5 Steps to Efficiently and Effortlessly Declutter Your Home

I love this process because it helped me overcome two major obstacles I had about getting rid of things I

was not using anymore. The first being "what if I need it down the road" and the other is that I really did not think I had the time to do a real good job at sorting things properly.

The following five step process to efficiently and effortlessly declutter your home removes these obstacles since the sorting can be done really quickly and without the possibility of throwing away valuables.

Now I hope you are getting excited because this is going to fun and easy. What you will need to get this done:

o bankers boxes (these types of boxes work really well because they have lids and we can stack them) these are available at any office supplies store

o And a hand-held recorder (if you cannot get one you may use a plain old note pad)

Now let the show begin:

• Step 1 - Label the boxes, this can be with letters, colors whatever make sense for you
• Step 2 - This is where the fun begins, walk around and start putting the things that are just laying around in the boxes, if you are anything like me you might notice a little resistance at first but once you realize you are just putting these away (not throwing away) you get a certain sense of freedom and off you go. Now as you put these in the boxes either record the contents with your recorder or list them on your pad of paper. The great thing about this is you do not have to do it all at once this can be done in small increments.

• Step 3 - Once your boxes are full, just putting away stored either in the garage, basement, and spare room wherever you have the room and they are somewhat out of sight.
• Step 4 - Transfer your information from either the recorder of the note pad. I personally prefer to put it right onto my computer on a spreadsheet or word document. If you prefer a hard copy you can transfer the information onto index cards, files or whatever classification works best for you. It is beneficial to have a good indexing system, this will make for easier retrieving if needed.
• Step 5 - What to do if you have not and looked at the stuff, well a good rule of thumb is if you have not used it or thought about it in a year then you most likely do not need it and you can let it go.

You can feel good about getting rid of these things by donating theme to your favorite charitable organization. Or if you wish have yourself a garage sale or list these items on E- Bay or some other online auction for some extra money. Now you are all set to efficiently and effortlessly declutter your home.