How did that drawer go? Did you find yourself baffled by how all the small things accumulate?
Small things accumulate fast: we don’t deal with them, we don’t file that bank statement or recycle the envelope it came in right away.
Too many things coming into our home. You forget, for the seventh time, to unsubscribe to the catalog you don’t remember ever subscribing to. The broken suitcase sits in your front hallway for months as you debate if getting it fixed over buying a new one.
There’s two ways to tackle the small clutter that rapidly accumulates in your home:
1.) Don’t Let It In
2.) Put It Away.
Both strategies must be in play to keep those ‘deal with it later’ spots from multiplying.
Task #5 in the Clutter Cleanse: identify the most common areas in your home where clutter accumulates and decide if it’s a habit problem or a too much stuff problem.
Habit: all the jackets are hung up on dining room chairs – instead of in the front hall – because the household has not made a habit of hanging up our coats.
Too much stuff: you have 12 boxes of Kleenex and it leaves no room for anything else in your small bathroom. Stop buying the bulky things in bulk – losing the space is not worth the savings.
More Small Clutter Resources:
Keep picking away at those drawers this week and start doing the small things that make a big difference: only keep receipts you really need, say no to the “freebies” with purchase, throw the change in your change jar or wallet instead of on the counter, tell the kids the “free with meal” toys only stay for a week before they are recycled.
About hanging the coats up – the ones I can see over the armchair in the living area, the armchair that never gefts sat in as it’s just another surface to collect the coats and bags…… We need to have a desgnated place for dumping schoolbags and handbags as well as making it a habit to use the coathooks in the hallway.
We had similar hot spots and then I rearranged our front hall closet. The kids bags, coats, shoes and hats have little soft boxes on the floor of the closet that the children can put things away to easily. I was thinking about putting low hooks up for them but I see things moving around again once we are out of using a stroller – maybe another two years. So far it’s working pretty well.