Organization - PNW Tech Life

Overcoming Declutter Paralysis in 3 Easy Steps!

You look at a space and can’t even bring yourself to start decluttering it. Declutter Paralysis has kicked in and you don’t know what to do.

You know you need to declutter this space. It’s stressing you out. But you just can’t. You don’t know where or even how to start. Even if you did know, it’s just so overwhelming that you can’t bring yourself to start on it.

I’ve been there before. It’s tough to bring yourself to get past decluttering paralysis, but once you do, things start to get easier. But first you’ve got to get over that hurdle and that’s where I come in.

What is Declutter Paralysis?

Before we get started in trying to overcome Declutter Paralysis, we have to understand what it is. Declutter Paralysis is when you get so overwhelmed by decluttering that you can’t bring yourself to start decluttering.

This can often happen if you’re already stressed out and you’ve got a space that is very cluttered and disorganized. It can also happen if the space is very large or the task is monumental.

My goal is to provide you some easy steps to overcoming declutter paralysis and help you achieve your goals of a decluttered space.

Step 1: Redefine Your Decluttered Vision

Declutter Paralysis is largely a mental state. Half of getting past declutter paralysis is removing that mental block that is preventing you from starting.

I’ve had to clean up some gnarly spaces. The mental thought going through my head that was a little voice saying “I don’t want to do this. I know I have to do this, but this is going to suck. So nope, I’m not going to do this.” This can be an extremely difficult voice to ignore.

One thing I chose to do is redefine what my vision of the decluttered space looked like. So many people get caught on “picture perfection”. Don’t guilt yourself into thinking that you have to have this picture perfect home.

Houses are to be lived in and you are just setting yourself up for failure to try and make it picture perfect all the time. So eliminate that thought right away. You can make it better, but striving for perfect will just set you back where you started.

Step 2: Make it More Manageable

I hear you groaning right now. “Yeah, if it was more manageable, I’d do it already.” Part of declutter paralysis is that most people don’t know how to make the task more manageable. It’s more difficult than it sounds.

Take a look at the space that needs to be decluttered. Start by remembering, you don’t have to do this all at once. Even if you’ve only got a weekend or a day to do it, you don’t have to do it all at once.

Break it Down into Sections

If it’s a big area you are trying to declutter, like an entire room, break it down into sections. It doesn’t matter how many sections you break it down into, just break it down into something that is manageable to you.

I remember decluttering what is now the kid’s playroom. I needed to have it decluttered and organized by the end of the day because we had guests coming over that night and I’d been working a lot. I’d taken the day off to declutter it.

Declutter paralysis had set in hard. I did not want to tackle that room and it had just gotten worse month after month.

It was a mess. Boxes everywhere from moving. It was the catch-all storage area for everything for years. I ended up breaking it down into 12 different areas to make it more manageable because it was so overwhelming.

Those areas ranged from a single shelf on the book case which was just loaded with stuff to a 10 square foot corner piled high with boxes.

By breaking it down it changed the mindset from “I have to do all this work! It’s never going to get done, I don’t even want to start.” To “I can get this shelf done in the next 30 minutes, it’s small and manageable.” or “I can get this box done in the next 15 minutes and then take a 5-10 minute break.” Once you’ve gotten into this new mindset, you’ve made huge progress in overcoming your declutter paralysis.

When I was decluttering my old home, There were seriously days when all I could bring myself to accomplish was one 2 foot long shelf on a bookcase.

But if that was all I could bring myself to accomplish that day without getting overwhelmed, so be it. I made progress! As a bonus, once it was decluttered, it remained decluttered.

Step 3: The Multi-Pass Method

Once it’s broken down into sections, I go through each section on different passes. These different passes are just different levels of effort required to declutter.

First Pass: Low Effort

The first pass is doing the lowest effort work first. The things you don’t have to think about. Start by just eliminating anything that is just garbage. Garbage has no use, no sentimental value, it’s easy to get rid of.

So just bring your trash and recycle bin over and anything that fits into that category, just eliminate right off the top. There! It’s gone! You’ve already made progress! It always amazes me how many items when I am decluttering are just garbage. You may not initially think there is any garbage in the spot you are decluttering, but there probably is.

Second Pass: Items that Make you Feel Bad

For the second pass, I get rid of anything that makes me feel bad or upset. If this reminds you of the KonMari method where she asks ‘Does this Spark Joy?’ It’s because it’s a similar concept.

These items I might get rid of are dead plants because I have zero ability to keep plants alive as I always forget to water them, unfinished projects that you are realistically never going to finish, clothes that you dislike, or even expensive items that make you feel guilty for never using them.

Third Pass: Items You Don’t Care About

On the third pass, these are things that you don’t really care about. They may still be useful, but you really don’t need them anymore. For example, this might be books and movies that you are never going to read or watch again, items that you’ve replaced with something nicer like old phones, worn out food storage containers, or small appliances. All of these are prime candidates for disposal.

Fourth Pass: Send Things Home

On the fourth pass, I start placing things in their proper home. For example, I decluttered a window sill the other day and I realized I had a tape measure there that hadn’t gotten back into its home after I hung up a coat rack because kids cause chaos and I forgot I had left it there.

This was clearly something that I needed and used, but it was causing clutter by not going to its proper place. Just putting things in their proper home can generally clean up a lot of space.

By the time you’ve gone through all four passes, you should have decluttered the whole space. If you are still cluttered in that space, then go through it again.

Tip and Tricks to Deal with Declutter Paralysis

If you’re still dealing with declutter paralysis, there are lots of ways to deal with it. Here are a few of my go-to tricks that help me get through the process easier:

The Container as Limits Method

One of the big mental blocks I dealt with that caused declutter paralysis was that I have a lot more of something than I actually need but the items are still useful. In this case, it’s helpful to use the container method. Make the container the enemy and not your mind.

A quick example is pens. I have a lot of pens. Do I need 100 pens? Probably not. So I put them in a pen holder and it only held 30 pens. So I took out the 70 pens I didn’t like, that never wrote correctly, were out of ink, etc and left only the 30 I liked.

It was still a lot of pens but I didn’t feel bad about getting rid of those 70 pens anymore because the space only allows for 30.

Take Pictures

If you are still having problems overcoming declutter paralysis, take a picture of the space. Then take 5 minutes and declutter whatever you can in that time. Once the 5 minutes is up, leave the space for the day. Clear it from your mind. Then go back to it the next day and declutter for another 5 minutes. Repeat this until your space is decluttered.

