Last week I wrote about the ways that clutter can cost you. We talked about the time, the money, productivity, and peace of mind that can go completely out the window whenever your stuff overtakes your life. And yesterday, my co-blogger Jay wrote about how to unclutter your workspace quickly so that you can get back to work.
If you know how to stop the flow of clutter into your space, though, you’ve nipped the problem in the bud. If clutter doesn’t come in, you don’t have to spend time getting it out…so you don’t have to take any time away from the important stuff. Read on!
- Don’t allow anything to come into your space if it doesn’t belong there. A lot of clutter originates when people allow things into their spaces that don’t belong there, instead of rejecting it outright. This means putting junk mail into the trash instead of bringing it into the house with the rest of the bills and letters. This means not buying three pencil cups when one will suffice. This means leaving your coffee cup in the kitchen, instead of bringing it into the office where you work. Remember, every time you bring something into your home that doesn’t belong there, you’re just delaying a decision you’ll have to make later to get it out of your life—and depending on how long it takes you to make that decision, your clutter can cost you a lot during that time.
- Likewise, don’t allow anything to stay in your space if it doesn’t belong there anymore. Go through your belongings regularly and purge the things you don’t want, need, or use. Last winter I helped a friend clear his belongings out of his parents’ house, so they could turn his former bedroom into a guest room and reclaim the basement as a rec room instead of a room stacked with boxes of his stuff. He quite literally hadn’t gotten rid of a single thing he’d ever owned since birth, and his parents were tearing their hair out at the sheer amount of stuff that was occupying the space where he didn’t even live anymore. Some people bristle at the suggestion that they give away things that are in good condition, because they feel it’s wasteful. Here’s the thing, though: just because it’s no longer useful to you doesn’t mean that it’s not useful to anyone. So go find someone who will cherish your Ninja Turtles, your Babysitters’ Club novels, your teacups, or your old map collection.
- Consider consuming your media in digital formats. Books, albums, photographs, films, games. They’re all so important to all of us—so important, in fact, that the vast majority of us collect them obsessively. But why not collect them digitally instead? Instead of a paper copy of a document, use an OpenOffice document—archivable and searchable. Set up your bank statements and bills to be emailed to you—no paper necessary. Scan all your family photos and drop them onto a Flickr Pro account, then use a digital camera from now on. Instead of storing those stacks of CDs, DVDs and [this might be painful for the audiophiles out there] LPs, convert them to digital files and keep them on an external hard drive, then buy mp3s via iTunes or watch films on Hulu or Netflix. Jay touched on this when he complained about paper clutter, which used to be a special sore spot for me—so in compensation from my inherent paper-hoarding tendencies, I’ve swung the exact opposite direction, and in the past year whittled my paper usage down by about 95%, including books, photographs, notebooks, and sketchbooks. [True story: I showed up to a client meeting this morning without a portfolio. When they asked to see my work and my design skills, I pointed them to my Web site. See? No paper needed!]
Do you all have a problem with clutter? How do you stop unnecessary objects from coming into your space? Please share in the comments!
Amanda Lee Anderson is a writer and editor living in Cincinnati, Ohio, and New York City. She writes about fashion, music, productivity, and happiness. Read her blog or find her on Twitter.
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