Setting Up Clutter Checkpoints

Clutter control would be a walk in the park if we could spot clutter for what it is at the outset of our association and kick it to the curb then and there. The problem is that clutter is made, not born, and the timeline for the transformation varies. A favorite magazine could slide into the clutter category in a year or two, while children’s clothing and toys will make the transition even sooner.

As tempting as the idea is, you can’t prevent future clutter by barring the door against any and all potential candidates. Instead, establish clutter checkpoints—a set of habits and practices designed to ease newly crowned clutter out of your life on a regular basis.

Clutter checkpoints have two things going for them. First, they represent an educated guess on the point at which an item moves from “useful” to “clutter.” For example, deciding that you’ll release an item if you haven’t used it in a year makes a pretty good stab at setting that point; if you just follow the rule, you’re spared a lot of decisional back-and-forth.

Second, checkpoints make clutter release automatic. You don’t have to think about it, decide about it, or get worked up about it. The checkpoint operates to dispose of the newly minted offenders with a minimum of drama.

To create a checkpoint, you rely on space, time, or conditions to set limits for an item’s tenure in your home. When the space is filled, the time is up, or the conditions are met, it’s time to toss.

ROAD HAZARD

While most clutter consists of once-useful items whose time has come and gone, there are notable exceptions. Even when new novelties and mass-produced souvenirs teeter right on the edge of the clutter abyss, these items have precious little value from the get-go. If you let them into your life, be prepared for their immediate descent into clutter. Spare yourself and have your giggle at the “singing fish wall plaque” while at the store…and leave it there.

Designate Space

Space is the simplest way to define a clutter checkpoint. For items that pile up quickly, such as newspapers, designate a container or a space to hold the pending clutter candidates. When the container is full, it’s emptied, or the oldest contents are removed to make space for new issues.

Here are some space-based examples for creating clutter checkpoints:

•  Assign magazines a home in a basket or magazine holder from the office supply store. When the holder is full, remove and toss the oldest issue each time a new one arrives.

•  In entertainment areas, set shelf space limits for books, CDs, and DVDs. Once shelving fills up, any new addition to the collection must take the place of an older title released for donation.

•  In the kitchen, control the number of giveaway items like coffee mugs or commemorative glasses by limiting the cupboard space assigned to them. With every foot race, the family runner will need to part with an old water bottle to make space for a new one.

•  A makeup organizer can help rein in cosmetic clutter in the bathroom. Choose an organizer with separate compartments for lipstick, compacts, and pencils; after a trip to the cosmetics counter, older items will have to yield space to the newcomers.

•  Prevent a population explosion of stuffed animals in children’s rooms with a “stuffie hammock.” Buy and mount a small mesh hammock in the corner above a child’s bed. All the fuzzy friends that can crowd into the hammock (and stay there!) are welcome to hang around—the rest need to hit the road in search of a new place to call home.

Set the Time

Time harnesses the power of calendaring to automate clutter checkpoints. When you link clutter-cutting sessions to events around the year, it’s easier to keep clutter under control.

Try these time-based checkpoints to schedule clutter removal on a regular basis:

•  Add “Clear 20” to your list of New Year’s resolutions. Moving throughout the house, create 20 percent of free space in closets, cupboards, drawers, and shelves. By clearing out an arbitrary 20 percent of existing items at the beginning of each year, you’ll make room for holiday gifts and the new possessions that will come your way in the months ahead.

•  At summer’s end, evaluate sporting goods, picnic supplies, and gardening items before storing them for winter. Whether it’s a lawn chair with rump-sprung webbing, an air mattress that won’t hold air, or a cracked and peeling planter, cull the clutter candidates now.

•  Add a preholiday “toy clear-out” to each year’s holiday celebration. Together with your children, assess the state of their current toys. Remove broken or inoperative playthings, and help them choose a few items in good condition to give to toy drives. You’ll get a good feel for gift suggestions, encourage your child to give, and see to it that the season’s new toys will have a place to go after the gift boxes are unwrapped.

SPEEDY SOLUTION

With clutter, as with people, breaking up is hard to do, and it’s even harder early in a relationship. Look for natural endings to establish clutter checkpoints. For example, it’s easier to toss broken lights and tattered ornaments when putting away the tree after the holidays, or to pitch stained T-shirts when you’re packing the summer clothes away in the fall. Use the momentum at the end of the road to cut seasonal clutter.

Set Conditions

Conditions can be great fun; they’re nifty little agreements you make with yourself to usher clutter out the door whenever a certain condition arises. Often tied to acquiring new stuff, condition-based checkpoints can be very effective in the war against clutter. Because the newcomer in the house distracts your attention, there’s less resistance to clearing out the old.

People who stay clutter free often rely on condition-based checkpoints like the following to stay on track:

•  “One in, one out” puts a natural limit on clutter of all kinds. Buy a new white shirt? One old one must be removed from the closet. Find a great sale on bed sheets? Pull an older set out of your linen closet to compensate. The goal is to create equilibrium between incoming and outgoing items. To step up the pace of clutter removal, try “one in, two out”!

•  A hanger checkpoint sorts out a clothes closet effort-lessly over the course of a single season. To establish it, when changing out seasonal clothing, simply reverse every hanger’s direction on the clothing rod so that the hanger’s hook points back-to-front. As you wear and return your clothes to the closet, hang them as you would ordinarily. At season’s end, anything left draped on a reversed hanger goes straight to donation, not to storage; it’s been identified as clutter, not as clothing.

•  In this day of online shopping, a “shipping box challenge” offers a clever mechanism to keep clutter at bay. Instead of flattening shipping boxes for recycling, when they arrive, fill them with donations and deliver them to a local charity. This checkpoint is particularly useful during the holiday season—and ensures that the household won’t see a clutter surge after the gifts have been opened.

•  Want to get natural human competitiveness on your side to help clear clutter? Try a clutter pact with another household member, challenging them to meet or beat your clutter tally. You release a box of old college textbooks, they release a stack of ’80s record albums, and both of you enjoy the extra space and more serene atmosphere of the home you share together.

•  “Use it or lose it” can be a useful checkpoint to sort out specialty craft equipment, tools, or cookware. For these seldom-used items, set a reasonable time period—say, one year—and promise yourself that you will release items you haven’t used in that time. If you haven’t baked a cake in the shape of a teddy bear in a year, you never will, so find the pan a new home with nice people who will love it.

ROAD HAZARD

A donation box or bag is a powerful tool for releasing clutter…if you can keep yourself from having second thoughts about the items it contains. Resist the temptation to undo your decisions by keeping donations out of sight and out of mind. Seal boxes with package tape as you fill them. Use black plastic garbage bags, not clear ones, and tie them too tightly to be reopened once they’re full.