A famous quote (by William Morris) about a clutter-free home states, “Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”  Unfortunately, that statement covers a lot of ground.  Every item that we jam into our cabinets can probably, somehow, be justified by those words.  If the thing wasn’t useful or beautiful, we wouldn’t have bought it in the first place, right?  We can “know” something is useful, without actually ever using it.  We can be so suffocatingly surrounded by things we “believe” to be beautiful that we not only can’t appreciate their beauty, we can’t care for our beautiful things.  So while I love the quote, I don’t know how truly helpful it is as we try to unclutter our spaces.

A not-so-famous quote I discovered recently is a much bigger help to me:  The goal of uncluttering is “….not that you have as little as humanly possible, but that everything you do have counts” (Leo Baubata, blog post:  The Minimalist Principle:  Omit Needless Things).

Look at your home’s storage space as valuable real estate:  stuff needs to earn a place there.  If you have a storage unit rented, you’re paying to keep stuff.  Even if you’re simply paying a mortgage or rent every month, you’re paying to store your stuff.  (Less stuff means, potentially, a smaller house, which means smaller rent or mortgage payments.)  The things you keep should be earning their right to be there!  Everything you keep should count.  It’s taking your time, energy, effort, and money to take care of and store.

My daughter is excellent in this area.  We can go through her things so quickly; I hold up an item and say, “Do you love this?”  And she will respond, “No, we can give that away.”  Obviously, occasionally, items do pass muster, but I’ve never met a young child so willing to part with stuff, all because of the key word, “love.”  She has full recognition of what is truly important to her, and is ready to let go of what isn’t.  Everything that she has, counts.

I still remember coming home from the hospital with my firstborn and dumping everything (except him) in a chair-and-a-half near the laundry room.  It made perfect sense at the time:  luggage would have to be emptied and laundry done, so I will put this right here.  Weeks later, the chair was still full to overflowing with suitcases, laundry, gift bags full of gifts, CD’s and a portable CD player (yes, this was the “olden days”), and a huge amount of “freebies” that the hospital gives to new mothers.  Every time I looked at it I wanted to cry, which meant every day:  it was sitting in my kitchen.  It was an unavoidable mound of mess that overwhelmed me each time I looked at it.  I had no idea where to start.

I remembered, rattling around in the back of my post-partum brain, hearing reference to a website on household organization run by someone called “The Flylady.”  I Googled it, found it, and began reading furiously.  My favorite phrase, which I grabbed hold of and hung on tight, was “You can’t organize clutter.  You can only get rid of it.”

The freedom those words gave me!  You mean I don’t have to put this stuff away?  I don’t have to find a place for it?  I can just get rid of it? kept echoing in my head.  Bit by bit, I attacked the pile, and discovered it was much easier to put away the sweet gifts and CD player when I wasn’t trying to find a home for things like a dozen gift bags and twenty tubes of Vaseline.  The moment of total freedom and exhilaration I experienced when that chair was empty is hard to explain.  Empty, clear, free, peace—all are words that come to mind.  The best part is that now, in a new home and placed in a different room, that chair is where we snuggle to read our bedtime stories.  That is what it was made for!  To cuddle with kids and make happy memories together, not to “store” piles of stuff that have no home.

That clearness and freedom, that peace, is what I’m hoping to encourage you toward.

If you are truly serious about uncluttering, here’s a good place to start:  Stand in the doorway of your living room or family room; the room where people congregate most often.  Survey the scene.  There are a few different layers of “stuff” to make decisions about.

Trash/Recycling:

Stuff you know you absolutely should throw away, but you just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  My example is the bag containing pamphlets from about six different business schools that was sitting in the living room recently.  Papers can be filed until a decision is made; the bag is just trash (or recycling, in this instance).  The pile of newspapers that always seems to grow before we actually get around to dumping them in “the blue box” is another perfect example.

Fun stuff:
Things you keep around because they make you smile.  Family photos, CD’s, books, maybe some knick-knacks may qualify.  How many goo-gahs do you really need, though; keeping in mind that each item is one more thing to move as you clean?

Useful stuff:

Things you use frequently, that serve a definite purpose and meet a need.  This list would include things like pots and pans, dishes, toiletries, clothing, etc.  While these are things we absolutely need some of, this can be a great area to cull and really see a difference.

Sentimental stuff:

Things you keep around because they remind you of a special time in your life, or a special person.  (Not to be confused with “too” stuff.)  Notes from friends, cards, Grandma’s quilts, grandpa’s handmade cradle, etc.

“Too” stuff:

Things you keep only “because it was grandma’s,” which you never use—are maybe even afraid to touch—because you fear ruining it or you’re keeping it “for a special occasion” (which never arrives).  Or, my personal favorite, “too” expensive:  “That cost a lot of money!!  It’s worth something!”  China, crystal, silver, tablecloths, quilts, could all fall in this category.  (I’m posting separately tomorrow on one of my examples of “too” stuff….”too” much to pile on here.)

If you are truly overwhelmed by “stuff,” steer toward the easy stuff when you first start to clean out.  Decisions about ketchup packets and fast food napkins are a hundred times easier to make than decisions about your grandmother’s silver.  Start small…just start.

Here is my biggest problem with most home organization books:  they want to help you organize what you have, without regard to truly simplifying and cutting down.  One of my pet peeves is the idea that you have to buy something else to get yourself organized. “All you need is this system and you’ll be on your way!”  Wrong!  I’m getting agitated just thinking about it.  You don’t need to buy a bunch of new “stuff” to organize all your “stuff;” that just perpetuates the problem.  What do you have once you buy that fabulous system?  More stuff!  I would venture to say that 99% of the time, buying organizational supplies is not the solution.  Only by looking critically at what you have, recognizing if it’s useful to you, and getting rid of it if it’s not, will you truly become free of the clutter.

We recently moved our “home office” (I use the term loosely) from an upstairs bedroom to an area of the kitchen.  Absolutely no amount of organizational supplies would have eased the transition from an entire room, plus closet, down to only three cabinets.  We had to get rid of stuff.  That was the only way to make it work.

I am someone who has helped clean out homes of three grandparents; an excellent exercise in recognizing the meaninglessness of most “stuff.”  “Stuff” in basements and attics, in closets and cupboards, in drawers and desks and chests and trunks…..and when your life is over, what does all that “stuff” get you?  Absolutely nothing.  He who dies with the most toys still dies.  The only thing that happens is the family you’ve left behind is forced to deal with it:  to sort it, pile it, trash it, donate it, and maybe…keep it, so the cycle can begin again.

I have vivid memories of our sprinkler system breaking during our basement finishing; water pouring out of the box at the side of our house, into our poor neighbors’ yard.  I had to turn off the water at the shutoff valve inside.  All the “stuff” in our basement was crammed into the part that was to remain unfinished: stacked and stuffed into a space one-quarter of which it would eventually occupy.  And the water shutoff for the sprinkler system?  You guessed it.  Behind all the “stuff.”  As I inched my way to the back of the room, crawling over and under the piles, it occurred to me that some basements looked this way all the time.  Our basement, by virtue of being a basement, could end up looking this way permanently someday, not simply because we were in transition.  Any time the unfinished part of the basement starts to get out of control, I imagine crawling through those piles to get to the water line.  That visual works wonders.

Maybe your stuff is hidden stuff, in basements and closets.  Maybe your stuff has started the slow but steady creep out of hiding, and is piling on counters and tables.  I want to help you look at each room in your home and guide you into seeing each space, simplified.