Before you move on to Day 4 of “Help Declutter My Home,” be sure to read:
Day 1 – Clutter Is Weighing Me Down
Day 2 – How It Was Affecting Our Family
Day 3 – How I Started to Minimize: How I Decided What Stayed and What Went
Clutter can weigh you down in both practical and emotional ways. It creates stress, steals time, and makes it hard to keep an organized home. The solution isn’t better organizing systems; it’s removing excess. Below is the simple, practical logic I used when sorting through our things: if the answer to a question was yes, the item stayed; if no, it went.
TOYS
Toys were a major challenge in our house. If you read the story referenced on Day 2, you’ll see why paring down feels more manageable. We tried a local consignment sale first: the items I was willing to sort through and list went to the sale, and whatever remained afterward was donated. That kept us from turning decluttering into another long project of selling things online and adding stress.
When deciding which toys to keep, I used three straightforward questions. If the answer to any of them was yes, the toy stayed; if all were no, the toy was donated. No second-guessing.
- Do the kids play with it at least twice a week?
- Do they clean it up and take care of it?
- Is it easy to keep track of (no tiny parts or missing pieces)?
Remember that children will receive gifts for birthdays and holidays. If you keep everything, the collection will continue to grow until it becomes overwhelming. Don’t be afraid to donate or sell toys you no longer need.
PAPERWORK
When it comes to paper clutter, ask whether the document can be found elsewhere. For example, charges made on a debit or credit card often appear on your bank statement or can be looked up by the store. If a record is retrievable electronically, you probably don’t need the paper copy.
Consider these practical habits to reduce paper piles:
- Can this be transferred to an electronic file easily? I often email receipts or confirmations to myself instead of printing them.
- Can I record the important information in one place and discard the original? For example, when our kids bring home calendars or event notices, I add them to our central household calendar and then recycle the paper copy.
Scanning everything is an option, but be honest about whether you’ll actually maintain a digital filing routine. Simple, consistent habits are more effective than ambitious systems you won’t follow.
MEDICAL RECORDS
I used to keep very detailed medical notes for our son when he had a difficult start. Over time I stopped holding onto stacks of paperwork and began keeping only the essentials: allergy results, important reports, and contact names and numbers, saved in an email. When a new doctor needed records, I simply contacted the previous offices and had records faxed over. That approach has been effortless and reduced clutter considerably. I still keep vaccination records, but otherwise I limit what I store.
Ready for the final day? Click through for tips on mail and email so those piles don’t start up again.
In the meantime — happy decluttering!