Great guidelines! Very straight-foward, but often hard to do on a regular basis.

I especially love number 2... I always get my nightstand cluttered, and my husband can't seem to keep stuff off our dresser!

It warms my heart that I'm not the only clutterbug. I realized last night that not even a penny would fit on my nightstand due to clutter.

Tonight I plan to at least clean the nightstand.

but what about sentimental things? I have a trunk full of stuff I can't bear to get rid of but hasn't been used in years. I always think, since I haven't looked at it in ages, it must be fine to get rid of it, but as soon as I open up that trunk I start running down memory lane and have second thoughts. I close the trunk and am happy knowing that stuff is there, safe and sound.

And yet....wouldn't that trunk be put to better use if it could store the pile of down comforters sitting on the guest room futon because they don't have a home of their own?

Clutter-free only works if everyone in the household is on board, or if you're willing to devote your every homebound moment to picking and cleaning up after the criminals who couldn't care less about their surroundings.

I would definitely hang on to sentimental items--they matter.

@ ajh:

Just an idea. What about using the trunk (if it's a nice one) as a table? Keep your beloved sentimental items IN it but you could use it as a table as well -- maybe stack the guest room comforters neatly on top of it? Or use it in the guest room as a luggage rack or nightstand?

Or, if you love the things inside but not the trunk itself, invest in one you do like the look of and do the same?

Then you could have function and sentiment both.

ajh: I have a box like that. With all the clutter I purge on a regular basis I still keep it around. I think it's a small compromise in the long run. As long as it's only one box!

oh man. I feel as though I need to start a chore list. I live with 5 guys and it's no fun playing "mom" and cleaning up after them ALL. THE. TIME. Thing is... even if i ask them to clean up after themselves and stop leaving junk everywhere... no one listens! I feel so demanding at times.

This list is great, but it kills me to follow it. I am terrible at the twelve month rule. and I have one really bad obsession: collecting pretty boxes/containers - So all my stuff has homes(pretty boxes), but not all my homes have stuff to go in them.

Sometimes you can take a photo of the sentimental item and get rid of the item itself. Photos are much easier to store.

For me I have found there is a very important secondary rule to Everything Must Have a Home.

It is "Everything must have a place, and it must be easily accessible."

I've found that if I have to remove two things to put something in its "place" then it will not get put back. I might have a perfect "place" for my electric kettle under the sink, but if I have to pull out my kitchenaid and a box of hand towels just to get at it, more often than not, that kettle is going to end up sitting on the counter until I "have the time" to put it away. Which always ends up being tomorrow (never).

So. Have a place for everything, and make sure it's an easy place to get to.

Thanks to The Cure, I finally got my cleaning organized. I had been haphazard about it, when something became obviously dirty, I cleaned it. Instead, now I follow my cleaning plan, and my house stays clean. It's just amazingly simple, and might not work for others, but it works for me.

Monday-Clean kitchen and bath. Sometimes this takes a few minutes, and sometimes it take a couple hours, depending on what needs cleaning, like the refrigerator. I don't do that every week. But every Monday I clean the kitchen surfaces, sink and floor. In the bath, same thing. I have a auto shower cleaner, so that helps a lot.

Tuesday I take out the trash and shop for groceries.

Wednesday, I wash clothes. I have always had a hamper OCD thing going on. Only like things can be washed together, and each have their own hamper. Kitchen towels in one hamper, bath towels in another, sheets in another, underclothes in another, outer clothes in another, and table linens in another. I wash only the full hampers. (Dirty items go directly into a hamper. It's easy for me since everything has a designed hamper.)

Thursday I dust, and clean my genuine imitation hardwood floors, which is a pain in the (*)(*). They have to be spot cleaned very carefully because they can't really get wet. They are beautiful, but very high maintenance.

I deal with clutter two ways. I have a foyer table and everything incoming goes there if it doesn't go into the kitchen. Some things stay because they need to be dealt with, but by Tuesday, everything goes.

I use large slavers beside chairs and beds. All kinds of junk can be collected there, and the trays can be cleaned and everything returned to its place on Thursday. But if it's on the tray, I don't consider it clutter. It works for me. It keeps objects corralled, as it were. And slavers are CHEAP compared to what they were during the oughts.

I think this works because everything has a place. When I moved, I left more that I took, and now, even though I moved to a smaller apartment, it seems bigger because I can put everything away.

