Spring Cleaning: 5 Steps to De-clutter Your Life

                

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Hooray for spring! As we move into spring and prepare to put away our winter boots, bulky sweaters and those nasty winter blues; it is also a good time to start thinking about clearing the clutter from our lives as well. Clutter is one of the biggest challenges people face when trying to be organized. The external environment we create for ourselves is often a fair reflection of our internal environment, thus, when our lives are filled with clutter, we end up spending too much of our time managing the small stuff, and we never have time to manage the things that really matter. Here are 5 ways to spring-clean the clutter from your life.

1. Breakdown the project, and lose the all or nothing approach
Start with one room at a time, or one area at a time. It is unrealistic to say that you are going to complete an entire house in one day. By doing that, you set yourself up to fail by having unrealistic expectations. It is best to decide on a starting point and decide on the length of time you will work on the project. For example, “I will organize the den area of my home starting Saturday morning at 10am; I will work on the project for 2-hours”. After the allotted time has passed, make a decision about when you plan to resume the project and congratulate yourself on the progress made.

2. Collect like items
Put like items together; put all the clothes in a pile, all the papers in a pile, all the shoes in a pile and. Collecting like objects, helps to break the project down into smaller pieces; by doing this, the goal of completion becomes more of a reality. Once you have the room separated by like items, you may want to continue breaking the piles down even further by continuing to separate items that go in the same area.

3. Label everything
Labels, Labels and more Labels, by labeling boxes, containers and even the outside of drawers or cabinets you are defining a place for things to go. This also makes staying organized easier over the long haul, as everything in your home or office has a home, a consistent and appropriate place where that object is normally kept. Some items that you use every day, may be on display and/or readily available for frequent use. Other items like holiday decorations or out of season clothing, can be stored until needed. When you begin to see that there is actually a place for things to go, you gain more confidence in your ability to continue the project and also your ability to keep the area clean.

4. Use it or lose it
This is one that may be difficult for some to wrap their hands around, so for all you pack rats out there, here it goes. The rule of thumb is, if you haven’t used it, looked for it or needed it in a year, it probably has very little or no value in your life. For important papers, the general rule of thumb is 3-5 years, but it is important to use your own discretion when deciding how long you should keep an important document.

5. Make it a family affair
Enlist the help of the entire family, pick a day, cut off the TV, cut on the radio and make it a fun family project. By doing this, you also make others accountable for their actions that may have led to the clutter and it also gives you the opportunity to spend some quality family time together.

The idea of clutter is overwhelming but the sooner you get started; the sooner you'll achieve your goal.

Personal challenge for the week: Define an area of your home or other personal space, and use the steps listed to begin the process of removing clutter from your home and your life.

Journaling exercise: What are some things in your life have you neglected because of clutter and disorganization. What are some things you plan to do too eliminate the disorganization and clutter from your life so that you have more time to focus on what really matters? (The plan needs to be realistic and concrete, actual steps and things you will do to become more organized) For example, I plan to wake up 1 hour earlier than usual, so that I can spend time preparing for my day. I will do this so that I won’t feel so rushed and will have time to enjoy some well-deserved personal time for myself.

Wanda Austin-Williams is a Clinical Therapist and Personal Life Coach. She is the owner and founder of Total Essence Counseling & Life Coaching Service in Ann Arbor Michigan. Total Essence Counseling and Life Coaching focuses on helping people live authentic, healthy and purposeful lives. Wanda is also the author of a weekly ezine entitled, Live Joyful, Live Purposeful. For more information about Total Essence, email totalessence0@lycos.com or check us out on the web at http://www.totalessence0.com

De-Clutter Your Life - Keep the Good, Let Go of the Bad

                

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It's Autumn. Everyone is busy. Activities have revved up at work, school, church, etc. It’s easy to fall prey to outside pressures, schedules and responsibilities. You are so busy that you don’t have time to think about what you really want and whether you are getting the satisfaction from what you are doing.

Your thoughts might be, “If I can just get through this weekend, then I can focus on next week. Then I can begin thinking about next weekend,etc.” You keep moving, moving, moving without thinking about the meaning behind your activities or whether you’re really enjoying them! In the end you feel drained and not very satisfied!

In the Life Coaching world, one of the first steps to help improve your life is “de-cluttering”. What are the things in your life that drain you of energy and prevent you from doing what you really want to do? You put up with, accept, take on, and are dragged down by people and situations that you may have come to accept in your life rather than try to fix them. Now is the time to identify those things that drain your energy and focus on the positive activities.

Draw a line down the middle of a page. On one side put “Energy Drainers At Work.” On the other side put “Energy Drainers At Home.” This is an opportunity to identify and label the things, people or situations in your life that are dragging you down. As you think of more items add them to your list.

You may or may not choose to do anything about them right now, but just becoming aware of and articulating them will bring them to the forefront where you’ll naturally start eliminating, fixing or resolving them.

Good luck in your “de-cluttering” and take time to be grateful for the good things.

Mary Kay has over 20 years experience working in helping professions such as individual, couples and family counseling; 9 years in employee assistance consulting and 5 years in small business.

Mary Kay has a master’s degree in Educational Rehabilitation Counseling and receives ongoing training as a Life Coach through the Institute of Life Coach Training.

Her personal and professional philosophy is that this is your life, not anyone else's. There is no single "right" way to live, only a right way for you. Once you identify your deep personal values and design your life around them, it’s easier to honor your life, and feel good about the choices you make.