There might be days you only declutter 1-2 items, but at the end you will have a decluttered space. If you are feeling overwhelmed on any day, go back and look at that before photo. Compare it to the progress you’ve made.

Choose Visible Spots to Declutter

If your whole house is cluttered, then choose the spot that is most visible to you. Sure, your closet in the hall might be a mess, but if you spend 4 hours cleaning it out and then you never look at it, you aren’t ever going to feel like you’ve accomplished anything.

But if you declutter that space that you see every day as you walk in the door, you’ll see your accomplishments and this will help to overcome the declutter paralysis.

Items You Feel Guilty Getting Rid Of

Are you feeling guilty about potentially getting rid of stuff that was gifted to you? Maybe an item was somewhat valuable or it has sentimental value to someone who gave it to you. So you feel bad getting rid of it.

This is your permission to get rid of it. Acknowledge the guilt associated with getting rid of items and understand that you have the right to let go of things that no longer serve you, even if they were gifted or have sentimental value.

Give yourself permission to release the burden of these items. Remember, once they are in your possession, you have the power to decide what stays and what goes. Embrace the freedom that comes with decluttering.

In conclusion, overcoming declutter paralysis is not only achievable but also empowering. By simply taking the first step, whether it’s tackling one small area or setting a timer for just a few minutes, you can break the cycle of feeling overwhelmed. This initial action serves as a catalyst for further progress, helping you regain control over your environment. Remember, the journey to a more organized and peaceful space begins with that first decisive move. Embrace the process, and you will find that clarity and calm are within your reach.

How to Declutter Your Home Part 2

In part of our series on how to declutter, I want to discuss steps 5-8. I touched on them in the the Article How to Declutter Your Home Part 1, but now I want to go more in depth.

As a quick recap of of the first for steps in process of learning how to declutter, you did the following:

You identified where you want to start.
You broke your area down into manageable tasks.
You started decluttering.
You made a list of projects that came from your decluttering.

If you haven’t done those steps yet, go back and read How to Declutter Your Home Part 1. Then go through that process. Once you’ve done that, come back and let’s start on the next steps.

How to Declutter Your Home Steps 5-8

The next 4 steps in decluttering your home are as follows:

Organize.
Execute your projects you identified.
Reorganize based on the completion of projects
Declutter as maintenance.

Now that we know all the steps, it’s time to work through each one so you can have a truly decluttered home.

Step 5: Organize

The 5th step in the process of learning how to declutter your home is to organize your space. Depending on the size of the area and how much you have leftover after decluttering, this can either be a very quick process or a very long process.

Organization is broken down into a few basic steps:

Sort and categorize your items that you are organizing. While you were decluttering, you probably already started this process. This means that if you’ve got pens, they all go together. If you have cleaning products, those all go together too. Categorize in a way that makes sense.
Identify storage solutions for your space if needed. For example, organizing my bookshelf I didn’t need storage solutions, I just needed to put my books in place in a manner that made sense. For the top shelf of my desk, I just needed to ungroup things so they looked nice. When it came to organizing my closet, I needed storage solutions for the various seasonal decorations, air mattresses, and other things stored there.
Label as needed. Labels are extremely important in organization. Especially if you have storage solutions. These ensure that you always know what is in any given storage container and only the items that belong there, end up in that container.

It’s extremely important when you are learning how to declutter that you figure out an organizational system that works for you. You will want to ensure it is well thought out. Otherwise you will end up with a cluttered mess again.

Step 6: Execute the Projects You Identified

So you identified some more projects to take care of. Now that you’ve decluttered that space you were working on, it’s time to start executing the other projects you wrote down to take care of.

During this phase, you are going to start back at step 3, the decluttering phase. For each of the projects that you identified during your previous decluttering steps, you are going to prioritize and execute them in whichever order makes the most sense.

For example, let’s say when I decluttered my desk, I still had that jar of pens that I needed to go through, a now neatly decluttered stack of papers, and a disorganized storage tub that has a bunch of old computer parts in it.

I would then prioritize each of these items in a way that made the most sense for me. The paper was going to be the most time consuming and least visually impactful. The pens wouldn’t be visually impactful and it would be quick. The storage container was going to be the most visually impactful, but emotionally consuming.

In the end, I chose the storage tub of computer parts and started going through that process to start on. This goes back to my previous statement, when you are trying to figure out how to declutter, there is no right or wrong way.

While I opted for the most visually impactful, you might choose the path of the most time consuming just to get it out of the way. Both are perfectly fine.

Step 7: Reorganize Based on Project Completion

Now that you’ve executed your other projects, you will need to reorganize. This is important because a lot of times when you organize other things, you may find that areas you already decluttered either now look more cluttered because you found things that actually belong there. Or maybe you got rid of things and now it doesn’t look as organized anymore.

In this step of the how to declutter process, you will make sure that you aren’t taking step backwards. By reorganizing, you are ensuring that things stay neat and orderly.

In the process of learning how to declutter, this step tends to be more aesthetic but still important. What good is a decluttered home if it still looks bad?

For example, I decluttered one of my counters and I had project that came out of it to go through a bunch of bottles for when I home brew. At the end of sorting through all of them, all of which did belong on that counter I ended up with everything shoved in a corner. A significantly smaller amount of bottles, but they were still shoved in a corner. So during this reorganization step I made it look nice and fit in with the rest of the aesthetic of the counter.

Step 8: Declutter as Maintenance

Step 8 in the process of learning how to declutter is to declutter as maintenance. Decluttering as maintenance means that you are consistently going back to a space that you decluttered to ensure that it remains decluttered.

Depending on the location, you may want to go back to it monthly, weekly, or even daily to ensure that it remains decluttered.

For example, our kitchen counter where mail from the day frequently lands, I will clean off and declutter daily. We have a table that always seems to collect kids stuff throughout the week. I tend to declutter that weekly. Other places like my closet I declutter every 6 months or so depending on what fits and what is worn out.

As you complete these 4 steps, you will start seeing a change in how cluttered your house is. Keeping your house clutter free will result in less stress and anxiety and ultimately it will help improve your life.

6 Expert Tips for Organizing Your Closet

Organizing your closet can be a game changer in your day to day life. It can streamline your daily routine and reduce stress. However, actually organizing your closet is often easier said than done.

Most people think they have an organized closet but then when they actually go to find things, they realize that lots of items are stuffed haphazardly into shelves and drawers and they can’t actually find anything. This isn’t helpful to your daily routine at all!

