53 things to declutter today professional#

One of them was an entire collection of Stephen King hard cover books. When I left Canada 7 years ago, I still had about 4 boxes of things I couldn’t take with me, didn’t want to part with, didn’t have time to go through very carefully and wasn’t sure what to do with. I had to let go of sentimental items I’ve been holding onto for most of my life. That was quite the trip down memory lane! Haha!īut I also found photo albums and family heirlooms I knew I just couldn’t lug around the world with me.

Now I’m not much of a pack rat or a hoarder but when I was going through my things I found things all the way from high school! Oy. But I did it and to be honest, I don’t miss a single thing I got rid of. Especially all the sentimental stuff I had an emotional attachment to. 53 years of my life was not going to fit so I had to get rid of basically 95% of my life. When I downsized 6 years ago it was because I was leaving my country and only bringing two suitcases with me. Decluttering sentimental items is probably one of the hardest things to do. If you buy something new, something has to be donated, given away or trashed.So let’s face it, decluttering is exhausting, not only physically but emotionally as well, especially when we have to declutter things that we have an sentimental attachment to.

Something in, something out helps manage the number of items in a home.

That means storing all tools in a toolbox and not leaving a stray screwdriver in a junk drawer.

Like with like involves organizing your belongings so that “all like objects live together - not most of them,” Mellen says.

For example, “your keys have a home and they’re either in their home or they’re in your hand unlocking something,” Mellen says. He suggests following what he calls his “organizational triangle” - “one home for everything like with like and something in, something out.”

53 things to declutter today professional#

“With each item I’m considering, I decide if it’s meaningful, useful or useless.” Meaningful items get to stay, useful items that she no longer wants are passed along, and useless stuff goes in the trash.įrom there, Andrew Mellen, a professional organizer in New York City, encourages people to start organizing. “I create three piles: what I’ll keep, what I’ll donate and what I’ll throw away,” she says. To start her decluttering project, Sabrina Hamilton, 54, of Colorado, picks one room, assesses the clutter, and starts sorting, using a system many professional organizers follow. After that, pick one small area to tackle, like a drawer, in order to ease yourself into the work. “Grab a trash bag and just walk through the space throwing away anything broken, damaged or actual trash.”Ĭardboard boxes can take up a lot of space, so removing them changes the way you view a room, Bell says. “I always suggest starting with removing the trash first,” says Nikki Bell, a professional organizer in Houston. So where to begin when it comes to organizing and decluttering? The older you get, the more mugs, memorabilia, furniture, books, papers and accessories seem to pile up.

She decided to tackle organizing what had accumulated in those boxes since she didn’t “wish to move all of these things across the country.” LaZar, 54, had lived in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, for 24 years and realized her family had “accumulated a great deal of stuff.” Much of it was squirreled away in boxes in her garage, barely looked at. “The more you have, the less life satisfaction people report.” Decluttering made simpleĪfter Beverly LaZar went through a divorce and began contemplating a move, she assessed what she wanted to take with her. “The more clutter you have, the less happy you tend to be,” says Joseph Ferrari, a professor at DePaul University, who along with his research partner has studied the negative impact of all that stuff. But the reality is that a few small steps can help jump-start the effort and may even improve your mental health just as much as your home.

It often feels overwhelming, like there’s no time to take on a big project that will overhaul a space. They look to Marie Kondo to organize their closets and drawers by tossing items that don’t spark joy.īut it can be hard to get around to decluttering in real life. People watch The Home Edit on Netflix to see pantries and bookshelves organized in a rainbow of colors and messy garages and bedrooms transformed. En español | We love to think about decluttering and organizing.