When we think about decluttering our life, we first have to consider how it all got started. Our clutter begins to accumulate even before we are born — and we are not even aware of it.  So it is not even our fault yet!  At this point it is what others people are “doing to us.”  Have you ever noticed that?

I’m  referring to the continuous accumulation of material things in our life. Think about the concept of a baby shower. Even before we’re born we begin acquiring items through this ritual.  Then our family discovers any number of reasons to “shower” us with even more material gifts as we grow up.

Now,  gifts are great, but . . . eventually our room of gifts and toys and stuffed animals morphs itself as we get older into a house of stuff — some needed and some, well, not so necessary.

A favorite saying of people lately is “life happens”.  Life, in fact, is exactly what happens while we ‘re making our plans for the future.  Before we have our plans set in stone, it seems our life situation has changed — and well, so much for our plans.

This is the same thing that happens when it comes to our possessions.  “Clutter happens.”  Look around you.  It’s hard to believe that, at one time, your home was empty – completely empty, to be redundant!  What would you do, if someone told you that you had to leave it all behind, how would you react?

Could you, in fact, willfully walk away from all your material possessions right now?

It is time to find out what items are really important to you. Time to assess the items that you have and determine what is necessary and what items are just clutter.

I am going to offer you some suggestions for the organization and declutter of the living room. For most of the people that I know, the living room is usually where everybody gets together to watch TV, play video games and hang out time together. Therefore, this rooms usually end up being cluttered.

Resolving this issue is not as difficult as you may think. It just takes a little bit of work and planning. Before you know it, your living room will neat and organized.

The first thing that you need to do is to determine is what you would like the primary use of the room to be. Narrow your focus of what you really would like the end result of your living room to be. If you don’t have that end goal in mind when you start, you’re not going to be going anywhere.

Now that you have a good idea, in your mind, of what items you want in your living room; The next thing to do is to remove absolutely everything that doesn’t belong and find a place for it in another room. But don’t just toss it in there, either – we’re not looking to create more clutter – find an appropriate place for it.

Get rid of any items that you no longer use. Gather them together and give them away. The ultimate goal of decluttering a room is to get rid of the clutter, after all – and there’s nothing wrong with giving something to a friend, or donating it to your local Goodwill. Somebody else may be able to use it.

Many people try to fit as much furniture as possible into their living rooms. I have no idea why, or how this started, but having over-sized furniture or just too much furniture in a room (that it doesn’t fit) just makes the whole room seem more cluttered.

If you have any furniture pieces that you are not using, then consider selling them on a websites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. Even if you don’t end up sell everything, by getting rid of furniture pieces that are just taking up space and are not used, can make your living room seem more open and comfortable. And an extra added bonus, of course, is some extra cash in your pocket.

Learn how to declutter your garage on a regular basis. Why do people leave their vehicles parked in the driveway, exposing them to the elements 24/7 ? It is usually because their garages are filled with a bunch of junk they cannot bear to part with.

Of course, the junk that has piled up in their garage, probably is not worth anywhere close to the value of their vehicle. So where is the common sense there? Now is the time to declutter the garage and make room to park your vehicle there, where it belongs.

OK, so lets start the process now. First of all, ask yourself how long each item has been sitting in the garage. If it has been in your garage for two or three years without being used, then toss it. You should try to either donate it to a charity, sell it at a yard sale or throw it away (if it is in poor condition).

One of the worst things, that many people keep, is cans of partially used paint. Well,  get rid of all of those old cans of paint. The next most common item that get stored in the garage is sporting goods. It any sporting item is broken and cannot be easily repaired, then get rid of it now.

Other things, to contend with, may be auto accessory items. If you got rid of the vehicle that the accessories were purchased for, then it is time to toss them. If the item is damaged then, of course, dispose of it properly. The next thing is ladders, which can sometimes be more dangerous than helpful. Make sure your ladders are safe and in good condition.

Next, go through and inspect your tools. Get rid of any tools that you never use. Any tools that are damaged and cannot be fixed, should be thrown it away. Although, the tools that are used all the time, should be stored in a tool chest or on a pegboard with hooks. You could also label the pegboard to indicate exactly where each item belongs, that way you can quickly put them away.

The end result will be to get these items up off the floor and put away in the appropriate place. This will give you the room, that you need, to park your vehicle inside the garage(away from severe weather conditions).

Discover how easy it is to declutter your paperwork and other paper items. First of all, you need to get a filing cabinet. At the very least, get a filing box. Or maybe even several boxes.

If you have a home office, it’s very important at some point that you purchase a filing cabinet, I doesn’t matter what anyone tells you, you will still need to keep paper copies of some items. These items include thing such as warranties, contracts, product receipts and tax returns.