I’m going to help you transform your closet with 6 expert tips. These will help you with organizing your closet and transforming it from a mess to a functional and aesthetically pleasing space!

The 6 Steps for Organizing Your Closet

Step 1. Declutter!

Before you start your dive into organizing your closet, it’s absolutely crucial that you declutter your closet first! Otherwise you are just trying to organize clutter and you won’t get anywhere. I go more in depth on decluttering your closet in my other articles, but here are the basics.

You’re going to want to sort your items into 3 categories. Keep, Donate/Sell, and Trash. Everything will go into one of these 3 categories.

When you are doing your sorting, you should be ruthless in your decision making process. You should only keep the items that you love, that you wear frequently, or serve a practical purpose.

Anything that no longer fits, is damaged beyond repair, or hasn’t been worn in over a year you should discard in either the donation or the trash.

By decluttering your closet, you are clearing up valuable space and also laying a foundation for organizing your closet in an effective manner.

Step 2. Utilize Vertical Space

If you aren’t utilizing your space effectively, then you will struggle to organize your closet effectively. I’ve had walk-in closets and I’ve had tiny closets that quite frankly I don’t know how I managed to put anything in there.

When it comes to organizing your closet, you need to maximize the space you have effectively. That means using that vertical space. Don’t be afraid to install shelves or cubbies above your hanging rods to store folded items like sweaters, jeans, handbags, or even hats.

You can also consider adding hooks or pegs to the walls or the back of your closet door to hang scarves, belts, shoes, or other accessories.

By making use of that vertical space, you can create additional storage space to organize your closet without overcrowding the rest of your closet space and making it look messy.

Step 3. Invest in Quality Hangers

OK, this one sounds silly, but this makes a huge difference. I always thought a hanger is a hanger right? So I just reused the ones I got from various shirts I bought over the years. You know, the cheap plastic ones that come with shirts you buy at Walmart.

Then my wife handed me some high quality hangers and oh man, it made a huge difference in maintaining the closet.

Slim, non-slip hangers help to maximize the hanging space in your closet. It also prevents your clothing from slipping off the hanger while ensuring that it hangs correctly rather than looking misshapen.

Additionally, having the same type of hangers helps keep a cohesive look in your closet, making it look visually more appealing while making it easier to organize clothing by type or color.

If you really want to get fancy, you can even invest in different colors of hangers for different seasons or different types of clothing.

One important thing to do is invest in specialty hangers for items like pants, skirts, or other delicate garments. This will help them maintain their shape and appearance.

Step 4. Organize by Category

When you organizing your closet, make sure you organize by category. You’d be amazed at how many people don’t do this. When you organize your closet by category, you make it easier to locate items and plan outfits.

You should organize your clothing into categories such as tops, bottoms, dresses, outerwear, and special occasion attire. Within each category, further organize your your items by color or season to create a visually appealing display.

Make use of labeled bins or baskets for corralling smaller items like socks, underwear, or accessories.

By adopting a systematic approach to organizing your closet, you and simplify the process and help maintain order over time.

I know it sounds like a lot of work to do, but it isn’t. When I fold my laundry, I just sort it on the spot and then put it away in its proper home. While it seems daunting, in practice it really takes no time at all.

Step 5. Implement Storage Solutions

Storage solutions can make a huge difference when organizing your closet. In many cases, a one size fits all solution does not work. By implementing specific storage solutions to fit your individual needs, you can improve the aesthetics and efficiency of your closet space.

Utilize drawer dividers or organizers to separate and contain smaller items like socks, underwear, or jewelry. Shoe racks or shelving units can be used to keep shoes neatly organized and accessible. Garment bags can be utilized to keep whole outfits together.

Also, keep in mind that you don’t always have to store everything in your closet. Under the bed storage containers can be great for off-season or rarely worn items and can free up valuable closet space.

You can also implement custom storage solutions that can be tailored to fit your space. By customizing the solutions to fit your closets dimensions and layout, you can ensure that your space is utilized effectively.

Step 6. Maintain Regular Maintenance

Maintaining closet organization requires and ongoing effort and commitment. Set aside time on a regular basis to assess your closet’s contents, purge items as needed, and reorganize as your wardrobe evolves.

Adopt a “one in, one out” policy for new clothing purchases to prevent clutter from accumulating over time.

Remember, when organizing your closet, just because you start with an organizational system you don’t have to keep it. Make adjustments to your organization system as necessary to accommodate changes in your lifestyle or seasonal wardrobe rotation.

By incorporating regular maintenance into your routine, you can ensure that your closet remains organized and functional for the long term.

Final Thoughts

Transforming your closet from a chaotic space to an organized oasis is within reach with these expert tips. By decluttering, maximizing vertical space, investing in quality hangers, organizing by category, implementing storage solutions, and maintaining regular maintenance, you can create a closet that not only looks great but also makes getting dressed a breeze. Take the first step towards closet organization today and reap the benefits of a well-organized wardrobe for years to come.

How to Declutter Your Kitchen right now

Trying to declutter your kitchen can be a massive undertaking. Depending on the size of your kitchen and what kind of things you have in your kitchen, trying to keep everything in a clean and organized state can seem like an exercise in futility.

I’ve lived in places with tiny kitchens and large kitchens. They each present their own unique challenges. Fortunately, there are ways to declutter your kitchen and maintain it, even when everything seems hopeless.

Declutter Your Kitchen Counters

This is the thing you are going to see the most when you look at your kitchen. If your countertops are a cluttered mess, this is going to set the tone for the whole kitchen. So when you declutter your kitchen, start with the counters. This is also where you are likely to be preparing food, so maximizing the space and cleanliness here is an absolute necessity.

Dishes

Start simple. Do you have dirty dishes out on the countertop? Put them in the dishwasher or wash them and put them away. If you’ve got clean dishes out on the counter, put them away. Just that little bit of maintenance can make a big dent in your quest to declutter your kitchen.

Garbage/Trash

Next it’s time to deal with garbage and trash. Perhaps you are lucky and don’t have actual garbage on the counter. However, if your house is like our house, decluttering your kitchen meant getting rid of garbage.

I know it’s not uncommon for us to have trash on the counter. We have young kids and our trash cans are locked behind child-safe locks on cabinets. So when you’ve got kids screaming and you don’t have time, suddenly the garbage ends up on the counter. Do a cursory clean of all those items and throw them away.

Paperwork

For whatever reason people love to keep paperwork in the kitchen. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine. Generally I think it’s because the kitchen tends to be a spot where people land after they get the mail. When you declutter your kitchen, get all the paperwork out of there. It doesn’t belong in the kitchen.

