Even as classrooms transition to digital technologies, kids can gather lots of papers — assignments, reports, art projects, completed quizzes — during the school year. These can pile up and create #clutter in the home if you don’t stay on top of them. To keep the papers you save to a minimum, Simple Purposeful Living says, ask three questions as you start to go through them and #declutter: (1) “Is there more than one?” Keep only the best of the flower/house/truck drawings. (2) “Can you get it again?” Forms, immunization records and report cards often fall into this category. And (3) “What’s worst thing that could happen?” Would you really miss whatever it is if it were gone?
Tag: decluttering tips
Designate Spaces for School Stuff
Back-to-school season will bring lots of new stuff into the home, and if you designate places where these things will “live,” Hadley Court says, it will be easier to keep them from getting dispersed to create #clutter or get misplaced. Better still, defining study and storage spaces can actually support academic performance. “Individual spaces are where creativity strikes and focus flourishes,” the blog says. “With some intense #decluttering of things you don’t need anymore, these spaces become individually inspiring. By making sure each space has its own purpose, certain tasks like homework are done separately and successfully.”
Out With the Old in the New School Year
Back-to-school time is the perfect opportunity to get rid of all sorts of extra stuff that kids have brought into the home in years past, says #decluttering expert Tracy McCubbin. Toys that the kids no longer use, books they’ve read and won’t pick up again, clothing they’ve outgrown, equipment for sports they no longer play, and last year’s backpacks and bags are good targets for your seasonal purge. Bag or box these items and get them out of your house by scheduling a free #donation pickup from ClothingDonations.org. “Next year, think about doing this decluttering while the kids are at sleepaway camp,” the dClutterfly ounder adds.
Moving? Don’t Forget to Declutter
The average American will move 11.4 times in his or her lifetime, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And the Organizing Blog thinks that summer 2019 may be more mobile than most — those orange box trucks seem to be everywhere this season, taking people and their stuff across town and across the country.
One thing is certain: Moving is not easy, and it gets harder as you accumulate more stuff. Everything you keep has to go into boxes and onto that truck, and the more you have, the longer it takes and the more it costs. There is a solution, however; and that’s to keep less stuff. #Declutter before you move, and the process will be (somewhat) less of a burden.
A pre-relocation #decluttering differs from an everyday decluttering (although if you’ve followed the Organizing Blog’s advice consistently, you’ll already have limited your possessions to only the essentials). For one thing, says The Art of Happy Moving, you’ll want to declutter by category rather than room so that you pack like items together.
Begin with the heavy stuff — books, records, etc. Even if you’re an avid collector, the less of these weighty items you keep, the better your friends/movers will manage. Have extra boxes and bags available as you pack; seal up the things you want to “Keep,” sort out what you want to “Donate,” and “Trash” anything that too broken, outdated or dilapidated to use immediately.
Set the donation bags and boxes aside and contact ClothingDonations.org for a pickup. Once some of the trashed and donated items are out of the way, you’ll have more room to carefully pack up the things you want — and likely be ready to #declutter more of the things you don’t want more aggressively.
Pack three or four boxes of keepers per day, Nourishing Minimalism suggests, and start well ahead of the move so that you have plenty of time to get the place cleaned when the zero hour finally arrives. It’s toward the end of the packing phase when things can get frantic; random objects will wind up in boxes together — some essential, most not.
While it’s an incredible chore that brings lots of stress, moving is the perfect opportunity to edit nonessential stuff out of your life for good. When you unpack only the things you need and cherish in your new home, you’ll be glad you decluttered before the move.
Purge, Organize and Store Extra Stuff
If your space is stuffed to the gills with junk, a ruthless purge is the first step to a new, more #organized you, says Living Well Spending Less. “If you don’t love something, if it’s broken, if it doesn’t fit, or if you don’t use it, get rid of it!” Then, make an assessment of your storage space: Does it have room for a new set of storage shelves, hooks or bins? Deep-clean the area and invest in a uniform set of bins or boxes; then, reassemble the space, grouping all like items together. “Once you’ve organized your storage space, commit to keeping it intact,” the story says, and you’ll be able to find things when you need them while keeping #clutter to a minimum.