Small Steps

Start Small. Small, easy tasks will help you begin to feel the satisfaction of organizing/de-cluttering without getting overwhelmed.

1. Toss 10. Grab a trash bag. Find ten items in your home that you no longer need or want and put them in the bag. Toss the bag in the trash or put it in your donation box, and never look back.

2. Clear a surface. Find at least one cluttered surface, like a coffee table or dresser top, and completely clear it of all clutter, swiftly dumping any trash.

3. Toss old magazines. Go through your home and gather any old magazines or newspapers you've already flipped through. Recycle or donate them today.

4. Weed out 5. The thought of weeding out your entire filing system may seem daunting, but anyone can weed out just 5 file folders.

5. Pick through a junk drawer. Whatever you can't identify or is clearly junk (meaning you'll never use it) gets tossed.

6. Toss anything expired. Go through your fridge and medicine cabinet gathering anything perishable that has expired.

7. Dump junk mail. Quickly go through your pile of mail and dump anything that is clearly junk mail.

8. Put things away. While carrying a large shopping bag with handles, go through your home putting at least 8 things that are not in their correct place in the bag. Then, deliver those items to their proper homes

Try to complete one or more of these tasks each day and build up from there. This can help you feel accomplished without it being too overwhelming. In time, these will become habits and you will begin to be pro-active on avoiding clutter instead of re-active after the clutter builds up.