Take a look at the paperwork in your kitchen, if it’s a bill or an actionable item then put it in a spot where you can take action on it outside of the kitchen. If you’ve already got an organizational system in place for paperwork, then use that system for this paperwork.

If not, then take a look at my system for organizing paperwork. For anything that is junk, put it directly in the recycle bin. Get it cleared off the counter. For the purposes of cleaning up paperwork to declutter your kitchen it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Don’t get hung up on setting up an organizational system elsewhere in the house for your paperwork. One job at a time. Just get it out of the kitchen to a spot that is closer to where it belongs.

Small Appliances

Now you’ve gotten the basic maintenance items out of the way. If your kitchen is still cluttered, you may have to look at additional solutions. It can be helpful to declutter your kitchen appliances.

Look at the appliances on your countertop. Most people have several ranging from microwaves to coffee makers. Are there any appliances up there that you absolutely never use? If so, consider finding new spots for them or getting rid of them.

I know in my old apartment I used the toaster approximately twice over the course of 3 years, but it was occupying precious counter space in my tiny kitchen. So I opted to get rid of it and free up that space.

You may also want to declutter your kitchen appliances that only serve a single purpose. For example, our rice cooker would live on our countertop. So would our InstantPot. Since the InstantPot doubles as a rice cooker, we got rid of the rice cooker and just kept the InstantPot, thus freeing up valuable counter space.

Expensive Items

Now you might be asking, what if an item cost a lot? When you declutter your kitchen, don’t get caught up in the cost of items. If you aren’t using them, then you aren’t getting any value out of them.

Space on your countertop has value and you need to decide if the value of losing the counter space is worth more than the value of the item. Maybe things like a KitchenAid Mixer are worth it, but that toaster isn’t.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide the value of that item in reference to the space it takes up. Remember, you don’t necessarily have to completely get rid of the items off your countertop.

Going back to the KitchenAid Mixer, we don’t use it that often, but it does get used every other month or so. We realized that didn’t warrant the amount of space it took up on our counter. So we found a spot in the cupboard to store it when it wasn’t in use.

Misc Items

If you’re like me, we still had a variety of other items on the countertop that were taking up space. For example, we had coffee pods, chopsticks, fruits, and bread. When you declutter your kitchen and see these things you might think “Wait, these things all belong here!” However, it looked messy and cluttered. So, we introduced the container as limits system.

If you’ve read any of my other articles, you’ll know I’m a big fan of the container as limits system. Which is to say, that you put things in a contained spot and if they don’t fit then you get rid of things until they do. In this way, you are letting the container be the enemy.

For example, we put all of the chopsticks in a coffee cup. After all was said and done, we still had 6 pairs of chopsticks. Because we didn’t have room for those last 6 pairs of chopsticks, we got rid of them. They didn’t fit in the container allotted for them, which meant we had more than we needed.

For the coffee pods we got a little jar that was perfect for holding a box of coffee pods that we got from the store. The pods always end up in that jar as soon as we open the box and they are never spreading across the countertop anymore.

For the fruit and veggies and bread, we put a box on the counter that contains them all. We never buy more than will fit in the box and it keeps them contained and from creeping across the counter.

Keep looking around your counters as you declutter your kitchen. Ask yourself, what else is taking up space and cluttering your counters and what can be contained or gotten rid of?

With young kids, their items take up a lot of room. Especially when they were in the bottle phase. We ended up getting a small set of plastic drawers that fit on the counter easily for all of their bottle items.

With that we were able to contain the mess of all the bottle items that were constantly all over the counter and get them in an organized. When we realized we had too many of something, we got rid off it.

Once you have containerized and prioritized the items on your countertop, you should have a pretty decluttered and hopefully decently organized countertop. Now it’s time to tackle the cupboards.

Declutter Your Kitchen Cupboards

Cupboards are a beast of their own. So often we have items in there that we rarely use but still hold onto for various reasons. Again, let the cupboards be containers and act as the limiter to how much space things can take up.

It makes the cupboards the enemy and not your emotions about whether or not you should keep things. For us the big things that seem to always multiple like rabbits are coffee cups, pint glasses, and storage containers.

Glassware

The way I approached this was to think about how many of each of the coffee cups and pint glasses that was the maximum we’d ever really need.

Figuring in that we are a family of 4 and we’d frequently have 2 guests over, we figured that 6 of each was a good amount. Then we saved our favorite 6 of each one and got rid of the rest. This worked out well because this was approximately how much space we had on the shelf for the glassware.

Storage Containers

For the storage containers, these I went through and checked to find out which ones didn’t have lids, which ones were cracked, which ones were oddly shaped and never got used, and which ones I knew I hated because they leaked. Anything that met that criteria, I got rid of.

Then I changed my storage method. My goal was no longer to store the maximum amount of things in there, but to store only useful items in there. So rather than stacking them together, I put lids on each container and then stacked them with the lids on.

This also mitigates the unfortunate side effect of if there is just a little bit of moisture anywhere on the glass containers, they will stick together like concrete.

While this method ultimately took up more room in my cupboard, it’s important to remember that the idea isn’t to fit as many things into the cupboard as possible.

The idea is to declutter it and remove anything that isn’t useful. So by doing this, I forced myself to remove any of the items without lids, the ones I never used, the ones that were chipped, the ones that weren’t microwave safe, etc.

Pots and Pans

When it came to the other cupboards like pots and pans, I did the same thing. I made sure sets were together, then I stacked them so that I had to analyze whether or not I actually wanted them.

That Wok with the broken handle. Gone! Why do I have these glass pots? I never use them and they are ugly. Gone! I kept using the space of the cupboard as my enemy that decided what stays and what goes and I repeated this through every single cupboard until I had much much less stuff.

Declutter Your Kitchen Drawers

Now in the drawers, I had a lot of single purpose items. Some of them were useful (Like the lemon squeezer) other items like the banana slicer I scratched my head and wondered why we even had that.

For anything that we never used that was a single purpose type of item, I got rid of it to free space for other things. Now one thing to remember, when I say single purpose, I am talking about things that have a purpose that could easily be accomplished by other tools in the kitchen.

Going back to the banana slicer, I could easily accomplish the same task with a butter knife, but a set of measuring spoons is also single purpose but it would be difficult and annoying to use other tools in the kitchen to accomplish what those do. So I kept them.