Areas of expertise include:
• Professional women wanting more balance in their lives
• Couples wanting to reconnect and have more fun in their relationship
• Women looking to create a new life or career for themselves.

Taking Care of You: De-Clutter

                

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De-Cluttering our lives can be an extremely liberating exercise. There are many types of clutter than can hinder us having the quality of life we want and deserve. There is clutter that is in our minds as negative self-talk. There is the clutter that physically exists in our homes, cars, offices, such as old newspapers waiting to be recycled, stacks of magazines you will never read, old clothes that are destined for the good will because they no longer suit our style or size, etc. There is another form of clutter often referred to as “tolerations” that refers to all those nagging little things that drain our energy every time we encounter them. This type of clutter can encompass the other two types and also includes things such as the broken toaster that only toasts one side of the bread, the whistling kettle that no longer whistles, that phone call you’ve been meaning to make for two weeks. This type of clutter or tolerations, fill up time and space in our lives by their very existence. When we are able to reduce and then eliminate most clutter, we have so much more energy for what we really want in our lives.

So, what are you tolerating in your life right now? What broken down things, messes, eyesores, unsatisfactory conditions and circumstances, and behaviors (yours and those of others) have you been accepting and living with could you change or eliminate to immediately improve your quality of life? What has been draining your energy unnecessarily under the guise that “that’s just how life is?” All these little annoyances add up to cost you big chunks of your time and energy and are well worth eliminating.

Take some time this month to de-clutter your life. Make a list of your top 10 tolerations that could be eliminated by the end of this month. Take action and eliminate these things from your life. Cross items off your list as you eliminate them. Make a second list of your top 10 big tolerations that may take a while to eliminate and get working! Share your list with a friend for support and encouragement or email it to me at ruth@coachruth.com and I’ll support your intention.

Ruth Hegarty is a confidence coach who helps people increase their personal and professional confidence for greater self-esteem, happiness, and success.

Contact Ruth at ruth@coachruth.com or 617-846-3824 for a free 30-minute coaching session. Visit her website at http://www.LeapofConfidence.com.

Declutter Checklist - The Secret To Staying On Top Of The Clutter

                

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Being organized is vital as you try to keep your household clean and in good running order. Just as businesses use checklists to make sure that things get done, you too can use one to make sure you stay ahead of the clutter in your home. A thorough checklist and calendar system can help keep you accountable to your chores, and give your family the nice home they deserve. These three tips will show you the importance of checklists and the accountability they can foster.

• Declutter Checklists. A good checklist should include every room of your house, and every major surface or item in the room that requires cleaning or straightening. You can create a separate checklist for each room, or a list for each type of room. For instance you could have one list for all your bathrooms, and another for all your bedrooms. You should also keep track of the supplies you use for the cleaning so you can buy more when your supply gets low.

   

• Calendar System. There will be checklists that will need attention every single day, and others that will need completion only once a week or once a month. It is always a good idea to schedule your time for running your checklists, if you can. This allows you to control when and how long you work on the chores. Do not beat yourself up if you miss an appointment on your calendar, just pick up that checklist at the next available time you can fit it in.

   

• Chore Charts. It is a wonderful idea to get your children involved in the chores from an early age. You can use a chore chart to both remind them of their chores, track their progress and reward them for good work. These values will help your children throughout the rest of their lives.

Approaching your housework in an organized manor will make it both more complete and easier in the long run. You do not have to create checklists like NASA or anything, just use them to remind you of all the items that need attention, and so that nothing is left out. These checklists will help you to stay accountable to yourself and your family, and help you provide them with the beautiful home you want them to have.

Shock: Most people have a clutter problem.

There are three things you can do about your messy house:

You can ignore it, and keep on feeling bad about yourself.

You could set it on fire, but that might get you arrested.

You can choose to deal with it, and begin to enjoy your home again.

Declutter Fast will show you how to get your home in order fast, so you can start feeling better about yourself. Even if Declutter Fast does not work for you, at least you will have done something.

Update: Declutter Fast now includes a 3-Year, Money-Back Guarantee of Satisfaction. No questions asked. How can you lose, try it today.

The Top 5 Tips To Declutter Your Home

                

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Having a cluttered and messy home can severely impact upon your visitor's impressions of your home. The piles of dust-collecting items and dirty clothes are a representation of who you are as a person and what kind of lifestyle you lead. By following the tips below, you will soon find decluttering your home an enjoyable part of your daily routine.

Tip #1 - Always declutter

Whether you are in your cleaning session or not, it's extremely important to always pick up items to ensure a clean environment. Leaving items around (such as a sock on the floor) will promote others to follow suit.

Tip #2 - Reward yourself

If you're finding it hard to maintain a regular decluttering routine, try rewarding yourself through any means in which you find appropriate, such as a treat for every room you successfully declutter.

Tip #3 - Collect and label bags

Gather a number of garbage bags and label them according to what kind of items are laying around your home. Examples include "give away", "throw out" and "return to where it belongs". This organization will ensure that you are not constantly going back and forth, which could potentially confuse and put you off-track.

Tip #4 - Never leave rooms unfinished

Once you start decluttering a room, you should always finish it before moving onto another. Doing so will allow you to clean at your own pace.

Tip #5 - Plan

If you have time, try to plan where you are going to declutter and what order you are going to work your way throughout the house. You should work in the order which seems most logical according to your home's layout.

