Four New Year’s Resolutions to Bust the Clutter

If your New Year’s resolutions include decluttering your home, these four tried-and-true tips will get your 2016 off to a successful start. Paring down possessions contributes to beneficial feelings of spiritual, emotional, and physical well being.

If your New Year’s resolutions include decluttering your home, these four tried-and-true tips will get your 2016 off to a successful start. According to Japanese decluttering phenom Marie Kondo, author of the international bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, paring down possessions contributes to beneficial feelings of spiritual, emotional, and physical well being. A fresh new calendar year is the perfect time to start — so dig into these tips right away:

1. Remove two items for every new one that your bring into your home. If you don’t want to simply throw things away, give them new life by donating them to charity. The Salvation Army and Disabled American Veterans both will pick up donations at your home. Scheduling a curbside pickup will help you commit to actually following through and clearing out the clutter.
2. One of your New Year’s resolutions should be to sort your mail over the recycling bin. (Bonus: if glossy catalogs don’t make their way into your home, you won’t buy what you don’t need.) Reducing the amount of mail that crosses your threshold saves time, too. Pre-sorting unwanted items at the recycling bin allows you to take time to savor the magazines and catalogs you actually want to read.
3. Buried under paper clutter? Try a shredder. Basic shredders are available at office supply stores like Staples and OfficeMax starting at around $60. Chances are, you need to save much less paperwork than you think. Many receipts, pay stubs, bank statements, and credit card statements can be safely shredded after one year or less. This article from financial expert Suze Orman details recommendations for how long to keep important paperwork in various categories. Once you are liberated from saving piles of paper, shred it, recycle the scraps, and plan a time every few months to keep on top of shredding new paperwork as it arrives.
4. Love an item but don’t quite know what to do with it? Clean it up and brainstorm fresh new ways to display it to enjoy it more. For example, if you are buried under piles of kids’ art, choose a few favorites to display. (The rest make a great gift for grandparents or aunts and uncles.) Do-it-yourself matting and framing is easier than you think with precut mats from Michaels or Aaron Brothers. Rather than stacking finger paintings in a cupboard, enjoy them in beautiful frames as unique and meaningful wall art. An old tea set gathering dust in the garage makes a sweet display in a difficult to decorate hallway after you polish it up and display it on a pretty tray. Small souvenir items from a trip make an eye-catching and interesting conversation piece in a dish on a desk or end table.

Image Source: Flickr/Vetiver Aromatics

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Juliet Grossman, Realtor

They call me "The Temecula Answer Lady" because I am your insider source for everything local. My husband Scott and I have been raising our daughters in the beautiful Temecula Valley since 2003. My passion for contributing to our amazing quality of life here in the Temecula Valley leads me to volunteer for organizations like National Charity League, Inc., Temecula Valley Chapter (a founding member and 2015-2016 president), Hillcrest Academy, MOMS Club of Temecula-Central (a past president), Congregation B'nai Chaim of Murrieta, among others. http://www.mytemeculadreamhome.com