Paper work's my biggest organizational issue. Mail and bills initially are processed well, but old long-usless statements, receipts, and tax papers bloat my files and block finding useful papers. What are the tricks to giving home files an easy high colonic? Is there a book or Miami organizer you'd recommend as guide?

Getting rid of stuff you don't use is the biggest thing you can do. Stuff takes up space and you can never get a place tidy and clean if there is literally too much stuff for the space. I am slowly getting rid of lots of stuff.

When I go through items I divide into a couple of categories, stuff to goodwill, stuff to recycle, stuff to trash but the best category is *stuff maybe I want to get rid but can't make up my mind* these items go into a box and then I revisit the box in a couple of months. Usually I decide to get rid of everything in the box.

Also, when in need of motivation I watch hoarders and then clean afterwards

I'm starting to deal with paper by scanning with a ScanSnap (multi-page, and both sides of the page at once) and then shredding it. I still have to deal with everything that's been filed for years, but at least nothing new has to be filed.

I used to be so good about this and the past few months it has gone awry. I blame it on my pregnancy and not having the energy that I used to, but in truth, the source of the problem lies in the every day habits. Clothes tossed on the hope chest instead of hung up right away, bills put on the dining table (which is never used for eating anyway), shoes taken off and abandoned wherever they land.

With a 700 sqft 1 bedroom space and baby's imminent arrival in June, I had better straighten up and make some space!!

What a relief to find that all Apartment Therapy readers' homes aren't in impeccable shape all the time!

I keep telling myself that if I devote a weekend to a good, thorough cleaning, then I'll be able to maintain it. But that weekend never comes. I'm printing this article, although it may add to the clutter, and hopefully put these into practice today. Well, tomorrow.

I decided to have a garage sale this fall and I'm busy collecting stuff from my house for the sale. I'm amazed at how excited I am about adding things to the pile and about just how much I'm not using. What's really funny is how many "organizational tools" are going to the garage sale (i.e. fabric covered boxes, under the bed storage bins, etc). As I've learned better ways to store my stuff, I've cycled this stuff out without ever getting rid of it. My house is clean, but my garage where it's all living is bulging!

@ande2994, I recommend storing to LinkStash over printing hard copies. One of several reasons I prefer it is that it's easy to sort the links by subject. Or, you could make an article a document and then store it on your computer if you think the link would cease too soon. Either way, there's less paper to manage.

I saw the photo and LAUGHED! I am constantly trying to clean and organize and most of the time, I still feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. My housemate is moving on (I think that will help), then it will just be me and the dogs (who have their own idea about re-decorating that I won't even go into). I keep chanting "Less is More" to myself and and try to give away anything I'm not actually using -- New York real estate is valuable! For sentimental things, there's Manhattan Mini Storage (or their competitors) - but that stuff is not crammed into my tiny apartment.

I find #1 really important but super difficult! There are so many things that I can't figure out where they should live. Categorizing and deciding is by far the hardest thing for me.

This week I have been in the process of going through stuff, organizing and deep cleaning. Not to mention putting together an Ikea media center. Its been a long week, but today with a deeply cleaned apartment I felt great. Then I found a big bag of old papers that I meant to shred when I first moved in. 2 years ago. UGH!

Joydreams - Ha! I also use the "Hoarders" show as a motivator - in fact I often watch hours of TV to get motivated for the big cleaning job I need to start ;-)

My rule to add would be to start small, just clean one thing every day, its better then not having cleaned anything at all.

www.compartmentlife.com

I hear ya about just trying to figure out where something should live. I finally decided if it can't live in the room where it's used, or a specific storage space, then I have to get rid of something so that it can. Works for me.

I'm pretty good about the 12 month rule, as well as making sure everything has a home. My boyfriend, not so much. He moved around so much growing up that everything, and I mean *everything* seems to hold some sentimental value to him. It wasn't until he had to move from his home of 4 years that he realized just how much stuff he had. I pushed him a bit more by making him watch "Hoarders"...that did the trick :)

I'm pretty good about the 12 month rule, as well as making sure everything has a home. My boyfriend, not so much. He moved around so much growing up that everything, and I mean *everything* seems to hold some sentimental value to him. It wasn't until he had to move from his home of 4 years that he realized just how much stuff he had. I pushed him a bit more by making him watch "Hoarders"...that did the trick :)

@Miami's Elaine - can you put an expiration date on some of those papers at the time you file them? So next year you don't have to think about which old files are ready to shred, you can just look at the expiration dates and pull them out.