Also, keep in mind that every major appliance you buy includes with some type of operating manual. From that hot water heater to your refrigerator to your car, there are papers that need to be kept from each of these. It’s best to have them all stored together, rather than spread out all over the floor and cluttering up the drawer space in your home.

Instead of thinking about all the clutter that you currently have, begin visualizing your home as clutter free. Seriously, visualize it as clutter free. You’ll realize that as you go through your day that you’ll not only notice the clutter more, but you’ll slowly start to do something about it!

It sounds weird, but after a while you have a mental picture of your home as (it should be) clean and organized. And the next thing you know, you’re taking steps (maybe just baby steps) towards your vision.

A lot of the clutter builds up in our homes simply because we refuse to deal with it “in the moment.” This concept is best demonstrated by the daily mail delivery. Every day your mail person drops mail off in your mail box. What exactly do you do with that mail?

If you’re like the majority of people, you browse through it and then put it aside. Maybe you planned to deal with it after dinner or after the kids are in bed. However, you forget all about the mail and instead you end up reading a book or watching television.

Then you discover that a particular sales ad for your local grocery store, that you set aside, is actually two weeks old and the sale is over. It ended up being buried under a huge stack of junk mail. Instead of setting everything aside for later, you should have dealt with it in a more efficient way. You could have spent a few minutes separating the bills and placing them on your desk, where you would then have them ready for the next time you need to pay them.

Next, take the junk mail and start to prioritize that. Mail that you do not want should be thrown out immediately. Sales ads that you may want to look over later, such as supermarket weekly sales ads, set aside in a basket where you can look at them later. Place this basket close to where you sit in the evening, that way you will remember them and at least glance through them. Now, at least you know where it is when you decide to write out this week’s shopping list.

Now is the time to declutter the kitchen drawers. Lets start with the junk drawer. Each of us has at least one “junk drawer.” This is the miscellaneous drawer that isn’t big enough to hold a utensil tray or wide enough to contain all our miscellaneous cooking tools like wooden spoons, spatulas and various measuring cups.

Most of us convert it into a dumping ground out of necessity. It becomes an “I-just-don’t-know-where-to-store-it” stuff drawer. Matchbooks often get thrown in here, along with lone screwdrivers, thumb tacks, elastics, and pens that usually make their way into this drawer. It seems convenient, especially when you think that you do not have time to put the item back where it belongs.

The first thing that you need to do is to decide what you really need and what you do not. And only you can be the judge of that. But keep in mind, if you are throwing stuff in this drawer just because you are too lazy to put it back where it belongs, then that is just making more work for yourself later.

It is best if when you are finished with an item, that you put it right back where it belongs. If you do not have a particular place for an item, then figure out where the item is most commonly used and store it there. For example, if you are storing that screwdriver in the drawer because you find yourself using it often in the kitchen, then it is ok to store it in a kitchen drawer.

But if you are just keeping it there because you don’t want to take the extra steps to put it in the tool box in the garage, then do NOT store the tool in this drawer. Put in the tool box where it belongs.

As you go through the drawer, have a trash bag and empty box handy. If you have any old rusted thumb tacks, worn out elastics, pens that no longer write or any other items that are no good then throw them away. Use the box to hold the items that need a new home. Now take that box and go room to room putting the items back where they should be. For instance, any office supplies should be put away in your office, tools in the garage or basement, etc.

Once the drawer if cleaned out, you’ll probably discover that you really do not have may items left in the drawer, But before you put any additional items in this drawer, you should ask if there is a better “home” for that particular item.

Proceed to go through all your drawers. If your house is anything like mine, you probably have one more monster drawer to conquer. And that is the one that is full of wooden spoons, spatulas and miscellaneous kitchen tools that do not fit in the silverware tray or in that container on your counter that holds most of that kind of stuff.

Ask yourself how many spatulas do you really needs. Do you need multiple sets of measuring spoons and cups, How many manual can openers and veggie peelers do you you really need? Do you really need to own three potato mashers? Unless you are cooking for an army of men, I doubt that you will need that many.

I’m sure you’re beginning to get the idea. Now on the other hand, if you find you need different sizes of spatulas, then by all means keep one of each size. But otherwise, it is a good time to get rid of them.

Take each of those items that you decide not to keep and considering donating any items. that are in good condition, to a thrift shop or rummage sale.

Decluttering your office and desktop may be the best thing that you could ever do for your career and yourself. Having an organized work space will allow you to avoid the chore of sorting through the clutter to locate any necessary information that you may need. It is also a great way to impress clients. People usually feel more comfortable working with someone who is organized.

Pay special attention to the layout of the office and be sure that you have a clear walking area between and around the furniture. Make sure that the desk is the appropriate size for the room. If your desk is too big, it will make the room seem crowded.

Since you will likely need to house not only a computer, but a printer and a fax machine too, you will need to have enough space to accommodate all of these items. You will be able to increase your work space and better organize your office, if you place your office essentials in their own separate area.

