Tag: decluttering tips

Kick off Decluttering in Time for Football

Posted on by Jordank

Even though the temperatures may still be muggy outside, the Labor Day holiday marks the symbolic end of summer break. Now complete, the kids are back in school throughout the country and the leaves will soon be starting to turn in the northern climes. Fall is on the way.

Also synonymous with fall is the start of the football season. When the players hit the gridiron in earnest, it’s time to hole up indoors in front of the TV — or bundle up at the stadium — and root for your favorite team. But you may still be ill-equipped to have people over for game day.

For one thing, your home may be too cluttered to entertain in, even in the most casual beer-and-chips kind of way. The answer is to gather up all of that extra stuff that’s lying around and contact ClothingDonations.org for a pickup. Once clear of clutter, you can have people over without having them trip over your old junk.

With summer nearing its end, you can get rid of the T-shirts and shorts that didn’t get worn, and store or toss those bathing suits and pool toys. And once you start to get those fall sweaters and coats out of storage, you may find a few things that you know you won’t be wearing in the seasons ahead. Get rid of them now, before they can take up valuable closet space.

You may need some fan gear to cheer on your favorite team or teams. Thrift stores supplied by donations to ClothingDonations.org can be a good source of lightly used jerseys advertising your team preference, as well as housewares to help you welcome gametime guests. Thrifts can also be a good source of cold-weather gear that you’ll start to need in the next few weeks.

Think of clutter as the opposing team — the immovable object that you must continuously advance against to score a “win” on the playing field of your home. Unless you are a football player yourself, outdoor activities will be less of an option as the weather gets cooler, so the time to start reclaiming your space — yard by yard — is now.

Don’t Bring Garage Sale Items Back Into the Home

Posted on by Jordank

When your Labor Day garage or yard sale is nearing its end, “Don’t bring anything back inside your home!” says Apartment Therapy. Slash prices, make a “free” pile, and invite friends and neighbors to take what they want. Better yet, make an appointment for a donation pickup with ClothingDonations.org immediately after your sale, so that you can get rid of the things you no longer want or need. Garage sales are great for making a few extra bucks from that extra stuff, but the ultimate goal should be to get rid of it and free your physical (and mental) space of clutter.

Take Advantage of Kids’ Back-to-School Time

Posted on by Jordank

Many parents will be sending their kids off to school over the next two weeks, making for a bittersweet moment whether they’re heading to kindergarten or college. But what most parents don’t realize is that when summer ends and the offspring leave the house for at least part of the day, the demands on their own time will ease.

Without the kids constantly underfoot, needing rides or foraging for food, parents will have additional hours during the day to pursue their own career, learning and life goals. If you are in this situation and want to make the most of this newfound freedom, you’ll need to plot out a few projects for those extra hours.

Time management is the first step, Project Me says; without a plan, those extra kid-free hours will evaporate fast. Start by listing the things you would like to do with your extra time, such as going to the gym, starting a new work project or going back to school yourself. Identify your most important tasks, put them on a daily schedule and get started.

Decluttering is an excellent option, the site says. Step back and take an objective look at your space, create a plan of attack (doing one room at a time, for example, or targeting a number of bags and boxes to donate to ClothingDonations.org), and dive in. When each step in the task is complete, reward yourself! You’ll be much more likely to complete it if you have your eyes on a prize.

Back-to-school clutter likely needs organizing, says All Parenting’s “20 Things to Do When your Kids Go Back to School;” many areas may be cluttered with new clothing, backpacks and homework. Household cleaning tasks probably took a backseat to summer fun, too, so now’s the time to catch up on deep-cleaning the refrigerator, ceiling fans, baseboards, bathrooms and floors.

A digital decluttering can also help you get organized for the season ahead. Go through all of the summer photos on your phone(s) and camera(s); download them to a safe place and print the best ones out for framing and display. And while you’re at it, clean up your desktop and delete the mobile apps you haven’t used in months.

Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent or work full time, you’ll find that having the kids at school will free up a little bit of your time. Plan on making the most of it!

