How to Declutter Your Home, Your Car, Your Mind, and Organize Your Life

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Time to get organized
A mindset to be the 'organizer'.

Step 1

Organize Your Life - Home

Start with your closet. This is where you are storing the items you will 'use later'. Make three piles to make the sorting quicker and less overwhelming. Look at each item for a short time and decide quickly which pile it should go in to.

Pile one - 'I have not looked at this for one year' pile. If you have not used the items for one year or more or you forgot that you had it then you probably do not need to keep it around. These are great items to give to a charity for someone else. There is nothing wrong with it and will be useful for someone else.

Pile two - 'This is just garbage' pile. If you have kept something around long enough it will show its age and become useless to have. The electric can opener that does not pierce the can, a vacuum so old they do not sell bags for it anymore, or a piece of clothing you were going to mend but you realize the tear is just too big to mess with.

Pile three - 'I was wondering where this was' pile. These are items that you will still use. This pile will need to be sorted out and the items placed where they belong so you can use them.

When your closets are clean, don't use them to store your 'keep for another day' items. Now it is time to move to your drawers, cabinets, or anywhere else you may be storing "stuff'. This is a first step in how to declutter and home organization.
Step 2

Organize Your Life Car

Bringing home a new car is wonderful because it looks and smells clean. Look at your vehicle now. Is it still clean and does it smell good. Chances are the answer is 'no' to both. Time to declutter.

-Park your car where all doors can be open so you have full access.
-Turn on the radio/stereo and turn up your favorite song or CD.
-Start in the trunk. This is where the items are buried that you just flung in. These items can be thrown out, cleaned and put where they belong, or be given back to the proper owner.
-The back seat - When you are busy items tend to be placed (or thrown) into the back seat to get them out of your way. It may be a mystery what all the items are now, especially when it comes to food covered with some spilled liquid, but dispose of all items properly.
-The front seat - The ash try and garbage bag need to be emptied, go through any glove box or extra storage area to take out what is not needed, and remove the extra CD's, DVD's, or other media and bring it back into your residence.
-Clean everything - Take the floor mats out to vacuum or wash, use the appropriate armour all to clean seats, dashboard, inside of doors, steering wheel, etc. Use a window cleaner to wipe down the insides of all windows and anything else that has a shiney finish.
-Finish with a car wash and wax and an air cleaner with the scent of a new car or whatever you choose.

Now it is time to take it for a drive and enjoy the clean look and smell again.
Step 3

Organize Your Life - Mind

Your mind is full of worries, thoughts of what is happening and what is going to happen, work, kids, bills, friends, social life, and on and on and on. Time to declutter your mind.
-Take a mental health vacation - Take some time for yourself each day to relax with a good book or CD, a bath with scented candles, time alone in the garage doing something you want at the workbench, etc.
-Everyone needs some time to do what they enjoy. Can your family life be changed to accommodate 'down time' for everyone in the house? One person could be surfing the web while others are watching their favorite show or reading.
-Fit some private time into your family's daily or weekly schedule and everyone will feel refreshed and ready to take on the next sports season, project at work, and the rest of your busy schedule.
Step 4

Organize Your Life - Encompasses things that are planned and ones that are not. You can only sort through and declutter your life with the things you know about.
-Organize your bills- Put them into weekly folders so you can create a budget or put them on auto-pay on your computer.
-Organize your schedule - Keep a calendar, either in paper format or electronic, so you know what is coming up that day, week, etc. Make sure that you include your kid's school and extra curricular activities. This will also help to eliminate double booking your time. Use this to schedule your 'mental health' time.
-Organize your meals - Know what you plan to serve/eat for each day of the next week. Use your calendar to know what events to plan around and who will be home to eat.
-Take time to look at yourself and your lifestyle. What does not need to be done or is not an emergency? Sort out your daily activities and this will help you bring about changes that enrich your life in the future.

When you declutter your life you see what is important and can focus on those people and things.

Comments

athome said

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on 3/8/2009 what? piles are not an organizational method? thanks 5*

chrisanddaya said

on 2/11/2009 Yeah! Excellent methods and thorough.
chrisanddaya

on 1/18/2009 Thanks for the great article. Clutter is a killer. I love watching shows on TV like Clean House... seeing how people's lives change when they declutter. Love your articles - keep em coming!