Daily Purging
You'd be amazed at how much you can accomplish in ten minutes. Every day, take five minutes to straighten up and five minutes to focus on cleaning out the clutter in a drawer or on a shelf or flat space, and your house will always be in order. Think about it -- if you do this five days out of every week, you'll have purged 260 small areas in your home at the end of a year. Those small projects really add up.
It's best to use the same time slot every day. If you're a stay-at-home mom, do it when the kids nap or leave for school. If you're a morning person who either works from home or never has trouble getting to work on time, then make it part of your morning ritual. If you're always in a rush in the morning, pick a time when you get home -- as soon as you walk in the door, or after dinner, or after the kids are in bed -- whatever makes the most sense for you. One of my clients likes to straighten up in the morning so she comes home to a clean house. She saves her purge for the evening so that she can be sure to finish up. These small steps really make a difference!
The Five-Minute Purge
Here's what the five-minute purge looks like:
1. Set the kitchen timer for five minutes.
2. Grab a medium-size garbage bag. You'll use this bag to throw things away or to drop them off at your charity of your choice, whichever makes more sense for the times you're purging.
3. Pick your target. Make sure to keep it small so you can be thorough. It's one drawer in the kitchen, one shelf of video tapes, the floor of the coat closet, etc.
4. Clear out anything you haven't used for the last six months to a year. Remember? You were supposed to have done this when you first cleaned your home. But a home is a living thing and what you felt you needed to keep yesterday, you may be able to let go of today. Now be ruthless. The more you get rid of, the longer you can wait before you revisit this area.
5. When the timer goes off, stop. If the bag is full, put it in the garbage (or in your car trunk so you can drop it off the next time you drive past a Goodwill or other charity). If the bag isn't full, put it with the garbage or recycling in preparation for tomorrow, when you'll surely fill it up in your next purge.
Get more tips on how to clear the clutter in It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff by Peter Walsh.
About the Author
Peter Walsh is a clutter expert and organizational consultant who characterizes himself as part-contractor and part-therapist. He is the bestselling author of It's All Too Much, Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? and Enough Already! He can also be heard weekly on The Peter Walsh Show on the Oprah and Friends XM radio network, is a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and was also the host of the hit TLC show Clean Sweep. Peter holds a master's degree with a specialty in educational psychology. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia.
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