk of the car to be dropped off, and the “not sure if I’m ready to part with this” boxes get taken to the garage/storage area.

Here’s the kicker, if I have not gone looking for an item that I moved to storage before my next declutter day (some 4-6 months later), it gets moved to a donation box and makes room for the next elimination round. Thus, there’s always room in storage and I’m not needlessly hanging onto things for no reason whatsoever.

And that’s it! Now go forth and conquer. Happy spring cleaning folks!