Top Ten Categories of Clutter in Your Space

Top 10 Clutter Categories

 

I recently saw a list of top common clutter categories shared by my colleagues on my National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals site. The list is compiled of categories of items in people’s homes regardless of socioeconomic status that causes clutter. It was interesting to see where many people have challenges with clutter.  Do you recognize these categories in your home?  Check out the list!

 

Common Clutter Categories

  1. The paper includes junk mail, catalogs, magazines, newspapers, and unopened mail.
  2. Empty boxes including shipping boxes, shoe boxes without shoes, technology, and product boxes
  3. Free condiments from fast food or other take-out restaurants including ketchup, salt, soy sauce, and plastic cutlery
  4. Free toiletries including those from travel and gifts with purchases
  5. Bags including zip locks, gift bags, and reusable shopping bags
  6. Cords, cables, telephone wires, and other outdated technology
  7. Linens including blankets, extra sheets, towels, and comforters
  8. Trash includes half-empty water bottles, opened junk mail, paper plates, and grocery sacks.
  9. Hangers including wire hangers and plastic hangers from stores where clothing was purchased
  10. Excessive quantities of any item, including plastic bags, shoes, clothes, and books

 

Now you are ready for change!

Now if you have identified any of these clutter-causing items in your space, you are ready to make a change. Take advantage of a power period for organizing and declutter your space. That is write an appointment with yourself for a time block to edit and let go of one or more of these categories. Allow time to drop off at a local philanthropy and you will already see a big difference in your space. Consider this a challenge for your organizing this season and share your successes with others.

 

Happy Organizing While Traveling

 

Post-pandemic travel is a lot like traveling by stagecoach; jostling along in a bumpy carriage. There are organizing strategies that will help you be comfortable and organized on your journey. Using apps for travel and packing keeps you organized while you travel.

 

Use apps for travel

There are lots of changes before and during your travel.  Flights changes and weather interruptions impact our journey.  Start by updating and uploading all travel apps related to your travel. The best apps according to Travel and Leisure include Flight Aware and your Airline app. Add your hotel company app for paperless access to your reservations. Consolidate all your travel on TripIt. TripIt declutters your itineraries and documents by keeping them organized in one place. You can set your reservations to be automatically sent to TripIt, which will let you view travel confirmations, flight itineraries, tickets, and hotel.

Use a packing list

Life is busy and travel is complicated. Often we are busy preparing for the trip the week before with extra meetings, calls, and tasks. Giving yourself extra days to pack helps you be more organized. Pull out your travel bag 3 days in advance and start dropping in what you need or set aside 2 hours to fill your bag according to your list.  While you can purchase items on the road, use a packing list. You can customize your list on the Notes app with a check box to include your specific needs. Of course, there are many apps specifically for packing.

How to pack to stay organized during travel

  • Frequent travel requires a complete personalized toiletries bag. A clear bag with toiletries helps you know you have what you need. Include a complete set of what you use stored in this bag. No overthinking what to pack and no need to remember your daily items with a designated toiletry bag.
  • Use packing cubes for categorizing what you pack. Different sizes of cubes organized and consolidate clothing. You can group items by day of the week or type of clothing.
  • Putting small items, like socks or power cords, into a packing cube can help them from rolling or moving around in your bag. With a technology organizer, you are never without the cords you need.
  • For a complete guide on what to pack and what to pack it in, check out this New York Times Guide.

Safe spots for important travel documents

Peace of mind is when you know are organized with your important documents. When traveling internationally, it is important to keep your travel documents safe all the time. There are travel wallets and waist belts for your money, credit cards, global entry card, and passport. Be sure to use the safe in your hotel for jewelry and devices. You will want to make a copy of these important documents, as well as items in your wallet, to store at home while you are gone and in your handheld travel bag in case of loss. Give these to a trusted person at home while you are away to keep just in case of loss.

 

Pack your patience and be prepared for changes

We have been waiting for this time to travel for a while. It is different now after the pandemic. Pack your patience and other items of interest to keep you entertained during your travel. Kindle, audiobooks, music, and games make travel time fun. Be prepared for changes. Bring your headphones and It’s all about the memories you are making.

 

 

 

3 Project Management Tips for an Easy Household Move

 

3 project management tips for an easy household move

Getting organized for a move requires a project management approach. What’s useful are a timeline, extensive lists and a team approach to help you keep your sanity. Here’s how to put that into action.

