declutterIf you’ve been putting into practice what you’ve been learning from this article series, great job!  If you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out our 11 Tips ‘n Tricks For De-Cluttering Your Life. 

In this final installment of our 3-part How To Get Rid of Clutter article series, you’ll learn some final hints for getting your mind, life, and home rid of debilitating clutter.  You’ll learn the value of passing these lessons on to your children, too. 

Let’s finish this…

Once a year I go through movies and music that we have hanging about and also donate these items to charity. We are a family that reads quite a bit, listens to music and also accumulates many movies over the course of a year. While some of these items we keep for future use, others are given to charity.

People with little children have to be especially vigilant when it comes to toys, stuffed animals and clothes as children outgrow these quickly. Instead of letting all of these items pile up and clutter up closets and playrooms, it is much better to give those that are in good shape to organizations that can sell them for a low price to people who will be grateful to have them.

This is a good way for you to teach your children a little bit about compassion and how to not want to hoard everything that they receive. Of course, there are some things that are sentimental to your children that they will not want to get rid of and those should be kept. For example, my daughter, who is now nineteen, still has the Barney doll that she had when she was a year old. Sure, it’s tucked into the corner of her closet in a box so none of her friends can see it, but it’s there and she’s not parting with it. It holds sentimental value.

To put it simple, clutter is stuff that makes your house look like a mess and consists of items that you do not need and may have accumulated over the years.

When you are ready to let go, make sure that you give them to someone who may be able to use them. The items that you keep should be stored in a place where they are unobtrusive and do not make the house look cluttered. You can look for traditional storage for these items or get creative.

My home is tiny now, but I still have retained all of the things that I feel I cannot part with. I purchased cheap display cases for my doll collection. I cleared a shelf on the top of one of my closets for books as I do not have the room for bookshelves. I use a cedar chest that doubles as a coffee table to store our photographs. If you walked into my home, you would not see clutter, even if you opened the closets.

Once you get rid of the clutter and have, as they used to say “a place for everything and everything in its place,” you will not only find it easier to clean your home, but you will feel more organized. You will know where to find things when you need them and not have to worry about inadvertently throwing something out by mistake, like your high school yearbook.