One of the things I hear most often from mom’s and dad’s at Christmas time is that it is hard not to feel overwhelmed by the amount of toys that end up making their way into the home. As a veteran mom (I think I can call myself that), believe me when I say, I totally get it and I think I’ve actually managed to stay on top of the toy clutter this time of year! Here are some of my best strategies and ideas for you to get ahead of the clutter before it consumes every crevice of your home.
Back when I was in my early 20’s my grandparents were forced to move to an assisted living home due to my grandpa’s Parkinson’s and increasing blindness and my grandma’s Alzheimer’s. My aunt asked if I would want to take on the project of hosting the estate sale and decluttering all of their belongings. I imagine going through her childhood home would have been too difficult and she also had a full time job. I happily accepted as I had always loved my grandparents and their house had been a second home to me. I wouldn’t be lying when I say that I truly loved going through each and every piece of their life. However, I had a few major realizations throughout the process as well.
One of the top questions/comments I hear from people is something like this:
“I would be minimalist, but my husband hangs onto everything!”
“I can’t declutter because my wife doesn’t want to!”
Now…I hear you, I get it. You are sharing your life with a person and you are sharing your home with a person so it’s kind of hard to create a simple home when they are mini hoarders. Correct?
Let’s talk about that…
I recently hosted one of my live decluttering sessions where I was given the chance to do some one on one coaching. Mid way through our session, my client, Haley, referenced a stress ball that she struggled to get rid of. This is the same old struggle most of us face when it comes to decluttering. We have an item that we don’t really use but we try to convince ourselves that we will or that it might come in handy one day. Here’s the cold hard truth about those un-used items that you might need someday.
As someone who is a potentially undiagnosed with ADHD, I have always found cleaning my space a little more difficult because I find myself pulled in all different directions. Throughout the years, especially after practicing minimalism, I have perfected a method that helps me quickly and easily organize and clean areas of my home without getting overwhelmed or making a bigger mess. I want to share with you my 4 bin system that has helped me do this. My method is one that I use and share with people during my live decluttering sessions and has been 100% effective in helping people clear through clutter quickly and easily.
I still remember the day that I was bringing yet another load of donations to Goodwill. Yes, I know not everyone likes that I give to Goodwill. While I’m sure there are many other worthy causes in my area to give to, whenever I have the intention to give to them I usually end up having 3 garbage bags full of good intentions sit in the trunk of my car for months. Then, one day I open them up — ya know, just to see — and end up bringing stuff back into my house with me. This is why I adapted the habit of immediately donating whenever I found myself with the motivation to clean house. However, I had a shocking realization one day that I was donating an awful lot. I used to think this was a good thing, however, I couldn’t help but realize this meant I was in fact never actually creating a less-cluttered house. I was simply staying an equal amount of cluttered all year long. Sound familiar? Read on.