It doesn’t have to take you weeks or months to get your clutter under control. You can do a little bit at a time, and you’ll start to notice a difference.
If you have a few minutes, take on one of these five projects right now. Every little bit helps.
Five things you can unclutter right now
- Clear the sticky notes. Do you have sticky notes on your monitor, bulletin board, or calendar? Put them in a pile and enter the data into a more appropriate (and permanent) location. Write the appointments in your calendar. Type the dentist’s phone number into your Contacts program. Download 1Password (Mac) or Roboform (PC) and stop showing the world your passwords.
- Sock purge. Go through your sock drawer and make rags of any pairs that are full of holes or missing the sproing in their elastic.
- File an inch of paper. If you have a to-be filed pile on your desk, pinch of an inch of it and make a dent in your filing. In a week, you’ll notice that just a little bit every day can really make a difference.
- Sort your mugs. Coffee mugs are like rabbits because they multiply at an alarming rate. Get rid of all of the mugs you don’t use or don’t need. In my house, our table only seats eight people, so we only have eight mugs. There will never be a time when we have a greater need.
- Archive 100 e-mails. If you’ve read it and the e-mail requires no further action, drag it straight into your Archive folder. Don’t let useless messages get in the way of useful ones.
comments
I love ideas to de-clutter my life, especially in my small apartment, so I always like finding ideas to maximize space. I’d like to find catalogs of unique furniture that fits into tiny spaces.
Hi Erin!
I was searching through the Real Simple blog today and came across your post. I just started laughing because the things you posted on here such as too many sticky notes, sock drawer clutter, etc. are all things that drive me crazy because they are so disorganized. I love your suggestions for getting this list organized! Thanks!
Amber Hayes
Threads
http://www.amberthayes.com
Great post. Very useful stuff. Quite a few of my co-workers need to do most of this asap.
I can swear to just how useful the ‘file an inch’ tip is. Not only can I get through the stack at a pretty decent pace, it also tends to spur me on to do a lot more than if I had an entire office decluttering session in mind!
Great quick organizing tips! When you are really in the mood for some more intense organizing, start room by room and help organize your clutter with shelving systems!