Many people are organizationally challenged and find themselves fighting a constant battle to declutter their lives. With a little work there are things that people can do to minimize the amount of clutter they face each day.
George Carlin was one of my favorite comedians. He was particularly gifted at tackling common issues that made you laugh and think. He had a routine about stuff that I loved in which he talked about how a house was just a place to hold our stuff. And he was right.
Your home be it an apartment, condominium, townhouse or mansion is more than just a place to rest your head at night and enjoy a meal in. It is a storehouse in which we place our possessions those that are prized and those that are worthless.
There is a reason that an entire industry has sprung up around ways to manage clutter and properly store our stuff. We’re not going to try and solve the entire problem right here but we’ll give you a few practical tips that you can adopt immediately to ensure that you manage your stuff and not the other way around.
One of the biggest contributors to clutter are the piles of papers that creep up around your home. Newspapers, magazines, junk mail and more have an insidious way of multiplying like rabbits.
There are two simple yet effective ways to help you. Review your subscriptions and determine which publications you actually read and which of those you intend to, but never get around to picking up. Cancel your subscription to those that never make it into the “read” pile. You’ll save money, help the environment and reduce the amount of paper you have to deal with.
Go through your mail each day and immediately dispose of junk mail. If you are never going to use those coupons for carpet cleaning, picture framing or fast food there is no reason to hold onto them.
Another simple tool that you can use to reduce the amount of mail/paper coming into your home is online bill paying. Virtually any bill that comes to your home can be paid online either through your bank or directly on their website.
Almost every vendor holds onto statements so that if needed you can download and print them out.
If you are not comfortable with paying your bills online you have options. Find a central location to store your bills. When you pay those bills make a habit of immediately filing them afterwards.
Here is a tip that is especially effective for parents of young children. Once a month take a moment to sift through your children’s toys and identify ten toys that they no longer play with. If they are in good shape you can take donate them to an appropriate charity.
If you incorporate these few suggestions you will soon find a decrease in the amount of clutter that you have to deal with.
Good Luck!
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