Final Thoughts

Once you’ve gone through all of this, your kitchen should be a lot less cluttered. You will still need to perform regular maintenance on your kitchen to ensure it doesn’t get cluttered again, but now that you’ve gotten rid of all the extraneous items, you shouldn’t need to declutter your kitchen again.

If you struggle to keep your kitchen clean still, I have some handy steps on how to maintain your kitchen. Remember, it’s always easier to keep your kitchen clean if it contains less clutter.

8 Tips to Organize Your File Cabinet

If you are like me, the thought of having to organize your file cabinet absolutely filled me with dread. Our file cabinet was a mess of disorganized paperwork that was never really sorted through in the first place.

To make it worse it was the combination of two households who had very different and still not very organized filing systems. Basically, the file cabinet is where anything that was ‘this paper looks sort of important’ went to die.

It took a bit of work, but we were eventually able to conquer the file cabinet. Now before you do this, if you have a spouse or significant other who may want a say in how your organize your file cabinet, so make sure that you get them to sign off on it.

This is really important because otherwise you may end up in a situation where they decide they don’t like your new organizational system and it will all fall apart.

And yes, if your file cabinet is really bad, you will need a new organizational system. I’m going to assume that your file cabinet is as bad as mine was and you will need to organize your file cabinet as well as declutter it. If you just need to declutter it because you’ve got all the organization in place, then you are ahead of the game.

Before we go on, I am assuming that you have a file cabinet. However, this system will apply to whatever you use to store your paperwork. For a long time I kept all my items in hanging file boxes rather than a file cabinet because they cheaper and easier to move. Assume I am talking about any place that you store your paperwork when I say ‘organize your file cabinet’.

Items You Need to Organize Your File Cabinet

Before you get started, you will want to get the following items:

Hanging file folders
Double Pocketed folders
A Stapler
A Document Scanner
A Paper Shredder
A USB Thumb Drive
A Recycle bin

None of these items are strictly required, but they sure make your life easier. A little up front investment can help a lot as you organize your file cabinet. Each of these items has a very specific purpose in our organizational system.

Hanging Folders and Pocketed Folders

In most cases when you organize your file cabinet, you will need both Hanging Folders and Pocketed Folders. Yes, it may seem redundant to have both, but there is a method to my madness.

At a minimum you will need hanging folders. Keep in mind that I am assuming that you are using a File Cabinet that takes hanging folders. If you are using something like a bankers box for storing your paperwork, pocketed folders may work better for your needs. Use whichever one makes the most sense.

If you live alone, you can probably get away with just the hanging folders or the pocketed folders. However, if you live with other people or have a family, just having hanging folders will cause your organizational system to quickly break down and you will end up having to organize your file cabinet all over again.

So why do I recommend both hanging folders and pocketed folders to organize your file cabinet? It seems redundant doesn’t it?

I found for each person in the family, we will have similar information. For example, my wife and each of my kids has medical records. So I use a hanging folder with the label ‘Medical Records’ on it, then for each member of the family I have an individual pocket folder for all of their medical records.

This means when I have to go look something up for one of my kids, I can just pull out their folder rather than go through everyone’s stuff looking for the file I need.

The Stapler

When you organize your file cabinet, you are going to need a stapler. The use is pretty self explanatory. If you want to ensure that certain documents always remain together, use a stapler.

Not paper clips, a stapler. The 2 seconds of stapling them together can ensure you save a ton of time later trying to piece together multiple pages that got out of order.

The Document Scanner

Get a document scanner to organize your file cabinet. Most people when I tell them this look at me like I’m crazy. The document scanner was a great investment.

While this piece of equipment is optional, the function it serves is not. So I highly recommend it. This was a critical tool for me.

With the document scanner, I was able to scan in documents that I didn’t necessarily need physical copies of but the information would be nice to have in a pinch.

For example, I had some old medical records that maybe would be useful someday, but I didn’t want to hold onto the physical copies. So I scanned them into my computer.

While I recommend a document scanner, if you don’t want to buy one and store it, which I totally understand, your phone has one built in. It’s more time consuming, but it works in a pinch!

If you do choose to buy one, the scanner doesn’t even have to be expensive. I got mine used from a University Surplus Store for cheap and it works great! That’s also where we got our file cabinet because why spend several hundred dollars on one when you can get one that has some scuffs on it for $15?

USB Thumb Drive

You are going to use the USB thumb drive in conjunction with your document scanner. I didn’t really want these documents I scanned in on my computer, so after I scanned them in, I just put them directly on the Thumb Drive and put the Thumb Drive in a safe location.

Document Shredder

The Document Shredder is one of the most essential tools when you organize your file cabinet. You should just have one of these because if you are like me, I am constantly getting mail that could be used for identity theft and for personal identifiable information. This is just good for a peace of mind so that when you dispose of files, they can’t easily be used to have your identity stolen.

Recycle Bin

When you organize your file cabinet, you are going to probably find a lot of stuff that you don’t need. Envelops and advertising that can just go straight into the recycle bin. Make sure you have a bin or bag handy for all of these items.

It’s time to Organize your File Cabinet!

Once you’ve got your supplies, it’s time to start organizing. Now I recommend setting up a staging area for this. I used a card table that I was able to setup in my office for a couple of days because I knew that it wasn’t going to be quick to get though everything.

Then as I pulled things out, I sorted everything into piles. Yours may differ from mine depending on what paperwork you have, but my general piles were as follows:

Mortgage/Housing
Medical
Auto
Retirement
Household Expenses
Taxes
Pets
Miscellaneous

When choosing your initial piles, try to keep it very broad. Otherwise you end up with a ton of overwhelming smaller piles of paper. If while sorting through things, you find that you have a lot of a certain category that doesn’t fit neatly into one of these broad categories, create a new pile for it.

As you are sorting through the paperwork, if you find stuff that you don’t need you can dispose of it immediately. This is where the paper shredder comes in handy. If it required shredding, I just shredded it on the spot.

Other items I just tossed directly into the recycle bin. For example, I didn’t really need a receipt for my Internet from 12 years ago when I lived in a different state. Keep in mind if you are getting rid of receipts, most receipt paper cannot be recycled.

The 2 Second Rule

During this initial sort, I made it a point to not spend more than 2 seconds on any piece of paperwork. If I wasn’t sure about it, I just sorted it into what looked like the most correct pile.

By limiting yourself to 2 seconds, you keep yourself moving and you don’t overthink it. Remember, you are trying to organize your file cabinet, not get stuck in sorting paralysis.

