Today’s organizing question is from a participant of Quick + Simple Clutter Control.
What I’ve found during my first attempt or two at a quick surface de-cluttering is that much of the clutter comes from “homeless” items. I have items that I know don’t belong in the room in which I find them but, the area where they should reside is not accessible because it to is filled up with stuff. Consequently, I move things from room to room. I know I need to perform a deep de-cluttering of these areas. I would like some suggestions on what to do about these homeless items until I can create a home for them?
This is a great question and one that comes up often in my online classes like Quick + Simple Clutter Control and The FUNdamentals of Getting Organized. The strategy I suggest (and I do this when I work with clients, too) is to move the items closer to where they belong. When working with clients I try to hone in on where this item will ultimately live once we are able to carve out homes for everything. So if we come across a screw driver, I’ll ask if there are other tools elsewhere in the home. If there aren’t other tools elsewhere (or they’re all over the place) then the client will decide where she ultimately wants the tools to live. As we encounter tools while organizing, we start moving them to this room.
While this approach can create a bit more clutter while the organizing project is in process, we are taking steps forward to get the whole home organized and decluttered. So it is progress…even if it doesn’t look that way on the surface.
A second option is to create a transitional space, one area in your home that becomes the temporary home for the homeless items you find while decluttering. You could use a table or some shelves in your basement, for example, as your transitional space. What I suggest with this approach is that you keep the transitional space as organized as possible. Take the time to group all the tools together, and all of the books together, etc. This way you can remember what is in the transitional space and carve out homes for these items as you continue with your organizing projects.
How do you handle homeless items when you declutter and organize? I’d love to hear your ideas!
Fortunately, I don’t have the problem of “homeless” objects to a significant extent. I tend to hate visual clutter and am always paring our possessions down and reorganizing things to make my systems work more efficiently. However, when I do run into the issue of an item that doesn’t seem to comfortably fit in the first home I gave it, I get into a little trouble. I want to deal with it right away. I don’t have a lot of room to make a docking station or to lay items down near their future home until I can make space for them. So I’ll try to make that spot immediately. That may lead me to decide that another cabinet needs to be decluttered in order to make room for Item X, and before I know it I find 3 areas in the house are surrounded by piles of sorted possessions that are going to need to be taken care of before everyone comes home wanting dinner!
I am not sure exactly how I will make it happen, but I like the idea of having a basket or bin that can hold the mystery items until I can take the time to make a proper, logical home for them. I am going to give some thought to where I might be able to carve out a little space for that in the house.
Such a good question! I’ve got so many of those right now!
I usually assign a box or table surface to these until I’m done decluttering. Then it becomes simpler to determine what to do with them.
I have an organizing question for you that I haven’t been able to get answers to anywhere else. In decluttering scrapbooking supplies, the standard advice is to get rid of anything you know you won’t use. That’s the problem! Can’t you always see yourself using your supplies for something in the future? I would love to have more specific guidelines for what to get rid of. I’m not completely out of space, but I would like to simplify. Thanks in advance!
If I can’t find a spot for something, I ask do I love it, need it, or is it expensive? If it is not for me I try to find a neighbor or family member to adopt it, if not it goes to good will. I also do not keep things longer than a day, I don’t hold onto things for people I won’t see for a month or more.
If it is truly worth keeping, I go to the storage room find a container, label it and store it there, but to store something there means something must go. one in one out rule:)