Two weeks ago, one of my readers Anna, pointed that sometimes it is difficult to be consistent and don’t clutter back. This issue doesn’t concern only our wallets, but many other places: workspace, room, house, attic, cellar, car locker, computer desktop and so on.
It is senseless to organize and clean any place if we can’t maintain uncluttered state. How to avoid cluttering back? Below are my favorite strategies.
Identify clutter and its sources
This is a starting point. It is very important to do this conscientiously. Knowing what is not necessary in your space and being aware of clutter’s sources will definitely help you avoid clutter in future.
Prepare a dedicated place for incoming stuff
It should be such a bin with label “to be processed”. All new things go there, before you find proper place for them or decide to remove them (if they are not really necessary for you). It can be a separate locker, drawer, box or folder on your computer. This way you will avoid situations where clutter attacks different places. You keep it under control, in single place. Of course you need to regularly dedicate some time to process this stuff.
Batch processing
Collect similar things and process them together. Why? It is more effective. Similar things need similar activities. It’s better to check and process thirty e-mails, then read thirty posts from your favorite blogs and then put labels on thirty unknown CDs from your shelf instead of doing all these things mixed together like: one e-mail, one post, one CD, one email…and so on.
Keep empty spaces
If you keep empty spaces, it is much easier to keep clutter away from them. You get used to these empty spaces and when there appears something new, you immediately notice it and react on it to bring the previous, empty and clean state.
Less clutter, easier to clean
Less stuff around makes cleaning process much easier. Imagine that you have empty room to clean. It is much easier to clean than a room full of different furniture, decorations and other objects. Reduce to essential things and you will enjoy easier cleaning, which will keeps you motivated to avoid further clutter.
Do I really need this?
When you want to take a new thing, ask this question. Do I really need this? Would I use it in near future or it will only clutter my room? Very often you will give yourself negative answers. Don’t need it, don’t take it.
One in, one out
It is very simple and effective. When you put something into certain area, you must take something out of there. This solution is not working when there is nothing you can remove, which is not necessary and you have to add something which is also necessary.
One in, two out
A stronger version of previous method. It is very good strategy to unclutter any place, when there is a lot of unnecessary stuff around. When you are already limited to essential and critical things, it is no longer working. But that means you achieved suitable order.
Knowing above tips, you should effectively avoid clutter getting back. Enjoy your clean, simple and uncluttered spaces.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:51 am
I find that if I try to put my clutter in a basket, box, or drawer, I never get around to actually sorting through the mess. I find I’m much better off if I deal with each piece of clutter as SOON as it comes up… otherwise it has this nasty habit of sticking around forever.