Noticing Trends

Be careful with that miscellaneous pile. That one can quickly get out of hand. If while you are sorting you start seeing a lot of a certain type of paperwork going into that miscellaneous pile, you should consider starting a new pile for that type of thing, even if you’ve already sorted out a bunch of those items already.

While you are doing your initial sorting, try to keep a mental note if you see any kind of trends and categorizations that you may want to separate out later. For example, each of my kids had a lot of medical bills and reports from all the various doctors appointments that you have to go through as infants.

Since each child has differing medical needs and results, I knew I was going to want to split those up into their own folders. Not because I necessarily had a lot of paperwork for them, but I knew that over time they were going to need their own folders. Trust me, your future self will thank you for this.

As a voice of experience, when I was a teenager I had to find some medical paperwork for a trip I was taking. My parents had put the medical paperwork for me and my siblings all in one single folder and it was a struggle to find what I needed.

By separating it out by kid, when I needed some specific information for one of my children last year, I just went to their folder and was easily able to locate it.

Organize Your Categories!

OK, you’ve got all your paperwork sorted out into piles. You now have a table of small stacks of paperwork that is at least sorted into broad categories. Now it’s time to sort through and organize those categories.

Sorting through your individual categories of paperwork and scanning them are going to be the two most time consuming parts of the process when you organize your file cabinet.

Subcategorization

Hopefully you were starting to notice trends in your paperwork when you were doing the initial sort. That will come in handy here. During this subcategorization you will want to sort each stack of papers into smaller piles depending on what it’s related to.

For example, when going through the medical paperwork, I put the medical records for each of my family members into their own piles. For our pets, I split it into two piles. One for each dog that we have. Then all the training, insurance, and medical paperwork went into the corresponding dog’s pile of papers.

I went through every pile of paper doing this. We had 18 years of stuff to go through, so it took several hours to do.

Declutter As You Go

A big part of the process to organize your file cabinet is to get rid of things you don’t need. As you sort through each of these piles, make a decision as to whether or not you really need physical copies of those items.

For example, all of my billing history for things like water, power, etc was available online. I could easily go onto the website for any of my utilities and get that data so there was no reason for me to keep physical copies of any of that paperwork.

It was just causing file cabinet clutter. Other things I found in there were owners manuals for appliances and electronics. All things that are easily found online.

Similarly, I can get bank statements going as far back as I needed from my bank’s website. There was no need to keep any of that paperwork either. Since anything that had personally identifiable information and I didn’t need I shredded.

Scan what you need

Some of the paperwork I came across and I realized that it may be helpful to have at some point but I really didn’t need the physical paperwork. For example, there was paperwork from the sale of our previous home.

We probably didn’t need it but since this information isn’t easily obtained online I opted to scan this data onto my thumb drive using the document scanner. Once that was done, I was able to shred that paperwork and free up a ton of space in the file cabinet.

Other things that I did similar things to were tax documents. I had over a decade of tax documents. For the record, according to the IRS website, you only need to keep 3 years of tax documents except under special circumstances in which you need to retain 7 years of tax documents. So I kept 3 years, scanned in years 4-7, and shredded the rest.

Extraneous Paper

While I was doing this second round of sorting, I noticed we had a lot of extraneous paper in with the important items. The number one cause was items in envelopes.

Folded items in envelopes take up more room and are often stuffed with other paperwork you don’t need. If you need to keep the physical paperwork, take it out of the envelopes and dispose of the excess paperwork that comes with it.

Only keep the items that are actually needed. Our insurance provider was notorious for having 2-3 pages in every envelope with ‘terms and conditions’ and ‘this page intentionally left blank’ on it.

Neither of those things are useful to hold onto and you’ll find that it will slim down the amount of stuff in your file cabinet.

When you are pulling this paperwork you want to keep out of the envelopes, if you have multiple pages you should staple them together. As I mentioned earlier, this can save you a lot of time later on.

If you are against staples, use paper clips, but keep in mind those generally take up more room in the file cabinet.

Labeling Folders

One key when you organize your file cabinet is to ensure you have good labels. At this point you should have everything sorted, scanned, and disposed of and you are ready to put thing in their proper home.

Put each of the subcategories into their own pocketed folder. Then put those pocketed folders into a hanging folder. This ensures that like items like medical records are grouped together and easy to find.

I put the broad category I mentioned earlier on each of the hanging folders. So I had a medical folder, I had a retirement folder, I had a pets folder.

For the pocketed folders, I used a naming scheme like this:

Medical – Child 1
Medical – Child 2.
Taxes – My Name – Year.
Taxes – Wife’s Name – Year
Taxes – Joint Filing – Year

When all was said and done, I had maybe a quarter of the original amount of items in my file cabinet and everything was much easier to find.

Final Thoughts

When you organize your file cabinet, you are likely to come across a few gotchas. First, forms for mortgages are unreasonably big. To get around this I ended up dedicating an entire drawer to just mortgage information. It’s not efficient, but with all that space freed up it made sense.

Second, when you organize your file cabinet, don’t put things in that don’t belong in there. For example, I found a jewelry box in our file cabinet and some tools. Only put paperwork in there. Everything else belongs in a proper home.

Finally be mindful of what you put in there. Before you file things in there, ask yourself if you really need it. If you do, can you scan it and keep it on the thumb drive? With maintenance, your file cabinet will remain organized.

Free Yourself and Get rid of those empty boxes!

It’s time to get rid of those empty boxes!

Somehow we all have it. A little pile of boxes sitting somewhere in our house for our laptop, our phone, and various other electronics. I have a pile like this, my mom has a pile like this, why does this exist?

So let’s talk about this little pile of boxes. If you haven’t been told this already, let me tell you now.

Get Rid of Those Empty Boxes!

That’s right, you can get rid of those empty boxes! I’m specifically looking at your electronics boxes that seem to stick around forever. You don’t need them.

Nor do you need the box for your toaster oven, your coffee maker, or any of those million boxes from Amazon. You just don’t need them. Get rid of those empty boxes! Free yourself!

Get Rid of those empty boxes for your electronics!

For whatever reason, conventional wisdom for the last 15 years or so has been that you need to keep the boxes for your phone, your laptop, your tablet, and basically everything else because it helps with the resale value. Maybe 15 years ago that was true, but it doesn’t really hold true anymore.

Sure maybe you will find one or two people who are impressed that you still have the box for it but they aren’t going to pay more for a box that does nothing to improve the device you are selling.

Now I’ll be the first to admit, I have one of these little piles myself. Well, had. In a fit of annoyance I filled up the recycle bin with all of the boxes for laptops, tablets, and various other things I’ve collected over the years.