Still finding it hard to declutter? Stop stressing! Declutter Your Home offers free tips, guides and more to help you declutter and improve your living space.

Simple Ways to Declutter Your Home

                

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A messy home can make your life seem unmanageable. We all view our homes as an extension of ourselves, as do others. When they are a mess, it can be downright embarrassing. Take heart, for there is hope. The war against clutter goes on forever, but you can start winning the daily battle. Here are some simple, but powerful concepts that you can use to fight the clutter in your life.

• Sort the mess

  This works best if you divide up the areas you want to declutter into logical divisions. Use a set of boxes and begin to sort items into functional groups. Constantly look for items that could be discarded, donated or sold. Make special areas or boxes for these items.

   

• Everything should have a home

  After you have sorted everything in an area, look at the collections you have created. Try to resist stacking items where you used to, just because that is where you always put them. If you do not have adequate storage for your items, take a look at your local office supply store or department store. There are hundreds of novel products to create storage space in your home. Nothing should be without a home when you are done.

   

• Put things away

  This is probably the hardest step to follow, but it is the most important in your daily fight against clutter. Sometimes you just do not feel like putting things in their proper place, but that little extra effort will go a long way to boost the appearance of your home. When you take those daily steps to stay organized, you will find after a while that it will become almost automatic. It is so much easier to keep a home decluttered when it is well organized to begin with.

When you look at your cluttered home as a whole, it can seem bigger than you. But when you break it down, and follow these simple ways to declutter your home, you may find that it is not as difficult as you first imagined, and the feeling of a clutter free home is very satisfying.

Home organization methods that really work.

Do you feel like putting a match to your mess and walking away? It does not have to be that way.

Declutter Fast will teach you:

• How To DeClutter in One Day
• The Painless Four-Pass Method of Decluttering
• Emergency Decluttering - When Clutter Must VANISH Now!

Declutter your home the easiest way possible - experience the exhilaration of order in your life!

How to Declutter a Bedroom - 4 Simple Tips

                

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A messy bedroom can negatively affect many aspects of your life. The bedroom is where you begin and end your day- if it is a mess, it may be difficult to fully relax at bedtime, and can make waking up a nightmare. Use these easy tips to make your bedroom the relaxing place it should be.

• The Bed --Your bed should be the focus of your bedroom. Make your bed everyday. It can help to minimize clutter by not using your bed for anything else during the day, like for your dirty clothes. Also try to minimize the number of pillows and layers of blankets, as they can make it take longer to make your bed, and tempt you to skip making it some days.

   

• The Dresser and Nightstands --Your Nightstands can be a problem point for clutter. Try to keep the drawers as organized as possible, and if items routinely collect there that belong elsewhere, either remove them daily, or find a place to put them in the nightstand or room. Do not use your dresser for items it is not meant for. A little organization can help here too.

   

• The Closet --A closet is for clothes and shoes, not for storage. If you have items besides clothing in your closet, it is time to find them another home. You should utilize your closet to its fullest, so you do not use the rest of your bedroom for clothing. A good closet organizer can help you maximize space in a smaller closet. Regularly purge clothing you no longer use be donating or selling it. Also put a basket or hamper in your room where you usually throw your dirty clothes. More than one is acceptable, if it will keep your dirty clothes off the floor.

   

• Everything Else --If it does not belong in your bedroom, it should not be in there. Your bedroom is for sleeping, not for doing projects, or running a business. The worst clutter comes from items that have no business being in your bedroom. Removing these items will return your room to being a place solace, and may even help you sleep better.

A clutter free bedroom can be a real blessing in your life. It can seem like a large task to clean up your room, but getting started is the hardest part. Once it is done, you will be amazed at how much you will enjoy your like new bedroom.

Shock: Most people have a clutter problem.

There are three things you can do about your messy house:

1. You can ignore it, and keep on feeling bad about yourself.
2. You could set it on fire, but that might get you arrested.
3. You can choose to deal with it, and begin to enjoy your home again.

Declutter Fast will show you how to get your home in order fast, so you can start feeling better about yourself. Even if Declutter Fast does not work for you, at least you will have done something.

Update: Declutter Fast now includes a 3-Year, Money-Back Guarantee of Satisfaction. No questions asked. How can you lose, try it today.

5 Steps to Declutter Your Home in 10 Minutes or Less

                

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This may come as a surprise but you can make your home look immeasurably better in under 10 minutes. I'm not saying that you'll have a spotlessly clean home, or that there won't be mess, but by concentrating on certain areas of your home you can make an impression without too much effort on your part.

1. Go in the kitchen and wash the dishes.

By washing the dishes you are removing clutter from the sink. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes if you don't get distracted. Just stack the dishes in the drainer and you're done. It'll take even less time if all you need to do is stack the dishwasher.

2. While you are there, wipe down the kitchen benches.

The trick here is to do only what you can see, and put away things that are easily stored. Don't go crazy here and try to make it immaculate. There's no need since you're only after tidy, not perfect.

3. Tidy the living room.

Not all of it! I want you to stand at the door and see where the biggest, most distracting pile of junk is. Get some bags and make short work of it. Throw out what you don't need and put away the rest. There's no need to go overboard here. Don't spend more than 2 minutes on this task. Do it fast, and don't think. That's what really slows you down.

4. In the bathroom, clean the wash basin.

Don't think. Just put away the things that shouldn't be there and wipe it down. It will take you no time at all. Two minutes tops. Time it and see. Again, you aren't aiming for perfection, you want less clutter in the area.

