Declutter Your House
Establish Clutter Central

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If you need to undertake a massive overhaul of each room in your home in order to declutter your house and create a clean slate, the first thing you need to do is choose a space in your home to designate as Clutter Central.

You should choose a room that you don't use on a daily basis and that you can close off from view while you are working on clutter control. A spare bedroom or basement would be perfect.

The idea is that as you tackle cleaning each room in your home you will remove the clutter from that room and bring it to Clutter Central for sorting. Once you have finished organizing all of your rooms you will then deal with the items you have gathered in Clutter Central and, before you know it, your entire home will be clean, organized and free from clutter.

Once you have designated Clutter Central, get three large boxes and label each one:

• Sell
• Donate
• Unsure

If you have a lot of clutter to clear, you may want to get several boxes for each category. Place the boxes in Clutter Central.

Once you have Clutter Central set up and ready to go, schedule a garage sale. By setting the date now, you are providing yourself a deadline which will motivate you to stick to a schedule and declutter your house.

Choose a day far enough away that you will have enough time to go through each room in your home, but not so far away that you will procrastinate. Allowing yourself approximately one month is ideal. This should give you plenty of time to declutter your house and sort through the items to be included in the sale.

Organizing Clutter Central

When you have finished your clean sweep of every room, it's time to focus on Clutter Central. Here are the final steps for you to take to declutter your house:

Step One

The first task will be to sort through the boxes labeled "unsure." Be very discriminating when making the final decision on these items. After you have worked so hard to successfully declutter your house, do you really want to put them back into the rooms they came out of? The fewer items from the "unsure" pile that you actually put back into your rooms, the better.

Step Two

Next make a list of all of the items in the "donate" boxes. You will need this list if you claim these items as charitable donations on your tax returns.

This IRS publication will give you an idea of the value of your charitable donations.

Once you have completed the list and returned the items to the boxes, immediately place them in your car and go deliver them to the charities you have chosen. Do not put this off. If you hesitate you are leaving yourself open to the possibility of changing your mind which will only result in more clutter.

Step Three

Finally, get yourself some price stickers and a marker and begin pricing the items in the "sell" box for your garage sale.

Any items that are not purchased at your garage sale should be donated to charity, following the same procedure in Step Two.

Step Four

Follow the guidelines for a clean sweep of the room you have used as Clutter Central (for example, if you used your guestroom, see Organize Your Guestroom page).

Now make yourself a cup of coffee and curl up on the sofa with your favorite book or a good movie. You deserve it! Doesn't it feel good to have an organized home?

Be sure to follow the maintenance guidelines for each room to maintain clutter control and keep up the good work!