Home Clutter & Organization Tips

Designate Good Homes For Your Possessions

• Choose areas in your home for particular categories of items. Select carefully; if things aren't assigned memorable, common-sense locations, family members are more likely to leave items wherever they land. Place duplicates of items used every day such as scissors, elastics and pens in an assigned area in every room where they are commonly used. It is easier to maintain organization when there is a designated place for everything. "The average American wastes 55 minutes a day looking for things they know they have but can't find," warns professional organizer Diane Albright in the article "Organizing Your Home."

Develop Good Organization Habits

• More stuff equals more clutter. Enforce a household rule that, if you buy one item, another must leave the house. For example, if you buy one article of clothing, you must give one you already own to a local charity. Insist that every family member puts items in their proper place when not in use. Immediately deal with new items that come into the house so they don't end up thrown on a countertop or table. Misplaced library books, school permission slips, doctor appointment cards, credit card bills and the like can cost dearly.

What To Do with Excess Belongings

• Sell or give away whatever you can of unused items. Donate children's clothing to a local charity or your neighbors' younger children and have a yard sale for items that are no longer needed. If you don't have much space, rent a storage unit for your out-of-season and holiday supplies and decorations. Purchase some sturdy plastic bins from a neighborhood sale, newspaper ad or second-hand selling site on the Internet. Cardboard boxes are good for storing some things, but outside storage units are notoriously dirty and may be subject to water leaks. Rent the smallest unit possible and stack your plastic bins to the ceiling, if necessary.

Tame the Paper Piles

• Your home office, or wherever you keep your paperwork, can be the worst area for potential clutter. Papers often seem to grow exponentially in a home. Throw away as many papers as possible, and develop a good system to control the rest. Children's artwork can be kept in a special box that the child has decorated. Have an "artist of the week" display for each child. Post your children's current awards and good grade papers in a prominent place. This way, children will know their family appreciates their talents, but their clutter is kept to a minimum.

  Sort mail, work and personal correspondence immediately into groups, and place them in their designated drawers or files. If you let paper clutter get to the point where you can't find important information, it will cost you in more ways than one. Controlling your paper flow and other sources of clutter will increase your productivity and lift a heavy load of anxiety from your life.