For instance, your printer should be set up on a printer stand and should not be placed on the desk. This will give you more desktop space and you can then place the stand next to the desk for easy access, Plus, this will give you some extra room to store printer paper and accessories.

Also, positioning your desk so that it is easily accessible to the other office equipment is extremely beneficial. If you find that you do not have enough room for all of you files or books, then you may consider buying a book shelf.

It is easy for a desk to become disorganized and cluttered. Begin your desk declutter by determining which items need to remain on the desktop. Organizing paperwork is one key to creating a clutter free desktop. Start out by labeling all the files and folders that may be on your desk.

You may want to get a step file holder for your desk that will allow you to quickly see what may need your immediate attention. You might also consider using stacking trays, they are great for sorting “inbox” and “outbox” items. They also conserve space and are an additional way to keep your desktop tidy.

Next, focus your attention on the drawers of your desk. There is a variety of plastic trays and caddies available in you local office supply stores that will assist you in organizing your desk drawer items. Some of them are actually made specifically to fit into a desk drawer. You can utilize them to organize your loose pens, paper clips, staples, etc.

Another thing you should do is to check the floor of your office, make sure that you have not begun to dump items there that you don’t have any room for.

When you are finished decluttering the office, it is quite easy to keep it that way. The best thing to do is to take about ten minutes, at the end of every day, to put everything back where it belongs. This one simple strategy will prevent things from getting out-of-hand once again.

Today is “declutter day” for the bedroom. Pick a bedroom, any bedroom. It can be one of your childrens or if you’re brave enough it can be yours. Every bedroom seems to be a natural magnet for clutter.

If you wonder why, just think about it. It is out of the way of guest traffic and easy enough to close the door instead of declutter or clean. A hallway with the doors to the bedrooms closed looks quite nice.

That being said, you just may be in need of the “turbocharged” decluttering system. Here are five quick declutter tips to make any bedroom look a little bit better right from the very start.

Step 1: Empty the waste basket.

Yes, it’s that simple. Of course, even you can see that it’s brimming over with trash.

Step 2: Straighten up those piles of books and magazines.

Don’t have time to put them away properly. Then just piling them up neatly and placing them along the wall will make the room appear much neater. Especially if they’re scattered all over the floor and the bed.

Step 3: Get a basket and use it for temporary storage.

This is especially helpful for a girls bedroom. Take all that stuff from makeup to earrings and necklaces and place it in a basket. Now you can actually see the dresser top (and you won’t step on any earrings lying around the floor). You actually haven’t solved the problem yet, but you’ve certainly tamed it some – and sometimes that’s all we can hope for.

Step 4: Make the bed.

A bed that is actually made helps a room look more organized and well, civilized. Even if you replace some of those books that your children are using back on the bed (perhaps you can arrange them a little nicer).

Step 5: Run The Vacuum Cleaner

Performing this one single task can make the room look vastly more decluttered and clean. It’s truly amazing. Of course, this isn’t so easy to do if there are a 100 items laying around the floor!

If unexpected company calls and you can do nothing else with a bedroom, run the sweeper quickly through the room (and by all the means, the rest of your house) Then stand back a moment before that doorbell announces them and view the difference with just that one small chore completed.

The fact of the matter is, your home did not become disorganized in just one day so it is not going to only take one day to declutter and organize your house. You may consider setting aside a specific amount of time every day to tackle this problem.

Start out by getting three boxes; put labels on them indicating items to “give away”, “throw away” and “put away”. The “throw away” box should be lined with a garbage bag, making it easier to throw out the trash.

Begin by doing one room of your home at a time. Keep in mind that the goal is to organize therefore you will want to do your cleaning in an organized way. Start at the entrance of the room and continue to work your way clockwise around the room.

Be sure that you do not skip any part of the room. It may be difficult to determine what items are important to keep and which ones are ready for the trash or for the give away box. You should ask yourself several questions when determining what you will do with a specific item.

Begin by asking yourself how you feel about each item. Do you love it? Does the item have sentimental value? Does it make you feel sad or guilty? You should not feel guilty about getting rid of something that was given to you, if it is just cluttering up your home.

Another thing to ask yourself is if the item has been used in the past year. Ask yourself if it is broken, in bad condition or if you have another one that might be better. These are all good reasons you may want to get rid of a particular item. As soon as your “give away” box is full, you can either take it to your local thrift store or you might consider listing the items for sale on eBay or Craigslist.

You may not have realized how many items were out of place in your home until your see your “put way” box after you begin to declutter a room. Once this box is full then stop your decluttering and put these items away now. Do not put it in a closet, the basement or the attic and think that you will get to it later. You know that you will never get around to doing later. Do it right, now then you can move on to the next task.