This is my first time posting here, I've a blind husband and a 4 yr old boy. I get no help even when I'm going to school full-time for interior decorating.

A help in staying organized, this works great in a apartment and even better in a large multi-level house.

Take a large basket with you from room to room. When you find something that needs to go into another room, then toss it into the basket, when you get to that room to clean it then put it away. It will save you time because you aren't running back and forth over and over again.

I keep a basket on top of the filing cabinet and as I go through the mail I toss everything like empty envolope into the recycling and put what needs to be dealt with/filed into the basket. Once a month I deal with what's in the basket. We have to keep paper copies for the government because my husband is on disability.

As for drawers, if you're really strapped for cash, shoe boxes and dollarstore boxes can help sort your things and keep them in neat stacks.

If you're having problems figuring out where to start, try pulling everything out of the room and then as you put things back into the room, decide if it should go back or not. Have a place for garbage, donate, and sell. Once you're through all of it, look at your room critically, can it use a dresser? a bookcase? a chest? some baskets? What will work for you to get to things easily?

I have to think of my husband, can he get to it? can he figure out which is what? will he hurt himself or break something getting to what he wants? These are all questions we all should be asking. Nothing more useless than your dinner plates on the top shelf.

You need to logically walk through the room or run through things as you put things away. How will you get it out? Will you be in a rush?
Are kids and pets safe where that item is? Is the item safe from the kids and pets?
Store things in rooms that make sense, you'll be more likely to remember where it is.

Hope some of this helps.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! Bedroom closet here I come!!!!!!!!

Thanks AT!

Also this is really good when it comes to organize your desk. Its a long video and well he is trying to sell you his book but on the end of it you will have a clean desk. I know I did.
http://www.wimp.com/cleandesk/

EA

My biggest issue has been paperwork: mail, work files, etc. But I've purged so much in the last 6 months and to all the naysayers I say: do it! It feels wonderful to be able to clean my little studio easily and not see clutter. I'm trying strategies for staying diligent about everyday papers.

January's project is to bring my outgoing boxes of culled books to The Strand and then do a clothing and old craft supplies purge. This is the hardest for me. I HATE thinking "I paid money for this, and now...." Going to try eBay first.

Fly lady does it for me. According to her, and me, the 27 fling (!) boogie does it for me, everytime. Get a bag out, and throw 27 things out, right now. Doesn't matter how big or small. Make a decision immediately.
I found it hard to do at first, but practice makes perfect! I can now do this, and not feel bad about getting rid of junk.
Even a rubber band, or old receipt would be kept, but now, I can throw it out. Anytime I need to do something, but am not motivated to do a big clean, this helps me.

Do not start an activity until you have cleaned up after the first activity. That is one of my mantras!

When in doubt, throw it out.

(or donate)

Like lemort1, I've depended on FlyLady for years. Nope, my place still isn't perfect, but I don't have near the stuff I used to, and I can usually find the item I need.

Watching hoarders will motivate me (and has also made me understand that this illness runs in families and can be inherited), as will just looking at some of the house tours here. I've saved some of my favorites to a flash drive, categorized by room, so I can take a quick look before cleaning that room (I hope no one's offended - your spaces have been a huge inspiration for me!)

I use the 12 month rule, like ajh I have my great-grandma's hope chest which is filled with things from my son's childhood that I can't bear to part with, and like so many others, paperwork is my biggest downfall - both for probably keeping too much, and not yet finding a system that will let me get the paperwork filed before having to set it down somewhere. A friend has been urging me to get an external hard drive to scan and store the boxes of photos I have - perhaps that's the answer for the paperwork - or I just might create one more thing that has to be sorted out from time to time....

"A place for everything, and everything in its place."

That's my mantra. I need to needlepoint that on a pillow.

We've been in a new house since Halloween, and I've been donating TONS of stuff to charities, throwing stuff out, giving things to friends, and moving stuff around to different rooms. It's amazing...our new house is actually SMALLER than our old house (by 200 sq ft or so) and yet it feels much more spacious because I got rid of so much clutter. We have a long, long way to go (still unpacking, as a matter of fact) and the old paperwork boxes haunt me as well. But I've made great strides, and it feels really nice to be able to move freely around the house and not feel so confined.

Plus, a newly crawling baby is a great reason to pick stuff up.

"hoarding" is an overused word by organized people who watch that show and think they can diagnose everyone who isn't a clean freak.