5. With the minute you have left give yourself a pat on the back. Your house may not be perfect, but at least its a little better.

These steps won't give you a spotless home, but in 10 minutes you can give the place a little shakedown. All it requires is some elbow grease and not a lot of thought. Planning is what really takes the time, after all. So if you want less clutter in under 10 minutes give these steps a try and you'll be off and running.

Join me in my journey to declutter the lazy way at my blog

3 Ways a Lazy Person Can Declutter

                

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I've got a confession to make... I am a bit of a slob. Cleaning is not high on my list of priorities, and so I am afraid my home will never make it into Home Beautiful. I tell people that I like the lived in look, but the truth of the matter is that sometimes I look around my home and I'm a bit uncomfortable about it. So, I have been trying to find easy, and non-regimented ways of cleaning my home. I will share three with you now.

1. Do the dishes before you go to bed.

Notice I didn't say to put them away or anything radical like that? Making sure you wash the dishes is good for health reasons, if nothing else. Gone are the days when I would let them stack up and do them in one go. Thankfully, this is just a small job and it doesn't take that much time to do. It did take me over a week before I was doing it regularly, I admit. But at least now I have a coffee cup clean for breakfast. You may think this is not a lazy way to declutter, and the whole thing about doing the dishes every night implies regimentation, but in this case, the benefits outweigh the time taken. Coffee in the morning is essential, after all.

2. Fold up the washing as you get it off the line, or out of the dryer.

Again, notice I didn't say iron the clothes or put them away? This would be ideal, but for the more relaxed among us, at least if you fold the clothes they are easier to iron if need them.

3. Declutter one part of the house per week.

Who has time to declutter every day? Let's face it, energy levels go up and down. Interest levels in cleaning go up and down as well. It's not the most absorbing task, after all. Don't spend more than 10 minutes on this, and try hard to not think while you are doing it, it'll help when you throw all of those "valuable" items into the trash.

It riles me a bit, I will admit, when people think I'm lazy for not cleaning or decluttering fast enough. Sure, right now, there are papers strewn all over the spare bedroom's floor because I was looking for a specific item, but eventually, I'll clean that up. Sometimes it's easier, especially if you don't like regimentation, to take things in stages. Small, manageable stages, and build up slowly. For the lazy cleaner it can be a godsend. So, if you want to declutter a little bit at a time, try these ways and see how you go

My Favorite Declutter Technique

                

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Decluttering can seem like such a mammoth task that there's a danger you'll never manage to get started. It depends on your level of clutter, and on how much enthusiasm and determination you have for the declutter task, of course. But clutter is a low form of energy, which means that you don't have to spend much time in amongst it before it drags you down. So to extend the mammoth metaphor a little further, it's like the stone age challenge: how do you eat a mammoth? ...One bite at time!

I've undertaken plenty of decluttering in my time and am fortunate enough to get a buzz from it and to positively relish the liberation factor. But I do recognize that it can be hard work and involve painful decisions. So the technique that I present here is designed to make your decluttering as simple, painless and effective as I know how.

All this technique involves is identifying the area you want to declutter and sorting everything in that area into piles. For example, if it's your wardrobe you want to deal with, find all the T-shirts and put them into one pile. Then find all the socks and put them into another pile. Then all the jackets. And so on...

You can use the technique with just about any category of clutter - toiletries and cosmetics respond particularly well. And it works for papers, magazines, gadgets, crockery, you name it...

When you've sorted out your piles of items, you have a much clearer overview of your clutter and the chance to ask yourself some questions about it...

* What have you simply got too many of?

* What's so old it's not worth keeping?

* What are you ready to let go of?

* What's genuinely important to keep?

* Have you realistically got space to store all the things you want to keep?

As you review the piles and answer the questions, sort the contents into new piles...

* Items to keep and store tidily

* Items to throw away (actually you don't need a pile for this one, you just need a trash can!)

* Items to sell

* Items to recycle. And so on....

Once you've got your new piles, do with them what you intended. By that I mean store the storage items away tidily, get the garbage items into a trash can outside of your home or take them straight to the garbage dump, get the for sale items on sale, take the recycle items to your local recycling center.

It's often tempting to postpone this last step of getting the clutter out of your home. But if you don't do it, the clutter's still there in your space. So go on, finish the process and you'll feel fabulous!

Click here for your chance to Declutter Your Way To Creativity. Mary McNeil is an experienced declutter life coach and her 30-day e-course is jam-packed full with the knowledge and experience she's gained over years of one-to-one coaching with her clients on their clutter issues

My Favorite Declutter Technique

                

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Decluttering can seem like such a mammoth task that there's a danger you'll never manage to get started. It depends on your level of clutter, and on how much enthusiasm and determination you have for the declutter task, of course. But clutter is a low form of energy, which means that you don't have to spend much time in amongst it before it drags you down. So to extend the mammoth metaphor a little further, it's like the stone age challenge: how do you eat a mammoth? ...One bite at time!

I've undertaken plenty of decluttering in my time and am fortunate enough to get a buzz from it and to positively relish the liberation factor. But I do recognize that it can be hard work and involve painful decisions. So the technique that I present here is designed to make your decluttering as simple, painless and effective as I know how.

