Anyone who has ever moved from a house has looked across the sea of boxes and muttered, "Where did all this junk come from?" You can reduce the amount of muttering you do — and save time and money when you move — by clearing the clutter from your house as soon as you start thinking about moving (and definitely before you stage your house. But it isn’t always easy deciding what to get rid of, so here is a no-fail clutter-clearing technique.
Step 1: Set Aside Time
Mark four days on your calendar and hold them sacred:
1. Sort Day: The day — or consecutive days — to sort through the your belongings.
2. Giveaway Day: The deadline for family or friends to pick up things you aren't keeping. After that, it goes into the garage sale. This deadline keeps people from asking you to hang onto items “just a little longer,” which usually means you wind up taking them with you.
3. Sale Day: The day of the garage sale. A Saturday or Sunday is usual, but schedule it for any day that’s convenient for you — they will come. If time is tight, schedule it for just half a day — they will come in a hurry.
4. Throwaway Day: Once the sale is done, everything that’s left gets thrown out or donated. Consider renting a dumpster for this day from a company that donates or recycles useful items you threw out.
Step 2: Recruit Help
Get friends or family members involved. Having help makes the job feel smaller and keeps you motivated. It gives you someone to talk to and to help lift the boxes. Also, justifying to your best friend why you should keep the set of porcelain tree stumps that sat in a box at the back of your closet for five years helps you decide whether you actually want them.
Step 3: Sort
Get a pile of boxes and a lot of garbage bags. Label the boxes “Keep”, “Give Away”, and “Garage Sale.” Anything you throw out goes in the garbage bags.
Go through each item in each room. Keep it if the item is useful or makes you happy. Get rid of it if any of the following apply:
- You can’t remember the last time you used or wore it.
- You remember the last time you used or wore it, and people now laugh at the hairstyles from that time.
- You’ve said, “This might be useful someday,” but never used it.
- It is broken and cannot be repaired cheaper than it can be replaced.
- You have more than one of them and you only need one.
- It’s ugly — including unflattering pictures.
- It brings up bad memories.
- You’ve been meaning to do something with it but never do.
A note about emotional attachment: Objects can evoke memories of special times, but how many reminders do you need? One or two drawings from kindergarten are enough to prove to future generations that your child showed genius even then. Also beware of attaching emotional significance to items just because you haven’t seen them in a while. If it's that important, ask yourself why it has been in the back of the closet for a year (remember those porcelain tree stumps?). If that fails, ask whether your heirs would want the item if they find it when they deal with your estate someday.
Once you’ve decided to get rid of an item, ask yourself these questions:
- Can I get money for it? If yes, put in the “Sell” box.
- Could anyone I know use this item? If yes, put it in the “Give Away” box.
- Would this item be useful to a charity? If yes, put it in the “Give Away” box.
If the answer to every question is no, throw the item out. It's clutter.
As soon you finish the room, put the trash outside and the “Give Away” and “Garage Sale” boxes into their storage space. Your house will immediately feel less cluttered, and you will get a sense of accomplishment from seeing the results.
Repeat the process in each room until you've gone through the clutter in the whole house.
Step 4: Get Rid of It
Make sure the giveaways are picked up by the assigned date. Any leftovers go into the garage sale pile. Once the garage sale is done, all of it goes out. Nothing should return to the room it once lived in. On Throwaway Day, get it all off your property and to the curb or the local dump. Do not weaken your resolve or make exceptions. Toss it!
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