essential clutter purge concepts - amazon s3minute... · your clutter purge and go shopping (please...
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ESSENTIAL CLUTTER PURGE CONCEPTS .....
Purge by Category Not Area:It’s a good idea to pick four or five main categories
of items to purge and make sure you purge each of
those categories completely before moving on to
the next one. (See #2 under “planning” below)
Purging categories has several benefits over just
starting with the living room and moving on to the
bedrooms etc. The most important being that it’s
easier to get a feel for the entirety of your “stuff”
and therefore make better decisions on what to
keep and what to remove. It is also very important
to start with the easiest categories. Moving on to
the harder more emotional and thought provoking
categories only after giving your “Keep/Remove”
decision making muscles some good practice.
Save Specialty Areas for Last:
After purging by category, there will be a few
specialty areas that need attention. The bathroom
and kitchen for instance and possibly the garage.
Once you’ve gone through and purged the main
categories it’s much easier to tackle these
specialty areas and some of their particular needs.
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One Fell Swoop!
Actually Have a Plan:
Your purge project should be planned for a
designated amount of time. Two week day
evenings, a long three day weekend, or even a
week off from work. (By the way it will always take
you substantially longer than you think.) As much
as possible you should attempt to complete the
project within the allotted amount of time. This
does several things for you; first, it creates
momentum and guards against procrastination.
Secondly it helps with the concept mentioned
above regarding getting a really good grasp of the
totality of your stuff thereby enabling better
decision making.
ESSENTIAL CLUTTER PURGE PLANNING .....
So many people launch into a decluttering project
by simply throwing a bunch of unused and broken
items into a few cardboard boxes and making a
dump run. This will result in the haphazard
removal of some of the most obvious clutter but it
will not create the clutter free life of simplicity you
are ultimately looking for. It’s much better to make
a plan. Take some time to think
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about what you are going to do. Make some
goals for your clutter purge. Write them down.
Make a list of the categories you are going to
tackle and possibly even a check list of sub
categories. Take the time to get emotionally and
physically ready for the challenges that lay
ahead. There are going to be some very tough
and possibly emotional decisions to make in the
near future. Having a written plan will go a long
ways towards keeping you on track.
Decide on Your Categories:(and the order of implementation)
You’ll need to have a very clear idea of which
categories you are going to attack and in which
order. Here are some category ideas in the order I
would suggest you implement them:
• Clothing
• Books, papers etc.
• Furniture
• Miscellaneous, tools, lawn/garden etc.
• Things of high monetary value
• Things of sentimental value
Your categories may be different and you may
have more, or you could have fewer (this is your
purge and only you can judge the completeness
and effectiveness of it.)
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Get Family, Roommates, Kids andSignificant Ohers on Board:
Done properly your clutter purge will be a life
changing paradigm shift to one degree or another.
It is imperative that the lines of communication are
open and functioning with the people in your life
with regard to this change. If you can get them on
board and pulling the oars in the same direction
that’s awesome! This is not always fully possible. At
the very least you will need to explain exactly what
your intentions and goals are for a simpler and
more clutter free life and ask that they at least
honor your wishes when it comes to removing the
clutter from the space and keeping it clutter free
into the future. Please do not launch into a full
clutter purge without at least informing the people
you are in relationship and or live with of your
intentions.
Designate a Triage area:
One of the key concepts of a clutter purge is to get
everything you own in whatever category you are
currently working on out into the open and in one
spot. Depending on the size of your space and your
project this could be your living room floor, your
garage or even
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your driveway (Depending on weather conditions
of course.) When my wife Jeannie and I did our
first purge back in 2008 we used our drive way. It
was quite a sight for the neighbors!
Get Mentally and EmotionallyPrepared:
A clutter purge can be a bit of an upsetting
experience. You are going to be tasked with
making decisions about potentially very
emotionally charged pieces of clutter. Anything
from photos of your grandparent’s trip to England
to the tie you wore to your senior prom. This is
not a project for the faint of heart. Just understand
you will be asked to make tough decisions and
know that the freedom, clarity of purpose and
serenity of a clutter free life hangs in the balance.
The good news is there really isn’t a way to screw
this up. However it plays out for you is perfectly
fine. I would caution you however to be as
ruthless and tough minded as you possibly can
be about the emotionally charged and sentimental
“Stuff”. Remember that just because the item isn’t
in your space any longer doesn’t mean you don’t
still have the memory.
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ESSENTIAL CLUTTER PURGE IMPLEMENTATION
Get it All Out in the Open:
Prepare your triage area and then remove all items
in the category you are working on from wherever
they are hiding. Get them out into the light of day.
For instance if you are working on the clothing
category take everything out of your closets.
Including the hall closet, the pantry, the coat racks
and the random coats and work clothes hanging in
the garage. Plus, don’t forget to haul Uncle Ernie’s
tuxedo and the ski outfit you haven’t worn in 10
years out of the attic. Get it all out. Underwear,
shoes, boots and the hand me downs you were
saving for your cousins kids.
Create Three Main Piles:
Your three main piles should be labeled as follows
• Keep
• Remove
• Store
.
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The “Remove” pile will have four subcategories:
• Giveaway
• Donate
• Sell
• TrashGiveaway denotes items such as the
aforementioned handmedowns for your cousin’s
kids. If you are going to give them to her, Do it! If
not move them to the trash pile and be done with
it. Donate of course just means a run to the
Goodwill. Sell and trash are pretty
selfexplanatory
Does it Speak to You or Contribute toYou in Some Way?
You should approach your decision making with the
idea that you are deciding what to keep not what to
remove. This makes it easier to not second guess
yourself when you get done with a category.
Anything that isn’t in the “Keep” pile is automatically
on its way out. Address each item individually and if
possible touch it or hold it in your hands. How do
you fell about this item? Does it speak to you?
Doe’s it contribute to your happiness and or well
being in any way? Does it contribute to your
productivity? Listen to what your gut tells you and
try and keep the “Keep” pile down to only those
items you are absolutely sure of.
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Start Early and Stay the Course:
You must resist the urge to stop in the middle of
your clutter purge and go shopping (please tell me
you’re not bringing more “Stuff” into the space you
are in the process of trying to declutter!) or head
off to Johnny’s baseball game or go to lunch with
your neighbor or any of the other 1000 and 1 great
excuses you can come up with for putting this thing
off until next Tuesday. If you stop in the middle of
your purge the chances of you completing the
project plummet to near zero!
Beware the Dreaded Storage Unit:
There are situations when you will need to store
things. Not everyone has the room for all of their
needed and wanted items. However you must be
very careful to not simply remove the clutter from
your living space only to have it end up in a pile in a
storage shed somewhere. If it’s useful, you love it or
it contributes to you in some way, or if it has great
monetary value then of course go ahead and store
it. If not, out it goes!
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One in One Out:
Once you have run through all of your categories
and purged your specialty areas take a moment to
revel in the freedom of your newly decluttered
space. Notice how you can breathe again! Be
present with the clarity and serenity you have
created.
Congratulations!
Now, to keep it clean, clear and clutter free, you’ll
need to institute a few new rules. The first is to
focus on “a place for everything and everything in
its place”. The second and most important is the
“one in, one out” rule. This rule says that for every
item (other than food and consumables such as
copy paper and office products etc.) that you bring
into your space you need to designate an equal or
similar item to remove. Sounds easy but you need
to be diligent and focused to make sure it happens,
otherwise you’ll end up right back in the cluttered
mess you started with quicker than you can say
minimalism.......
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Hope this has been helpful. Feelfree to contact me with any
questions [email protected]
Good luck and good Purging!
Cary David Richards