All this technique involves is identifying the area you want to declutter and sorting everything in that area into piles. For example, if it's your wardrobe you want to deal with, find all the T-shirts and put them into one pile. Then find all the socks and put them into another pile. Then all the jackets. And so on...

You can use the technique with just about any category of clutter - toiletries and cosmetics respond particularly well. And it works for papers, magazines, gadgets, crockery, you name it...

When you've sorted out your piles of items, you have a much clearer overview of your clutter and the chance to ask yourself some questions about it...

* What have you simply got too many of?

* What's so old it's not worth keeping?

* What are you ready to let go of?

* What's genuinely important to keep?

* Have you realistically got space to store all the things you want to keep?

As you review the piles and answer the questions, sort the contents into new piles...

* Items to keep and store tidily

* Items to throw away (actually you don't need a pile for this one, you just need a trash can!)

* Items to sell

* Items to recycle. And so on....

Once you've got your new piles, do with them what you intended. By that I mean store the storage items away tidily, get the garbage items into a trash can outside of your home or take them straight to the garbage dump, get the for sale items on sale, take the recycle items to your local recycling center.

It's often tempting to postpone this last step of getting the clutter out of your home. But if you don't do it, the clutter's still there in your space. So go on, finish the process and you'll feel fabulous!

Click here for your chance to Declutter Your Way To Creativity. Mary McNeil is an experienced declutter life coach and her 30-day e-course is jam-packed full with the knowledge and experience she's gained over years of one-to-one coaching with her clients on their clutter issues

Declutter Ideas for Wild and Crazy Toddlers

                

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There's nothing like a small tornado living in your home to turn even the most well-organized house upside down. Toddlers are energy in motion and causing clutter is their birthright. I have been blessed with four toddlers throughout the years and each one of them was adept at making messes and causing chaos. They were also completely void of any declutter skills.

Until they were trained. But we'll talk about that more below!

If you are tired of attempting to clean your home dozens of times each day, here are some tried-and-true strategies for living through the toddler period with grace and calm (and a mostly decluttered home).

-- The best defense is a good offense.

Toddlers are humans developing at an astonishing rate. They are remarkable creatures and possess a zest for living unmatched by any other age. All that development requires a good deal of stimulation. Toddlers are discovering the world around them each and every minute and the smart parent places items in their toddler's world that are safe, enjoyable and sturdy.

You'll have less discipline problems from the get-go if you provide toddler-approved clutter and remove temptations a toddler is not ready to handle properly. Which brings us to the next point.

-- A home is first of all a place to live in, not just look at.

You may have beautiful collectibles, fine furniture and elegant decor. But you didn't decorate your lovely home to please a toddler and that's who is spending the most time there during this season in your life. So go with the flow and put away those collectibles, trade out those expensive decor items that are placed down low in your rooms and consider slipcovers for your fine furniture.

Here's the real deal: toddlerhood goes by almost as fast as a toddler moves, so you'll have your lovely home back in no time. However, you can never get back the memories of this precious time.

Knowing this, ask yourself a question: what kind of memories do you want? Remembering how exhausted you were each day from chasing your pint-sized darlin' out of every corner every minute or sweet memories of enjoying your growing baby explore the world you are lovingly providing him.

Only you can decide.

-- Provide storage that can declutter naturally.

Consider getting a large decorative basket that can accommodate your toddler's toys and then show her how to play the pick-up game each and every time she is done playing in a room. In fact, get a basket for each room your toddler spends time in.

No fussing is necessary, just pick up toys alongside her and help her learn an important skill she'll use the rest of her life.

The key here is consistency and patience. And here's something to think about; if you want teenagers that help out around the house, this is how you train them. When they're toddlers.

-- Change out the fun and keep the interest level high.

It's tempting as a parent to think that more and more toys will keep a toddler busy for longer periods of time. However, all that strategy accomplishes is lowering your bank account and creating clutter in your home.

Instead opt for a reasonable amount of toys (less is usually better), and rotate through them. For instance, put a handful of toys in your decorative basket this week and put the other toys in a box in a closet. Then every couple of weeks, get the box out and rotate through the toys. You can also trade toys with other parents to leverage the fun.

This is a simple concept. When toys go 'stale' they move into the box or into another toddler's house for a mini-vacation and when they return, those toys look remarkably brand new in the eyes of your toddler.

So what's the bottom line? With a toddler in your home, you may not be able to keep a spotless house at all times, but that misses the point, doesn't it? Instead, use these declutter tips to maintain a reasonably easy-to-care for environment that's high on usability and rated tops in toddler satisfaction.

Colleen Langenfeld has been parenting for over 26 years and helps other moms enjoy mothering more at http://www.paintedgold.com Visit her website and grab easy declutter tips today.

Declutter Your Car and Feel Wonderful!

                

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One of the easiest and best ways to declutter your life is to start with your car. This has many benefits:

- It makes you feel good immediately

- It's easy to declutter a car, compared to decluttering a home

- It encourages you to declutter more areas of your life

- It impresses other people! You'll be surprised how much!

After all, what really belongs in your car? Very, very few items belong in your car.

Driving should be a serene and safe experience - not a time to get down on yourself because of a messy car. Decluttering your car takes only minutes, in most cases.

Decluttering your car is very habit-forming. Here's how to start.

Get a box and a trash bag. Throw out all trash, such as old receipts that you don't need, old cups and food wrappers, and any junk mail. Don't worry about vacuuming the car. That will happen later when you wash your car. Just get that trash out now.