I gained a huge chunk of space back in my closet from doing this. I also discovered in the process that I had 4 pairs of wired headphones, 3 charging bricks, 4 lightning cables, 2 lightning to 3.5 adapters, and an extender for the power cable on my laptop. So make sure you check those boxes before you chuck them!

The 30 Day Limit

I do still have one of these piles of boxes for things, but it’s not like before. I subscribe to the 30 day limit. This means that I keep boxes for about 30 days. If for whatever reason I don’t like the item and still need to return it in the original packaging, I’ll know within 30 days.

After that, the boxes are gone. This is just a routine cleanup for me that I continually do whenever something new comes into the house, which thankfully isn’t that often anymore.

No Really, Get Rid of those Empty Boxes for your MacBook!

Now I can hear someone in the back over there saying “But it’s for my MacBook! Someone will pay more for it because I’ve got the box!”

No. No they won’t. Your MacBook, IPhone, iPad, or whatever other device you are trying to sell is only worth what people are willing to buy it for and having the box won’t increase the value (especially if you’ve covered it in stickers, but that is a different topic).

I call these ones out specifically because this is a myth that tends to swirl around in the Apple user base far more than other brands. This is a voice of experience.

Even if people are willing to pay more for it, how much more do you think that is? Think of the space in your home as having a cost associated with it. Is the space that those boxes are taking up in your home worth the potential extra cost of storing them?

They have a mental cost because you know they are there causing clutter. They have a physical space cost. Especially laptops and tablets, those are decent size boxes.

What could you put in that space instead? Maybe nothing and you just have a more open home? Maybe freeing up that storage space allows you to put something you really want to see out in the open instead?

So today, I hereby give you permission. Go recycle those boxes! Free up space in your home! Because at the end of the day, it’s just a pile of cardboard that is taking up space.

The Containers as Limits Method

The Containers as Limits Method of decluttering has been gaining traction in the last few years. Popularized by Dana K. White, the Container Method also known as the Containers as Limits Decluttering Method is one of my favorite methods for decluttering an area. It’s one I’ve been using since long before I’d ever heard of Dana K. White. In this post we are going to dig into this method and help you understand how it works.

What is the Containers as Limits Method?

The Containers as Limits Method of decluttering centers around the use of physical container to set boundaries within specific spaces or categories. In its simplest form, this method defines the limits of a designated area using containers, and once the container is full, it serves as a visual signal to stop accumulating more items in that space.

Now with the container as limits method, this doesn’t mean that you are necessarily putting things in a physical container, but I’ll get more into that later.

The container method is made up of 5 core principles. Once you understand these, you can apply the container method to any aspect of your home. The five core principles of the container method are:

1. Setting Clear Boundaries

In essence, this is setting a boundary for your clutter within the containers themselves. As I mentioned earlier, a container doesn’t have to be a physical container like a storage tub, though there are a lot of instances where that might be the case. A container could be a shelf, or a drawer, or a section of a room. By setting clear boundaries, the container method states that once you have filled that container, you cannot put anything else in that space.

2. Assigning Containers to Categories

Each category or type of item should have its designated container. This could be a basket for accessories, a bin for toys, or a shelf for books. The idea is to have a specific place for every type of item, making it easier to maintain order and find things when you need them. Assigning containers to categories ensures that each item has its rightful place within the overall organization scheme.

3. Limiting the Space

The magic happens when you establish the size of the container. The container itself becomes a natural limit on the number of items you can keep within that space. If the container is full, it serves as a clear signal that it’s time to declutter or make decisions about what to keep and what to let go. This limitation encourages mindful choices and prevents unnecessary accumulation.

4. Prioritizing and Evaluating

The Containers as Limits method forces you to prioritize the items that truly matter to you. When faced with a limited space, you’re prompted to evaluate the significance and usefulness of each item. This process of prioritization is essential for cultivating a living environment that aligns with your values and brings you joy.

5. Avoiding Overflow

One of the key principles of this method is to resist the temptation to exceed the container’s capacity. Overflowing containers are visual cues that indicate a need to reassess and declutter. Instead of allowing clutter to build up over time, the Containers as Limits method encourages regular evaluation and maintenance.

Where Can I use the Containers as Limits method?

The great thing about this method is it can be used just about anywhere in your home. I’ve applied this in pretty much every room of my house. Let’s go over a few places that might be the most useful to you!

Kitchen Organization

The kitchen is one of those places that always seems to accumulate clutter. Whether it’s food, paper bags, mail, or kids toys. Everything always seems to land in the kitchen. The nice thing about the kitchen is it tends to have containers built into it in the form of drawers and cupboards.

Let’s take coffee cups for example. Everyone seems to love to give people coffee cups. If you’ve got a shelf in your cupboard and your coffee cups are stacked, you can use the container method to clear it out. Keep only the ones you like or need and then get rid of the rest.

That shelf is the limit of how many coffee cups you can actually keep. Let the size of the shelf be the container that limits your amount of coffee cups. Let the shelf be the enemy. If you have one that you like better than the rest but you don’t have a spot for it, choose which coffee mug you like the least and get rid of it. I’ve done this with glassware, plates, small appliances, food storage, even drawers of random utensils or knives.

The Pantry

Apply the Containers as Limits method to your pantry by using containers for different food categories. Assign containers for grains, snacks, spices, and canned goods. When a container is full, it’s time to reassess your pantry items and make intentional choices about what to keep and what to use or donate.

Bedroom Closets

The Containers as Limits method works great for closets. I use this method to contain and sort through things like socks and t-shirts. This keeps the amount of each of these items down to a reasonable amount, it keeps things more organized, and makes it easier to see what you have. It also reduces the dreaded “I have nothing to wear” dilemma.

Home Office and Paper Management

The Home Office is the perfect place to implement the Containers as Limits method. Paper clutter is a common challenge in many households. Using the Containers as Limits method, you can create a system for managing paperwork. Assign containers for bills, important documents, and miscellaneous papers. Personally I use a letter tray organizer with 5 slots.

When a container is full, it’s time to sift through the papers, discard what you no longer need, and organize the rest. This approach not only streamlines your home office but also ensures that important documents are easily accessible.

Children’s Toys and Play Areas

Nothings gets out of hand faster than children’s toys. For us, the children’s play room is a constant mess. The Containers as Limits method has helped a lot with wrangling that mess and reducing the clutter.

We have a bunch of containers to keep things separated out. Some examples of our containers are Stuffed Animals, Crafts, Trucks, and Blocks. We found that separating them out into containers has a few benefits.

