apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Keep a shopping bag next to your laundry hamper. When you're done trying on that sweater for the tenth time that you secretly hate and never wear, you can dump it into the shopping bag and finally say good-bye to it. When the bag is full, take it to Housing Works or Good Will.

http://www.cluttercowgirl.com/

"Although we love the kind of clutter clearing that takes all weekend...."

LOL the idea of clutter control is so you never have to have that kind of weekend

Seriously, the best impetus to clean clutter is an impending move. Despite the best of my intentions, I think that clutter will follow me to my grave. What's a fashionable girl with a vintage obsesssion to do?

@kayonyc

"I think that clutter will follow me to my grave. What's a fashionable girl with a vintage obsesssion to do?"

LOL...never were truer words spoken!

What gets me going better than a timer is assigning myself a certain number of projects to do/clean up. I don't try to get them done in a specific amount of time, but, for some reason, I move quickly to knock them out. I'm not going to try to figure out the psychology of it all, but I know that telling myself, "Do 5 things right now," or, "Go through the house and get rid of 10 things," is almost-nearly-but-not-quite fun!

Okay, I just read the Unclutterer article. Vacuum every day. Seriously? Is this for real? I am a very tidy person who, yes, makes her bed every morning and never has clothes on the floor or dirty dishes sitting in the sink. But vacuuming every day? Sorry, I have a life! ;)

Never leave a room empty handed - I heard this long ago, and have taught it to my husband. It just piggy backs on the idea, when finished put away. Works great.

Just thought i'd say what a lovely storage layout that is for someone who owns 6 pieces of clothing.

That's an image from a catalog, showing the component pieces of a modular storage system. Relax.

honestly, if you can't fit all your clothes into the system pictured above, you own too many.

Often times clutter exists due to the lack of a place for everything. If you can find a way to create a home for everything, then it's easier to put things away when you're done with them.

Purging is the first step to a clutter free home.

But having the psychological predisposition to feel anxiety in the presence of clutter is really a pre-requisite.

I am thankful to be married to a man who sees a sock on the floor and panics!

Can anyone tell me where the clothes rod pictured is from? That would be perfect for my new apartment and I can't figure out what in the world to call that to find something similar online.

Thanks!

You mean the clothes rod in the West Elm picture?

West Elm.

I would recommend against purchasing the West Elm clothes rod because it is not very solid. I bought three of them because they looked terrific -- and they do in real life too. I had them professionally installed but, helas, after six weeks with my clothes hanging on them, two of them literally disintegrated (the wood split apart) and everything came down. When I called West Elm, they offered me a store credit, no question asked. This must have happened before. I'm back to the old traditional clothes rod -- so sturdy that I can swing on them!

I do love the Bergen closet collection though -- simple and sturdy.

katyakit, that makes me sad! I saw these in my catalog that arrived yesterday, and thought these would be the perfect thing for my sewing room! Lame. (yes, the closet in there is already full and I need to hang things on the walls.)

hook, hooks and more hooks. I moved 14 times in 10 years and have become addicted to 3M hooks</A> and have used them to put all my purses on the wall, jewelry on a screen in my dressing area, my husbands belts in the closet, keys up in a cabinet by the door and on and on. When you have a place for everything, it's easy to keep things tidy.

right on kayonyc and zooee!
another great impetus is to schedule a party in 2 months' time. YIKES - that means I have only 2 months minus 2 days to declutter, clean and restage my house!

Can someone tell me where the bag on the floor on the bottom left hand of the pic is from, I could really use it to declutter?

Daylight, hon, that's just a department store shopping bag.

One of my big de-cluttering/productivity things is that if a task is going to take less than about 2 minutes to do, do it immediately. You get that little kick from having accomplished something, and you can do 30 things in an hour if you keep to a strict schedule.
The rule for organization is to have more places for stuff than stuff. Often, that means you need a space for it before you use it, a space for it while you're using it, and a space after you've used it.

Aw, daylight, it is so hard to type in Tongue-in-cheek font...

The dishes are the hardest part for me. By the time I've eaten and am done with my day, that's the last thing I want to do. But it does make a huge difference in my next morning and afternoon! Well worth the exhausted trouble. :)

"Nothing cleans like company" <-- a rural pearl from an old issue of Country magazine. I never quite understood it until I became an adult.