Next, put everything that is in the car - and I do mean everything - in a box. Empty the entire car of "stuff."

Yes, the spare tire, tire changing tools, and children's car seats can stay! Those are not clutter problems but necessities!

Wash your car or take it to be washed and vacuumed, inside and out. Now it's clean and clear of all items. It looks great.

Now it's time to put back just a few special items in your car. Here's what:

First, a flashlight and jumper cables. Then, make sure you have your car insurance information and registration papers in a safe place.

I recommend keeping these things in the car:

- scissors and tape! These two items can really come in handy, especially when you need to wrap a last-minute gift

- 2 pens and a pencil, plus 2 envelopes

- extra straws for drinks

- your sunglasses!

- a power cord, the kind that plugs into your lighter

- your favorite CDs or cassettes - but no more than 5! Change them every month or as needed.

Most of the items listed above can fit in your glove compartment or in a small caddy.

But wait! Are there other "must" items you need to keep in the car because of your work or family? Not to worry.

For anything extra that needs to be in your car, use a special box that you keep in your trunk or in the very back of the car. A sturdy colorful plastic box works best. This will keep the extra tems "contained"! That will contain both YOUR sanity as well as your safety.

That's everything! Anything else in your car should be there because you planned it. Driving will now be a far more pleasant experience!

Train your school-age children to put their backpacks in the trunk when you pick them up from school. That is both a space-saving habit and a matter of safety. You don't want heavy objects flying in the car in the event of a sudden stop!

Now here's the hidden payoff. You'll be amazed over and over again at how many people will marvel at your clean and clutter-free car when they see it. Why is that? It's because most people allow the junk to just pile up without ever even trying to declutter. Every time they see their junky cars, it stresses them out a little more. This is so needless! Having a decluttered car feels fantastic.

If you ever need extra supplies in your car for a special purpose, such as a trip, it's no problem - just provide yourself with another special box or bin to hold the extra items - and everything will stay orderly and easy to reach.

The secret is to make sure everything stays in the SAME AREA. Don't allow items to creep all over the car. Confine the items to one designated area, such as the trunk or the rear of the car.

What if your school age kids don't want to clean out their messes in your car? Perhaps they are leaving candy wrappers and books and "stuff" in the car and want to make it their "spare" bedroom?

Here's a solution for that: good-naturedly say, "I'm not going to open the front door until you clean up your candy wrappers and get your CDs off the car floor!" Smile, but let them know you mean it. They may groan, but they'll get their stuff out of your car!

Make sure children's car seats get wiped down with a damp cleaning cloth often. When you can't vacuum the car seat, a small whisk broom makes cleaning a car seat very easy.

We all have so many errands and spend plenty of time in our cars. Make riding in your car a source of pleasure for you.

From author Mimi Tanner: Discover how to declutter your life! Go to http://www.declutterfast.com/, and get unique decluttering tips that will make an immediate difference in your life.

Declutter Fast Review And Decluttering Tips

                

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Your option for selecting a starting point, especially if you can only work in short spurts, is to select a little concentrated area that you can declutter quickly and will not overflow into other areas of the house. A shelf, a cabinet, a drawer or one box is a good place to start. Another option is to divide up a larger room up into small pieces and tackle one area at a time. This is a small trick I learned from Declutter Fast, and it works well.

After you have chosen where you want to work, get your tools together. The most important tools are containers for the stuff you will be moving around. Cardboard boxes are also good for stuff that will be moved areas of the house. Make sure you also have a large and tough garbage bag for trash. Gloves are usually a great idea for obvious reasons. I always wear gloves because spiders are a big fear of mine, and when cleaning out stuff, spiders are almost sure to be present.

The following are categories for containers:

• Garbage can
• Stuff that you will be giving away to friends, family, or goodwill
• Stuff that you can sell (Declutter Fast has great suggestions for this, such as eBay)
• A recycling bin – cardboard, paper, glass and plastic are three of the most recycled items
• Stuff that you will be keeping
• Things that you have not yet decided about, make sure to keep this container small
• Things that you are going to keep, make sure you keep this organized.

After you are organized and have all of your containers and game plan together it is time to get started. If you don’t love it, use it, or need it then do something else with it. You would be especially surprised how much money you can make off of your junk, and Declutter Fast has a great game plan for sorting out which of your stuff goes in the correct places.

After you have packed your stuff, do not just let it all hang around for long on the trip to the dump, recycling, or goodwill. Not only are the boxes of things clutter in themselves, but it is way too easy to start pulling stuff back out, make sure you do not do this! If you have to get rid of large or a bunch of large boxes, some charities will do a pickup, so take advantage of that if it is available.

If your local community has a special time for putting out large items at the curb for pickup, take advantage. Make sure that you get all of your stuff in your car or right by the car so that you do not just stack them somewhere and procrastinate with taking care of all of your stuff. You did all of the hard work already, so make sure you take advantage of the fruits of your labor and finish off the easy part!

My name is Breanna and I use to be the WORST organizer in the world. It wasn't until I read some information on organization techniques and tricks that I finally got it together. A great organization book, and a book that I did a review on is here: Declutter Fast Review If you have problems with organization, or you have so much stuff you don't even know what to do with, you would be surprised how much the information will help you. I hope you enjoyed my article.