Get Your Garage or Yard Sale Ready Now

Posted on by Jordank

The “official” start of summer — Memorial Day — is now less than two weeks away! Longtime bargain-shoppers and declutters alike, however, know summer by its other name: garage-sale season.

We at the Organizing Blog aren’t going to tell you not to spend a sunny summer day perusing other people’s castoffs. There are tons of deals to be had! Our favorite finds include vintage bicycles, quality furniture and outdoor equipment — all scored at a fraction of their retail or auction prices.

But you likely have a lot of items like this (not to mention plenty of garage-sale staples such as CDs, small appliances, games, tools, clothing and glassware) that you just don’t use anymore — or never did. Now’s the time to start setting those things aside for your own sale.

You should allow yourself triple the time you think it might take to get your garage, yard or tag sale ready, according to The Spruce’s Do’s and Don’ts or Planning a Yard Sale. And if you start now, you can kick off summer with a few extra bucks in your pocket, and still host a holiday cookout, too.

Start with a good decluttering. Go room by room and closet to closet, and pick out the things that you haven’t used lately or just never found a place in your space and routine. Chances are good that there are quite a few of them, and they could all use new homes.

Sort those extra goods into bags and boxes; you can price and tag most items as you box them to save time later. Bulk items such as records, CDs, DVDs and magazines can go into boxes marked with a per-piece price.

Expect garage-sale shoppers to haggle, but price your merchandise to move; as much as you loved whatever it was when you bought it, you want to get rid of it now. If there is a particular item you want to mark with a non-negotiable price, put the price and “Firm” on the tag.

“Don’t price your goods based on sentiment,” The Spruce says. “The customers don’t care about your memories, and they’re certainly not willing to pay more to purchase them. If something is that valuable to you, maybe you should keep it.”

Move those boxes to the garage (or other staging area) as you fill them. Pick a day or two (and a firm time) to stage a sale, and start promoting it with advertising and signage. When the sale day arrives, you’ll be ready to put everything on display.

Contact ClothingDonations.org to pick up the leftovers and anything else you might wish to donate after the sale ends. Most areas have pickups throughout the week, meaning that you can put the extras back into boxes and place the boxes on the porch.

Start now, and you’ll have extra money in your pockets and less clutter in your home!

Mayday! The Clutter Must Go

Posted on by Jordank

In medieval times, May Day began as a celebration of the return of spring. People would weave floral garlands, crown a local May king and queen, and decorate and dance around a May tree or maypole to ensure fertility for their crops. In the late 1800s, though, May Day became associated with the labor movement. Workers’ rights groups designated May 1 as a holiday to commemorate Chicago’s Haymarket Riot.

In these relatively prosperous times, you may instead recall the old distress signal, “Mayday, Mayday!” This expression, it turns out, has nothing to do with the May 1; it is borrowed from the French “m’aidé,” or “Help me.” And people who have too much stuff know all too well the helpless feelings it can produce.

Psychology Today says that physical clutter — which it defines as more knickknacks, paperwork and other junk than can comfortably fit into the space — can have an adverse effect on a person’s ability to move and think. Multiple studies say that streamlining one’s space can reduce stress and improve one’s life satisfaction, physical health and cognitive capabilities.

Physical clutter (and now, digital clutter such as email) competes for your attention, LifeHacker says; it takes away from the tasks at hand and robs people of creativity. In order to think effectively, you must eliminate it. Unfortunately, getting rid of stuff that has emotional value produces a pain response in the brain. It may actually be easier to apply constraints to the things you bring into the home than get rid of the things that are already there.

In addition to increasing stress, clutter can affect your diet, produce respiratory distress, harm relationships, encourage poor spending habits and bring on a host of other problems, the Huffington Post says. And when you have boxes of extra stuff stacked in your bedrooms, overflowing closets and stacks of dusty papers in your office, clutter has reached a crisis level. You need help! (M’aidé!)

Take a deep breath. Designate a place in your home where you can stage a major decluttering (perhaps the garage, where you can also stage a sale). Set up boxes and bags for the stuff you’re going to keep, trash, and sell or donate. Schedule a donation pickup with ClothingDonations.org and start sorting. Decluttering will get easier — and once you start, you’ll feel better in so many ways that you may make it a habit.