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1.
Take some time to make a permanent home for items family members tend to
"drop off" anywhere such as keys, book bags, coats, purses, gloves, umbrellas
and more. Use wall hooks, peg racks, cubbies, over the door pocket organizers
and more in your hall closet or foyer area where these items first enter. The
few minutes you spend doing this can make a big difference in stopping clutter
where it starts.
2. Put a shoe bench near the
entryway where family members can take off and stash shoes conveniently. This
will keep your floors cleaner too (meaning less housework for you).
3. Keep a decorative hamper, basket
with a lid or even a storage ottoman in the family room for quick toy pickups
prior to guests arrival or at the end of the evening. It's not necessary to sort
every toy. Just stash it in there until it's ready to be used again tomorrow.
4. Sort through your mail on the
way back from the mailbox. You naturally look at it then anyway many times,
don't you? Immediately discard advertisements that don't interest you into the
trash can or your personal shredder. Don't set them down for later.
5. When family members read the newspaper,
have them lay it directly in a newspaper recycle basket. If other family members
are interested in reading it, they can retrieve it and also return it to here.
Make it a routine to drop the newspapers into a recycle bin either once a week
on the way to work or school or when the newspapers fill the bin.
6. When you carry an item from one
room to another, take something from that room to another. For instance, if you
take wet towels to the laundry room from the bathroom bring back clean shirts
from the dryer ready to go to hang in the bedroom closet.
7. Purge items regularly from your
home. If your bookcase is full, don't put another book on it without pulling
some off to donate. If you have small appliances collecting dust for two years
in the kitchen, donate them. Donate clothes you have not worn in one or two
years with the exception of rarely worn special items such as suits you might
wear to weddings, funerals and other events. And even then you only need to keep
a set amount if you have excess of these items.
8. When you buy new holiday
ornaments, if you find your collection growing and growing (more than you can
display at one time), donate some of the older ornaments still in good condition
to thrift stores during the holiday season.
9. Get rid of excess and duplicates
in your kitchen such as seven mixing bowls, five spatulas and ten frying pans.
You don't have to keep just one but you don't need that many of each. Clean up
will be easier too when family members realize they must wash the existing
cooking utensil versus using every last one until none are clean and then
washing them.
10. If you have a computer and
printer, resist printing every email and web page of interest. Instead save an
electronic copy in categorized electronic folders on your computer. You can
purge these too annually if you find them growing excessively.
11. Monitor your impulse spending.
A lot of items will catch your eye in the stores. But do you really need them
all? Learn to live simple. If you don't know what's in your home without doing
some digging, you might just have too much stuff.
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