How to Declutter Fast

                

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far too many of us have to deal with a cluttered household. Of course one we first moved in to the house it does not seem as though it is a cluttered at all. Sure we may have some boxes lying around and maybe in various stages of being packed or unpack, but what we have is a clear vision of a very tidy house. Soon they'll, because we are all busy, we tend to compile things that we don't really need. These could be tanks such as newspapers, magazines, trinkets that sit on shelves and don't really do much more than collect dust, and other things similar to this. At times we may want to de-clutter fast, not really wanting to take the time to go through every single thing, and every single pile that we have laying around the house. Here are some tips to help you to de-clutter fast, especially in an emergency situation.

It doesn't matter if you are going to de-clutter your house quickly, or slowly, the principles are fairly the same as far as how you will start out. Every project has a beginning, the same and is a journey of 1000 miles begins with one step, and your first step should be at the entrance of the room. Quickly work your way around the room in a wave like fashion finishing each section to the same degree before moving onto the next. Take along with you several boxes. One of the boxes will be for things that are going to be stored, another is for things that you do not need and they will be thrown away, the third will be for things that you are unsure of and that can be stored temporarily. Why did you make your circuit around the room then begin again with a more thorough sweep of the area. Put the storage and the to be looked through boxes in a safe area until you have the time to look through it thoroughly.

If you find that clutter is taking over your life and your home it's time to remove the mess and take control again. Download our Special Report at http://www.how-to-declutter.info/

How to Declutter an Online Special Report, Now Available to Download.

How to Declutter a Home

                

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there is a saying, that was even made it to us home that says there is no place like home, but at times our home may not be as comfortable and relaxing to us as we would like. This is due largely to the fact that we all tend to accumulate things that we do not need. Many of us end up with piles of things that lay around the house and do little more than collect dust.

Most of us have these piles of unneeded things with very good intentions, thinking that at some time we will actually go back through several months worth of newspapers and see if there is anything worthy of being cut out and saved, yet what we are actually robbing ourselves of it's a comfortable, relaxing environment that we all need in order to be rejuvenated and ready to face the world again. Here is an easy way to de-clutter a home and gain back the environment that we wanted in the first place.

Never start to de-clutter a home from the middle of the home, this will only cause you to end up with a larger mess that you started out with, and will not produce the results that you wanted. When you start to de-clutter a home you should start at the entrance to the room that you are working on at work your way around the room without jumping ahead.

This will serve two purposes. First it will allow you to accomplish things in an orderly fashion with out biting off more than you can chew at one time, and second it will give you the motivation necessary to continue to de-clutter because you can look behind you and see what you have already accomplished. You should also set a timer for the amount of time that you would like to work, and when that timer is done you should stop working until the next time. By working your way around the room and not working longer than you are able you will be able to accomplish the most good in the shortest amount of time.

If you find that clutter is taking over your life and your home it's time to remove the mess and take control again. Download our Special Report at http://www.how-to-declutter.info/

How to Declutter an Online Special Report, Now Available to Download.

Declutter Tips to Help Get You Going

                

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Do you feel as though your life is becoming out of control because of the clutter that is around your home? Many of us like to have things, and at times these things can pile up to the extent that they just become clutter around our feet.

The house that we live in should really be a haven away from stresses of the world, and the place where we can go home to and really enjoy ourselves and relax, yet many times clutter robs us of the important thing even if we do not fully recognize it at the time. If you are tired of living in the clutter and want to take control of your home again then here are some declutter tips to get you started.

The first thing that you should try to do is to only accomplish what you can do at one time. In other words, you should not try to declutter your entire bedroom all at one time, you should rather strive to declutter one part of your bedroom, such as your dresser, closet, or a single side of the bed. By doing this you will be more motivated because you will be able to see what you have accomplished.

Another thing that you should do is to start giving attention to one item every day for a short period of time, and not try to work all at one time on the entire house. This is a great organizational tip as well has been one of the best declutter tips that I can give you. If you are diligent, and stick to a schedule no matter how small that schedule may be you will find yourself making progress, and will be motivated to continue.

If you find that clutter is taking over your life and your home it's time to remove the mess and take control again. Download our Special Report at http://www.how-to-declutter.info/

How to Declutter an Online Special Report, Now Available to Download.

Declutter Help - Stop Stressing Over Cleaning

                

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I have seen a lot of people with clutter in my lifetime. Sometimes it is just piles of newspapers and magazines that make their way into our lives, at other times it becomes much worse and it seems to take over a room and spread throughout our homes. The worse I saw was one home where you couldn't even walk through the room, it was stacked from the floor to the ceiling, wall to wall and there was just a walkway through the room to get into the next room. If you want to get rid of the clutter and need some de-clutter help then here are some suggestions to help you to get started.

There is a saying that Rome was not built in a day, and that is surely true. Look around your home, pick a room to start and then start in that room. Don't even worry about the rest of your house until you get to that area. Then take your first room and break it down into micro projects. That way you can accomplish one thing before you move onto the next and you will be in a much better position to keep going. Not only that, but you can look at what you have already done and see the progress as a motivation to keep going.

Another bit of declutter help that I can give to you is to break your projects down into bits of time. Don't try to do a whole room, thinking that you are going to be able to do it all at one time. More than likely you will have to stop part way through the project and will be left with a bigger mess than when you started. Think in terms of mini projects and work your way across the room in a wave, looking back at what you have already done and keeping motivated to see the end.

