What to do with clutter?

Years ago the wife and her mom attended a class on... Cleaning Out Your House!

Oh yes! 

And... It was awesome. To this day, I still have the handouts. The tips for cleaning out your house were easy. Following them through? Not so much. It's hard to let go of things, but the more my mom and I went through the house, the easier it got.

These are the rules:

1. Only clean out one room at a time, and don't move on to the next one until you've finished the first one.

2. Go through your stuff every six months, or once every year.

3. If you get to an item, and you're not sure you should get rid of it, keep it for six more months. The next time through, if you haven't worn it, used it, or whatever, get rid of it.

These are the tools:

1. A box labeled, "Someplace else" (These items go in another room)

2. A box labeled, "Trash" (Speaks for itself)

3. A box labeled, "Charity" (Also speaks for itself)

4. A box labeled, "To Put Away" (Things that need to be put away in chosen room)

5. A box labeled, "recycling" (for those who live in states with recycling options)

The instructor of the class also said, make sure you have a small drawer or box that's all yours and is a place to just put things. Sometimes we have a few things that don't have a "home" and this is where they go.

The hubby and I have kept this routine up. We've cleaned out our clothes closet, the study room, the kitchen, etc. It feels so good to keep things neat, organized, and clean. In the study, we each have a green fabric box, in which we can throw random papers we think we might want to keep. When our boxes get full, we go through them and figure out what we want and what we don't want.

Just passing on an awesome idea.