Ask Lemmy

I have the exact same problem, this is what I've been trying these last weeks and I'm already seeing some improvement.

I started by setting up three easy daily tasks:

• pick up all dirty clothes for laundry
• sweep all the floors
• clean the dishes

I don't do very thorough sweep, just so it looks clean but since I have to do it every day something gets tickled in my brain that tries to find something to sweep because the broom is not picking anything, so I just recently realised that I've been moving out the way or completely removing stuff that impeded me from sweeping small corners that I didn't sweep the day before.

I'm so happy with how it is working that I'm about to add dusting into the routine. If the same logic applies, I'll be throwing away lots of stuff that make dusting harder.

I started doing it to learn to adopt habits and clean more often, the decluttering part was unexpected but welcomed. I still have a long way to go but I feel optimist.

Take pics of sentimental things of little value. Then throw out the thing and keep the pic

Invite a judgemental friend or relative over for dinner. Best way to force you to clean and declutter your space.

Take a weekend to thoroughly clean your home. At the end, take a mental snapshot of each room and each surface.

Going forward, at the end of each night before bed, reset each space back to that mental snapshot you have of how that space should look when it’s “clean”.

Doing this every day ensures that mess never gets out of hand.

Thinking of it as a “room reset” rather than cleaning” helps my perfectionism from jumping in and having me end up cleaning the baseboards every night.

Buy a small box (should be about the size of a cat; not too big and not too small) you can put in a place where you’ll see it frequently but it’s not in the way.

This box is your “physical inbox”. Any clutter you find or anything in your space that is out of place or doesn’t have a good ‘home’ goes in this box.

Once a week (or more often if you’d like), go through the inbox and resolve or find a new proper home for each item (even if get home is the trash).

best tip - stop buying shit you don't need and throw\give shit away you don't use.

Use the Poop Method

"If this object had poop on it, would I wash it, or throw it away?"

Moving to another continent with just two suitcases

When's the last time you actually used the item, whether it's clothing, an appliance, dishes, etc? Some things only have a special purpose (holiday decorations, seasonal clothing), but if the item has no special purpose and you haven't used it in the past 5 years and holds no sentimental value, you should toss or donate it.

A note on sentimental value: If you are tying sentimental value to EVERYTHING or dozens of things of the same type (I don't mean a collection, I'm talking like "My dad died 10 years ago and instead of keeping 1 or 2 shirts he really liked, I'm keeping his entire wardrobe in 10 crappy old carboard boxes in my living room and they're all full of clothes moths now, but I won't throw them away because they have sentimental value to me" kind of behavior), this is an unhealthy coping mechanism that you should address with yourself or with help from a therapist.

Once you have your stuff narrowed down, find a place for each item, and then that's where that thing lives. The place they live must be reasonable and logical. Clean clothes live in the closet/dresser, they do not live on the floor, draped across furniture, or in the hamper after you've washed/dried them.

Appliances live in one spot on your kitchen counter, or in a cabinet/cupboard. Books live on the bookshelf unless you're actively reading them. Knick knacks live on the shelf, not the floor or in a box on the floor because you plan to some day put them on the shelf and just haven't gotten around to it. If you're not gonna put them on the shelf within the next month, box that shit up and put the box in a closet/garage/attic, etc. Storage is an acceptable place for a thing to live, provided you have the room and you're not just accumulating crap and storing it like a squirrel with nuts that are then forgotten about a month later.

FOOD GETS STORED IN THE KITCHEN. Do not store the half-eaten box of crackers on your nightstand or on the floor next to the couch. Do you want ants? That's how you get ants.

1. Don't buy crap
2. Don't keep crap (recycle, don't trash them)
3. Stop wishing of buying more crap.

Any impression this incredibly wise list of advice could be based on personal experience (and on multiple failures at following them) would be correct. My life changed and the clutter vanished the day I stopped wanting to buy always more stuff and decided to only keep what was... worth keeping aka actually of any use/importance.

Get rid of stuff you don't need.

Yes, you might save 20 bucks in five years by saving that plastic widget, but you'd have to pay loads more than 20 bucks to store that thing somewhere.

Also that "sparks joy"-lady has a point.

Break your project down into bite size goals. With rewards.

Start with cleaning the bathroom. Take a nice long bath after.

Focus on the rubbish in your bedroom, go for a small walk to the variety store. (Consider having a monster drink)

When you come home focus on loose clothing on the floor. Put them in the wash.

Carry on this routine. If you trust yourself not to be too distracted play some old DVDs in the background.

Carry on with this pattern, doesn't need to be all in the same day.

Did you do the dishes yet?

Occasionally get drunk and break things. When sober throw Away broken things.

Only keep things that are functional, attractive or sentimental. I like the poop plan for things that are on the edge of these.

Old stuff goes on the local buy&sell or eBay if it's worth enough used. Otherwise it's on the front boulevard with a spray painted FREE sign next to whatever I want gone. It's very rare whatever I dump out there isn't taken within minutes. Don't hoard.

Shit tons of shelves and cabinets. Get stuff off the surfaces you use all the time, or would if it wasn't covered in shit. Now you can dust the home and vacuum easily too!

No impulse purchases. Do you really want it, let alone need it? Discipline.

Get a filing cabinet if you don't have one already for a job you do. Just a two drawer is enough.

I've thus far avoided feeling the need to host my own garage or yard sale, but that might be a good place to start if it's feasible.

Don't invite clutter, as in stop buying so many things. If you can't break that habit then it will just get back to where it was.

If you are keeping something, is the total possible savings by keeping it around worth the lost space that could be used for something else? If it was gone would it be easier to clean? Is wasting time managing it existing in your space worth it?

Keep some keepsakes around, just keep it manageable. One or two tubs is plenty if you only go through them once a decade or less. Yeah, you might save some money by keeping an old toy around for grandkids, but there will also be newer toys and odds are they won't want old stuff enough to keep boxes of them around. Maybe keep a few of your favorites so you can share stories.

Unless you really enjoy changing decorations constantly only a couple backups of regular things are needed at most. You don't need a dozen sets of bedding. You don't need a full backup set of silverware.

I don't need the inner workings of the last three generations of PC builds, but I keep telling myself that I will use them for playing around with Linux and they only take up a small tub so I am OK it since I got rid of three tubs of the kiddos childhood toys she never really played with. Kept a tub of the ones she liked in case she has kids and wants to pass them on. One tub of a thing is fine if there aren't too many total tubs.

Note:tub is my unit of measurement since having these discussions with family are hard to have without something to represent volume.

If you haven't used it in a year, get rid of it.

Spend a few weeks camping or hostelling. Then you'll see how many of your possessions you really need.

Reduce and reuse. Recycling is the last resort.

Donate to thrift stores. sell on eBay, Craigslist, marketplace, swap meets, yard sales, etc. Give to friends and neighbors.

Keep what you need, keep what makes you happy. Judge what you actually need to keep. I got rid of so many things before moving, some I am happy I did and some I regret. But since I regret it, I know that I may find that same item again and to keep an eye for it. At least I can always get those items again, so getting rid of it wasn’t that bad.

It's very simple.

Any time you set something down, keep this thought in the back of your mind: If you can put it down, you can put it away.

Think really hard before you ditch something. I got rid of a ton of stuff when I moved abroad and I regret far too much of it.

If you haven't touched it in a year, get rid of it. Exceptions of course for sentimental items or things like legal documents.

lol

• use it, clean it, put it away
• box and label
• big things get used once a month
• medium things get used biweekly
• small things get used weekly
• tiny things get used every six months
• if it's not being used outside of that, it's on a list to get donated