 

Your Timeline

Start with developing a timeline for your move. There is the actual move and the moving preparation.  Included in the move timeline are dates the movers will load the truck, packers will arrive, and time you will be between residences while packing occurs. Be sure to include when utilities and internet will be set up. Moving preparation includes decluttering and optional items you will sell or donate before the move. You may have offsite storage and need to assess items coming out of storage for your move. Work backwards on your timeline  and record this timeline in your planner. Review this timeline with your family to be sure they know what to expect.

How much time do you give to each step?  Start decluttering at least three months in advance. You can eliminate what you don’t use or need at your new residence. Ask your mover for how many days to pack and move. Add in those many days to unpack at your new residence.

Your check lists

Your timeline evolves to your task list.  Record each task on a check list to be sure you have completed each step. Create a list for what will be placed in each room so that the furniture can be labelled.  Use a packing list for what is in each box going into specific rooms. Write a list of what will be in your personal needs boxes to be sure to remember the details. Each evening update your check list with more tasks and check off what is completed. It is a time where there are lists of lists!

 

Your team

Moving is a project the requires a lot of help.  Add team members to your project. This includes movers, packers, professional organizers, childcare help and other resources. Price all these additional team members to add to your move budget. Ask for referrals for these services, interview three potential movers and get everything in writing from each of your team members.

 

Keeping your sanity

Keep your move organized with lots of labelling. Have plenty of markers available to write the contents on your box. You can label the boxes with a room name or assign a number to the room. Your movers will appreciate knowing that they can unload in the correct room without your direction because you have labelled the rooms and boxes.

Remember the last in – first out box and your own personal needs during this move. The last in- first out box contains all the hardware for beds and the remote controls. These are vital to your happiness during the first 24 hours in your new home. Your personal needs items include medications and stuffed animals that must be a part of your first night in your home.

Keep your most valued and valuable items with you. A valued item might be your daughter’s stuffed animal or the keys to the car. Valuable items include jewelry, guns and irreplaceable family keepsakes. Use specific luggage for these items so you can separate these from the moving boxes.

 

Keep calm and carry on. It will take a little longer than you like to settle in, even with every box unpacked. Happy moves happen with a plan!

Saving Your Sanity before Moving

organized move

 

Moving is at the top of stressful transitions in life.  With a little time and effort, you can make it easier and save your sanity with some preparation for your move.  These steps include recycling, decluttering, and re-organizing.

Start with easy steps

It might be surprising how much trash and recycling is in your home. Start with this low level of decision-making. If it is paper, cardboard boxes, or plastic recycling, find local resources to recycle this. It might take a few trips to the curb or the recycling center. There are a lot of electronics to recycle in our homes. Those are older computers and devices. Ask your local Facebook group to find a trusted resource to take photos off of old computers and then recycle these. If you can power up your devices, back up to the iCloud or Dropbox and then sell or recycle your devices.  Start early with this step as this is a little more time-consuming than you might imagine.

 

Decluttering

You can save a lot of money and stress by decluttering room by room. Start in any space and go around the room letting go of what you have not used and what you don’t love.  It is likely you will not use it in your new space if you have not used it in the existing home. Decor changes and your previous colors and design would hold you back from loving your new space. If you are downsizing, use a rule of thumb of percentage of space to percentage of belongings. Donating is the easiest way to downsize. You can call a local philanthropy to pick up your donations. Begin this step 2 -3 months out or as soon as you talk to realtors about your home sale.

 

Closets and kitchens are especially important to declutter. Potential buyers like to see these areas more spacious. A decluttered closet or kitchen invites potential buyers.

 

Re-organizing

Moves are easier when items are organized. During busy times, stuff gets put wherever, stuff gets scattered, and there is a lot of disorder in your home. You want to get together what goes together. That way you can pack like items together. As a family, re-organize stuff to get items back to the rooms they belong. Keep this momentum going throughout the moving process with a weekly reset each weekend.

Once you see stuff together again, take a good look at your categories. If you see an overabundance of one category, you can take another pass at decluttering.

What about all the papers that you have not had time to process? Keep these for later and do not re-organize. For the mail and documents that are more than a month old, keep these in boxes labeled by month and/or year to go through later. Most likely these will be easy to toss or shred once you have moved.

 

No matter how little time you have before you pack and move, it is well worth an investment of a short time block to recycling, declutter and re-organize. During your move, you will be so happy you did!