If you find that clutter is taking over your life and your home it's time to remove the mess and take control again. Download our Special Report at http://www.how-to-declutter.info

How to Declutter an Online Special Report, Now Available to Download

3 Steps To Declutter A Bedroom

                

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It is a difficult thing to live in a cluttered house, and for many of us clutter has become a way of life. If the mess that is in the rest of your house has crept into your bedroom is it time to learn how to de-clutter a bedroom, and take control of that part of your house.

I don't know about you but I have a hard time getting a good night's sleep when I know that the bedroom is cluttered. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's similar to the change in feeling that you get when you clean out your car. It's like you are driving a while new automobile and it can be a very pleasant experience. Here are 3 steps to declutter your bedroom so you can get that feeling in there as well.

First, you need to prioritize what you are going to do. There are big parts to the clutter and small parts to the clutter. I usually call this part of the process making a little pile of crap out of a big pile of crap. Throw out what needs to be thrown out and try organizing the clutter into smaller manageable piles. Getting this done first will let you see some progress and help motivate you to finish the job.

Next, you want to attack the room like a wave. Start in one corner of the room and work your way around systematically. You won't accomplish much if you try to piece the room together all at one time, and as you work your way across the room looking at what you have already done can be very motivational.

The final phase will be to finish up any loose ends. There are always some things that are left over, and especially if you have a problem with procrastination will this be an issue. Make sure that you finish what you have started, and then come up with a system to keep it that way.

If you find that clutter is taking over your life and your home it's time to remove the mess and take control again. Download our Special Report at http://www.how-to-declutter.info/

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Finding Declutter Assistance Can Make Cleaning Easy

                

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One of the things in life that can really suck some of the life out of you is having too much clutter. Sometimes it gets so bad that it seems to take over our lives, and we spend a lot of negative thought energy worrying about how it looks and what we are going to do about it. We all have clutter to some degree or another, but if it is something that has taken over your life then it is time to take control of the situation once and for all. Here is some declutter assistance that I can offer to you.

First, you need to assess the situation realistically. If you have a lot of clutter and it is spread throughout the house in some fashion or another then you are going to need to break the project down into some mini projects. You might even find that you need to break the mini projects down into micro projects. Start somewhere, typically I like to start at the entrance into the room and work my way around the room in a systematic way. That way you can look behind you and see the progress so that you can give yourself some motivation when needed. That way if you don't have any help you can give yourself this declutter assistance and a moral boost when needed.

Another thing that you are going to need to learn when it comes to managing clutter is time management. If you tackle too big of a job and then run out of time you will probably end up with a bigger mess than what you started off with. Make sure that you are not biting off more than you can chew. Start with one drawer, or one countertop, or 10 square feet, and set a timer. Tell yourself that you are going to spend a half hour, or an hour, or even 15 minutes if that is all that you have and then do it. Stick to the schedule, and keep doing it in small manageable blocks of time and you will soon find that you have accomplished much.

If you find that clutter is taking over your life and your home it's time to remove the mess and take control again. Download our Special Report at http://www.how-to-declutter.info/

How to Declutter an Online Special Report, Now Available to Download.

How To Declutter Your Kitchen

                

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If you tossed out everything which doesn't belong in your kitchen, how much simpler would it be to serve dinner or simply grab a snack and kick back with a favorite TV show? De-junking can improve ANY kitchen area, big or tiny, well or badly laid out.

First, let's talk about de-cluttering.
 

Most of us have plenty of things hanging out in our kitchens which could be removed with no great loss. How about food? Foods you tried and hated, foods that you thought you would try, but never did, foods beyond their best-before date, can all be tossed out and never be missed. Occasionally we hang on to worn-out equipment or supplies long after they have ceased being usable - frayed towels and cleaning cloths, and cleaning supplies which are used up or no longer usable are good examples. Pots and pans with broken handles, burned-out areas, or cracked coatings are also good candidates for the junk pile.

Other things just don't belong in the kitchen, especially if we're tight on space there. Cleaning supplies you use elsewhere, stuff belonging to other people or other rooms, and things used only at the holidays could all be stored elsewhere to free up kitchen space. Unusual equipment you haven't used for more than a year also comes under this heading: if you will really use it again some day, store it somewhere else, otherwise: get rid of it!

Then there's the stuff that just seems to accumulate when our backs are turned. Gadgets and small appliances are a common offender here. Have you got small appliances you never used, or used only once and then never again? Or that are broken and almost certainly won't be fixed? How about "As seen on TV" gadgets that never operated as you'd expected? Many of us also have many duplicates of equipment such as can openers, utensils, china and flatware: pick the pieces you love the most to use, get rid of the ones you will really never use, and keep the 'just in case' or 'guest' pieces outside the kitchen. Oh, and we mustn't overlook the plastic tubs (and their covers, which never seem to match up) and glass bottles that we keep because they are SO USEFUL! Absolutely, they are, but how many of them do you really have room for? More are arriving all the time!

Sadly, lots of us also have shelves full of recipe cards and cookbooks we never look at. The illustrations were - and still are! - so alluring, but we just never had time for making the meals. Will you - ever? No? Then perhaps someone else should have the opportunity to benefit from them.

With all that gone, maybe you now have room to breathe and move in your kitchen. Going forward, try not to let the clutter gather again, as it will try to do. It's much quicker to organize the stuff you really need and use, once the unwanted stuff is out of the way.

Robin Gray facilitates local organizing courses in coastal BC, Canada and writes on organizing and decluttering homes, including kitchens, at Declutter First!, the decluttering and home organization site