There are several different methods that you can use to conquer the
clutter in your life and have the organized home that you have dreamed of.
You should start by organizing small things first, such as a junk
drawer or a dresser. These tasks can be easily accomplished in a small
amount of time, and will help you get started on the larger jobs at hand.
When going through items, have 3 boxes, or bags on hand. These will
become your Keep, Donate, and Toss piles. You can mark the boxes if you
like, to make the job go a little faster.
Use the two-second rule when going through items. This means that when
you pick an item up, you have two-seconds to decide what pile it will
go into. Don’t spend time thinking about what you may be able to do with
it someday. If you were really going to use it for something, you would
have done so already.
Conquering Paper Clutter
Paper clutter is something that affects almost everyone. Whether it is
a pile of bills, junk mail, catalogs or magazines, paper seems like it
multiplies when we leave the room. There is one word to remember when
sorting through paper clutter… FAT. This doesn’t mean that you should
snack on fatty foods when going through your paper clutter. It is an
acronym for the words File, Act and Toss. All of the paper clutter you have
accumulated can be conquered by filing it, acting on it, or tossing it
away.
You can stop junk mail from accumulating by keeping a small garbage can
in the area that you enter your house, or by throwing it away at the
post office if your mail is delivered to a PO Box.
Catalogs shouldn’t be saved for one or two items. Most of the companies
that send out catalogs have websites. You can tear off the web site
information from your catalogs, store them in a small box by your
computer, and when you have the spare time, you can browse through items
online.
Magazines are also often saved for one or two articles. Cut out the
pages of interest to you, and store them in file folders for future
reading or reference. You will be amazed when you cut down your whole stack
of magazines into one folder full of papers that are relevant to you.
Business cards and phone numbers that have been scribbled down on tiny
pieces of paper and napkins should be immediately transferred into your
address book, or rolodex. A great way of storing phone numbers is to
purchase an index card file box. Even if you don’t have the time to copy
the contact information onto index cards immediately, they can be
stored in the index file box until you can do so. This will eliminate the
need to search all over for that matchbook that has the information of an
important business contact on it!