Yes, actual hoarding is a mental problem. So is the cleanliness of people with obsessive/compulsive disorder.

Being a bit of a collector and clutterbug is not being a hoarder.

Being neat and organized is not being OCD.

Being able to live with or visit people with different levels of clutter tolerance is being a grown up and not someone's mommy or rebellious child.

Regarding the sentimental stuff, I find that I can sort through that box pretty regularly and shrink it a little. Sometimes I only need to save a little to trigger the memory, or I can scan or photograph some items that need to go. The best thing I ever did was to get rid of the things that triggered some less than happy memories. No one needs that.

@sistervashti, Well put.

Thanks for the many great ideas. I'm saving this post.

I tend to get really overwhelmed when I think about organizing stuff. I find taking on one smallish project at a time helps. For instance, this weekend, I'm planning to 2 closets. Okay, maybe we'll start with the first one and see how it actually goes from there. =>

Learned organizing from my dad; one of his one liners regarding organizing I remember best; 'The more you have, the more you have to clean'. Don't like cleaning, so less stuff = less cleaning, love it!
One of my recent organizing drives came from an AT post on interior style; 'Love what you have (only have what you love)'. I realized I had a lot of stuff I didn't really care for as much (anymore). I'd rather have only beautiful things I really love, than a complete household full of mediocre stuff.

As a librarian, I'm inherantly very organized. But I love stuff! So I have to WORK at decluttering. I find having some cabinets with glass doors to display my favorite things so they need less frequent dusting helps. (If it doesn't fit in the cabinet, or replace something, do I really need it? If I fall in love with a vase, which I seem to do a lot, will I USE it, or can I then eliminate a different one?)

Paperwork for me is easy. I have a trunk near my computer that serves as a window seat and "file cabinet". I toss all my paid bills and related stuff in the trunk. Then, once a year or so -- I'm due now -- I take it out and trash nearly all of it. I keep credit card bills (not receipts, just the itemized statements) in case I need to track down the purchase date of something for a claim. I keep them ALL for a couple of years, then I go through and trash all of them except the ones that show things I still might need info on -- appliances, equipment on warranty, etc. I trash all the utility bills, all the gas card bills, everything I don't have a real reason to keep. Only 7 years of IRS records. I keep vet records for my pets and certain medical info of my own, but not much. There isn't much you NEED to have available, so only keep that.

I used to be more sentimental than now. I have two boxes of mementos, including yearbooks that no longer mean anything to me. (I don't have kids, so less reason for me than for some to hang on to "family tree" kinds of things.) I'm planning to trash a lot of that stuff one of these days, but in the "place for everything" scheme, I have storage space for the boxes, so they aren't wasting space I need for something else right now.

I think that's key -- if you value something, it's ok to dedicate some space to it. But you can't just "value" everything you come in contact with! You need to be mindful and deliberate.

Unless you are transitionally in small quarters with expectations of moving to larger ones within a very few years, I strongly discourage you from renting storage facilities, though. It's expensive and if you can pack stuff away out of sight for more than a few weeks, you probably can donate or sell it and simply replace it later -- IF you still want to then!

I found that I had to change my attitudes about what was important to buy or keep, before I could declutter. I used to think if I liked something I had a kind of duty to buy it (to "support" the production of beautiful things/fill my home with things I loved). It took a while for me to realize that just because I like something doesn't mean I should buy it or keep it. I also learned that I really like the look of a less-cluttered home more than a more-cluttered one. That was the beginning of me being able to get rid of stuff.
I vote for ajh keeping the sentimental stuff, though. It seems these things are genuinely important to you (though, test this -- could you keep the best and toss the rest? Pass on some stuff to friend or family who would appreciate and use?). But if you really want to keep it, then there's no morality involved, no "ought to's" -- you make your decision and live with it. Decide where to keep these things, and be happy!

I know how to organize. I know how to make things look pretty. I know how to clean.

My problem is procrastination. For example, I'm very inspired by this article and I think, "Maybe I'll get up and clean out that junk drawer finally." Then I notice it's 10:30 pm and I ought to go to bed.

Will I still have the motivation to clean out the drawer tomorrow? Probably not. :(

I'm really good at identifying things which I can get rid of, and really bad at getting things out of the house! They stay in piles for the charity shop or for freecycle for ages because I feel bad putting things in the rubbish which 'might be useful to someone else'. Very annoying!

CUTE, i didn even know there were two people under the stuff!!! !=)

love point #4 and #2 =)