Doris Puls

When you feel you are good at something, do you become critical of others when you read articles about that subject? Or are you even critical of these articles each month thinking you would do things differently? I find myself very critical when I read articles about decluttering and organizing.

For example, a “downsizing expert” recently wrote an article that the easiest room to start decluttering in your home was to start in the bathroom, spending 20 minutes tossing out expired and unused bottles of lotions etc. I immediately thought of all that could go wrong. First, I always say one needs to pull everything out of a shelf or area. Then you can start sorting and tossing. If you just pull things out randomly, you end up not going through everything. Also, I think many people would find this a difficult task knowing how much money was put into purchasing all of these items. This room does not feel easy to start with, unless you are just randomly choosing a few things to throw out.

This same author suggests spending 30 minutes a day going through your kitchen, eliminating duplicates and unused items. Maybe it would give some people a sense of satisfaction, but I think this is a bigger project to tackle than just pulling out a few items. My way of thinking is that you need to take everything out of a drawer or cupboard, to handle each item and put back only what you use, arranging it to make it look neater. Just eliminating a few things doesn’t really remove the clutter.

The main idea I totally agreed with in this article was when you get to attics, basements, and garages. The author highly recommends getting help to do the heavy lifting and to take away what is no longer needed or wanted. Don’t try to move things yourself and don’t leave items you don’t want just because they are heavy.

Whatever way you want to approach decluttering your living spaces, do it systematically so it gets the job done right. Do not just shuffle everything around, thinking you are decluttering and organizing.