My friend Brenda left a comment here when I started talking about de-cluttering, and offered some de-cluttering tips she had found somewhere and liked.
Here they are – with my comments:
1. Don't organize clutter. (Well duh – if it was organised, it wouldn’t be clutter – it’d be home decoration!)
2. Set a date by which you will use it, or get rid of it. Write the date on a Post It, and stick it to the item. (Isn’t this a contradiction of Rule no. 1? Sounds pretty organised to me, and the thought of post-it notes hanging off everything in my house just makes me giggle)
3. Toss 10 things. This works great for junk drawers. (YES YES YES!)
4. Pass the buck. Give it back to whom it belongs. Give it to charity. Put it in a box marked "free" and set it on a street corner. (Yep, there’s quite a market for broken pens, ancient telephone plugs, K-Mart catalogues, old letters and bits of string.)
5. Get help. Organize a work party. (Oh, I thought you meant psychiatric help. Or maybe a 12-step program… ‘I’m Betty and I’m a clutterholic’…)
Rule No.3 ROCKS! As soon as I read it I loved it. It was one of those life-changing 'lightbulb' moments. It’s going to be so easy!
I realise where I’ve been going wrong, all these years. My de-cluttering target has been unrealistic. I’ve tried too hard to do too much in too short a time – and I’ve overwhelmed myself.
With this fabulous ‘chuck 10 daily’ concept, though, if I commit to throwing away a mere 10 things per day, that’s 70 things in a week – which is a whopping 3650 things per year (3660 in a leap year!) My house would be clutter-free by, um, about 2020!
(Note to self: This will only work if you don't re-clutter. Even re-cluttering at the rate of one bit per day will reduce the yearly de-cluttering total by 10 percent – eeek!)
Oh, I am so excited! Chuck 10 begins, um, tomorrow!
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