First, the kids know exactly what goes where so cleanup becomes easier.

Second, there are less things overall to cleanup because the kids tend to not be dumping out all of the stuff as was the issue when everything was in one giant box. It’s so nice not having to pick up the jumbled mess of Potato Head parts, LEGO, Trucks, and blocks because they were all put together in one spot.

Third, with the container as limits method, we can limit what the kids have access to and they can focus on certain toys rather than being overstimulated and having more toys than they could possibly play with during the day. This allows them to be more creative and imaginative.

Digital Clutter

While this is a bit more abstract to think about, you can absolutely use containers as limits to manage your digital clutter on your computer or smartphone. Create folders for different categories of files and set limits on the amount of data you store. When a digital container is nearing its limit, take the time to declutter and organize your digital files.

Benefits of the Containers as Limits Method

Now that we’ve explored the principles and practical applications of the Containers as Limits method, let’s discuss the benefits of incorporating this approach into your lifestyle.

Visual Clarity

Visual Clarity is a huge benefit of the Containers as Limits method. As I mentioned earlier with the kids playroom, we used containers to separate various toys into their own spots. So LEGO had their own container, Mr. Potato Head had its own container, Play-Doh had its own container.

The result is that we can just look at the shelf and pull down the contained set of toys we are looking for. This also means when putting things away, the kids can easily identify what goes where.

This also works well for other things in the house. For clothing maybe you put all your socks in one container and plain colored t-shirts in another. In your cupboards you might organize things so all coffee mugs go on one shelf or all of your snacks go in a single container. In all cases, you can easily look and get visual clarity of where things should go.

Mindful Decision Making

Being more mindful about your decision making is a huge part of the Containers as Limits method. By limiting the available space for the various categories of things you own, you are forcing yourself to be more mindful. If you don’t have enough room in the container, you are forced to assess the value and importance of each item.

For example, lets say you got a brand new coffee mug. As you are putting it in the cupboard, which is the container for it, you realize you don’t have room for it. Using the container method, you have to decide, what coffee mug do you get rid of?

This forces you to be mindful, perhaps this new mug that was just gifted to you isn’t something you want to keep after all and you get rid of it. Or perhaps you might want to get rid of that one mug that never seems to get clean or that you never use. With the containers as limits method, you only keep the stuff you want and never the stuff you don’t care about.

Prevention of Clutter

The Prevention of Clutter is perhaps the biggest reason why I embraced the Containers as Limits method. If everything is contained, it’s a lot harder to have clutter. It also means that instead of waiting and getting overwhelmed by the clutter, as you are adding things you are forced to make a decision about whether or not you want to keep items.

You can do things in the moment. The Containers as Limits method prompts you to consistently maintain and organize the space and helps maintain a more organized environment.

Efficient Use of Space

This is a big one for me, especially in the pantry and with kids toys. With limited space to put things away, trying to keep everything organized when it all comes in a wide manner of shapes and sizes leads to a disorganized mess.

With the Containers as Limits method, you set the size and shape of the containers instead of the objects you are trying to contain setting the size and shape. I’ll take noodles for example. We all know noodles come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

Because we cook from a variety of different cultures, we end up with noodles in boxes, noodles in flimsy bags, noodles in jars, individually packaged noodles. It can be a mess. So, we put each of the noodle types in a new container. A container that fits neatly and efficiently into our pantry.

This means we always know how much of each type of noodle we have because we can easily look at it, the noodles aren’t strewn throughout the pantry in various spots that ‘Just fit’, and everything is efficiently organized in a way that uses less space.

Keep in mind, you can do this with just about anything, I do this to more efficiently organize things like Play-doh and LEGO or even socks!

Empowerment and Control

Decluttering can be a daunting task, but the Containers as Limits method empowers you to take control of your living spaces. The clear boundaries and visual cues provide a sense of control over your belongings, contributing to a more positive and empowered mindset.

Adaptability to Different Spaces

One of the strengths of this method is its adaptability to various spaces and categories. Whether you’re tackling a small drawer or an entire room, the Containers as Limits approach can be customized to suit your specific decluttering goals.

Overcoming Potential Challenges

I’d be lying if I said there aren’t potential challenges that come with this system. Being aware of them allows you to address them head-on.

Sentimental Items

Sentimental items can be especially hard to let go off. I know because I’ve got stuff I’ve held onto for years for sentimental reasons. Keep in mind, it is perfectly fine to keep sentimental items, but the key is to focus on the joy and purpose that the items bring into your life. If an item no longer serves any purpose in your life or doesn’t bring any joy to your life, consider letting it go.

Consistent Maintenance

Like all systems, maintaining it takes effort. The Containers as Limits method is no different. You should set aside time to regularly evaluate and declutter the designated containers to ensure that it doesn’t get overwhelming. If you are allowing the method to work as intended though and maintaining as you are hitting the limits of your containers, maintenance should be an easy task.

Initial Time Investment

This is the biggest hurdle most people have to overcome with the Containers as Limits method. Getting started on this method takes time. You have to go through and declutter items and choose what to keep and what to get rid of. This is generally not quick to do. Set aside time to do this. Even if it’s just 15 minutes per day to tackle a section. This will add up quickly and you will make progress. Every little bit of progress helps. The long term benefits will make this time investment worthwhile.

Final Thoughts

I’ve been using this method for years and it changed the way I organize and maintain my home. I don’t have it implemented everywhere, but where I do there is a huge difference in the ease or organization and a reduction of clutter in those areas.

As long as you are willing to put in the effort to start using this method and get over the initial hurdles of time and decluttering, the long term benefits of this will pay off and your home will be more simplified while still maintaining the feel of a home. This will help reduce time spent on cleaning and reduce your stress and anxiety, giving you time to focus on the more important things in your life.

Embrace the Daily 15 Minute Clean!

Did you know that 15 minutes every day can change your life? It’s true, and in this article I’m going to tell you how! OK, enough of the clickbait introductions, I always hated those and I feel like the article is always a letdown. So let’s just cut to the chase and let’s talk about the Daily 15 Minute Clean.

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Quickly Decluttering Your Home Office

If you’re lucky enough to have a home office (or cursed depending on your perspective) then you probably know all too well the pains of when it gets disorganized. The Home Office tends to be a purgatory of bills, schoolwork, random documents, random technology, and a whole myriad of other things that seem to fit into that ‘Home Office’ category. Today we are going to go over the process of decluttering your home office and how to get it organized.

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