While working your way around the room you are decluttering, don’t skip things like furniture, shelves or draws. This is the best time to organize the room, as well. For example, if one piece of furniture is a desk, then go through and organize the draws. Be sure that you have a specific place available for items such as pens, envelopes, stamps, mail, and important papers.

Make sure that you also sort through the papers to see if you could get rid of anything that is older then a year or possibly create a alternate space in the home where you can keep important financial information for several years.

Decluttering your home is not as overwhelming as you think it is. Just make sure to take your time and be consistent. Do a little every single day until each room is done. Keep a cloth with you also so that you can clean as you go.

When all your decluttering is completed, then you can go through the room again to display your special items and set up every room of your home just the way you like.

Do I believe there’s any chance of you learning how to declutter your closet? Of course, there’s always hope. But the initial steps may be a bit painful for you.

The first thing you really need to do is to go through all those clothes that are stuffed on that rack. Yes, I have noticed you can barely move them back and forth you have so many. Get your box of charity bound items ready, because some of your clothes eventually are destined for this container.

Don’t panic, quite yet. Items that you keep have to pass a test. For every article of clothing in your closet, ask these three questions concerning it:

• Does it still fit?

• Do I still wear it?

• Do I need it? (Aha! That’s the clincher there!)

If your answer to any one of them is “no,” place the article of clothing in the charity box. It’s gone! I’m sure that still leaves quite a few pieces, but this exercise also serves its purpose: decluttering of your closet.

Do the same for your shoes as well.

Now take a quick look around. What’s left? And how well is it organized? No, I don’t suggest you store that bowling ball on the top shelf. Bring it down on the floor here (now that you’ve eliminated a half dozen pairs of shoes or so). Are there other items that can be at least stored together in bins.

One of the beauties of the closet is that it doesn’t have to be beautiful to be a storage container. Take an old cardboard box if that’s all you have for the moment.

Got papers that you know you just can’t toss? Use a milk crate, if you must. Nobody but you and a few other family members are going to see your containers, so it really doesn’t matter what they look like.

And while you’re at it, have every member of your family go through his or her closet in the same way. You may have to supervise some of the younger members. There’s no use keeping a tee-shirt that is three sizes too small for your youngest child. Donate it to a church rummage sale or have your own yard sale.

Organize any toys or other items in the childrens room according into certain categories. Put them all in a storage bin, milk crate or even a box.

What type of box is best?

Have access to one of those great sturdy boxes that reams of paper come in? If you can, use these boxes as storage bins in your closets and your children’s. Place the lid on the bottom of the box. If you have to move – or your children switch bedrooms, you’ve got an automatic box for moving. Just place the lid on it and go!

If you’re moving from the house, just be sure to mark what’s in the box and that it goes back into a closet. When the box reaches its destination, then all you need to do is take the lid off, place it back on the bottom of the box and place the entire thing back in the closet. Moving is painful enough. Every little bit helps.

Reducing clutter in you home is easy if you have the information that you need to know, in order to get your things organized. Most people do not even think that they have any clutter.

But what exactly is clutter?

Can you define it?  Most of us would be hard pressed to define the word.  But, we know it when we see it! Actually, though, the definition is easy and fairly straightforward.  Clutter is any item which you own, but you don’t use or you don’t take care of.

Now, think about this.  If you own and use an item, you’re probably going to take care of it — at least to some degree.  But if you have some article you don’t use, you’re more likely not to take as good care of it.

For example, there’s the souvenir plate from Disney World that Auntie Vera gave you. Do you really love that plate as much as you say?  Then why is it stashed up in the attic with your scrapbook from high school? That souvenir plate has just passed “the clutter test.”

We find reasons — or sometimes we create — reasons why we just can’t start the decluttering process today.  And even if we do start the process, we find many more excuses not to throw items away.

Trust me, on my quest to make our personal places less crowded with items we neither need nor use, I think I’ve heard just about every excuse for not throwing individual objects in the trash, selling them at a yard sale or donating them to a place that can sell them.

I know how hard it truly can be to part with some material possessions.  And we now know why it’s not the easiest thing in the world. It can be very overwhelming. Especially when the memories, attached to the items, are of people that are no longer with us.  Believe me, I get it! I’ve been there myself.

But at the end of the day, when you look around after you’ve tried to declutter and you still see a bunch of unused “stuff”, what have you really accomplished?

Nothing more and nothing less than merely going through the motions.  Now you can tell everyone “I’ve tried.”  Well, perhaps you assessed the situation and called it hopeless. Or you examined a room or two only to find it a little too emotionally draining.

But as long as you’re carrying around even one of these excuses, you really haven’t “tried” at all.  You’ve just successfully — for another day — avoided the entire process.

Hopefully you will use the tips and tricks (provided in my other articles and eBook) that have helped me through this process and begin to finally reduce all of the clutter that you have accumulating in your home.