Everybody collects something… For some it’s a “small” category, like LEGO (for adults), and for others basically everything which landed in their homes in the past 30 years. 

I cannot talk about you, right? You are not a hoarder, for sure… Everything in your home has a purpose… Or is it?

Maybe you can only use half your dining room table, or that you can’t fit any more shoes in your wardrobe and the rest is lying on the entryway floor. You never seem to find anything, yet you tell everyone that a genius knows where everything is. You think things in your life has a meaning, so they cannot let go. Altogether you have space for them, right? Have you ever been told that you have too much stuff? It’s likely that you’re not a victim of compulsive hoarding, you just tend to hoard more items in a few categories.

Here are some tried and tested organization ideas!

There is no strict number for the maximum number of items you can have in your home. No one will tell us the maximum number we can own, as we use and value items in different ways. It depends on the people living in your home. What is their hobby? Some people can have a hobby which they only need  1-2 items for it, and others have a massive item list for that hobby. Each house is different in terms of what they love, use and need in terms of stuff. 

The goal is to find a balance and organize your belongings so that they are understandable for you and your family.

How about it? Let’s do it together!

Organising ideas to prevent clutter

Discover the items you “hoard”

Do you even know what you hoard? Or is it “everything”? Usually comparing is not really a good idea, but in this case, try to company item categories to your friends’ and family’s houses. How many shoes, pillows on the couch, mugs, towels, extra jars do they have? Do they live a similar life in terms of hobbies and work?  The items and categories of light hoarding varies a lot between people who accumulate everything and get rid of nothing. That said, there may be certain categories in your home that you’re less likely to let go, or not letting go at all, at the same time happy to buy more of. You know, you can never have enough candles, right? But they give you happiness. Do they? Do they give you the same happiness each time? 

These might include various newspapers, vases, towels, tea bags, and really anything that you have more of than your family will use in a lifetime.

Stop adding to your collection

Try to prevent yourself buying more things  to the collection. Resist temptation and stop buying more.

Unsubscribe from their newsletter, don’t go into their shop, don’t go on their website and do your best not to buy anything new for a certain period of time – it could be one month, it could be three months, when you promise yourself.

If you still want to buy that item in 10 days, you do that. But if after 10 days you find something else, or now it is “useless” to buy, then here you go, you did not need it anyways. Also if you would not buy it on full price, do not buy it on discounted price either.

Don’t let items into your home that you know you will never use

The foundation of conscious shopping and a tidy home is to not allow items into your home that you know in advance you will never use, or at most once or twice. This could be a new kitchen gadget that suddenly caught your eye, a gift from an unsuspecting relative, or a strange children’s toy your daughter saw in a commercial while shopping. 

On top of that, only bring items onto your home, which you are certain will have a designated spot to be contained. Every item needs a home, and it you are just going to keep that item on the kitchen island, that is not a good answer.

It is an item. Use it, do not create sentimental attachment!

Everyone has some level of emotional attachment to their objects. There are some things we can associate less with, and others we can associate a lot with. For example, that old school t-shirt you can’t throw away rather than sleeping in a comfy pair of pajamas… It is old, you are a grown up. Get yourself some nice pair of pajamas…

That shirt is part of your personal history, where you’ve been and who you’ve been. Letting go of these objects often feels like letting go part of yourself. Other objects in your home represent the achievement of some great goal from the past or give you a sense of security. E.g. a book – look how smart I am! However, it may be that the clutter in your home is because you’re just overwhelmed with everyday life and don’t know where to start organizing.

Are these items really part of your future, or they are keeping in your past?

When you go home today, take a look around. How does it feel to be home? How do you feel when you look at your belongings? 

Some tips on how to manage your accumulated belongings

Start slowly!

Objects hold memories, have meaning and once gave you great pleasure. You need to give yourself time to move at your own pace, to let them go and identify with the change.

Something inside you needs to be stirred. Under external pressure and urgency, you may turn inward and experience the change not in a positive way, but in a very negative way.

Make time in your calendar and set small goals to declutter. Start with the categories or rooms which are less important to you. You will move easier there.

Remember: decide now!

During the decluttering process, it’s easy to put aside items that you’re not sure about and then, once you’ve gone through the whole category, you’ll be able to make a decision. However, by the end of the process, you will be very tired and eventually unable to make a decision on an item you weren’t entirely sure you wanted to keep in the first place. The separative piling system will only make you more exhausted and unable to make it to the end. Remember: when decluttering, decide NOW!

Put your sentimental values to use!

Do you have sentimental valuables in your home that you have put on display or boxed up? Rethink what you use them for! Give them a new function, repurpose them in a different way. For example, use a cup as a key ring in a drawer, print a new picture in a picture frame. This way you can combine sentimental objects that bring joy and things you need for storage in your home.

Choose your favourites!

Got too many candles? Got a picture frame? Lamps? A bag?

Lets’ say you’re a fan of buying rings, but you only use 10-15 of them usually and don’t wear the remaining 30, the advice is to find the ideal amount that you actually use and that makes you happy. What to do with the rest? Give it to someone else who could use it, so they can enjoy it, use it, learn from it.

Know your style!

Once you know your style, it will be easy to choose the items that suit you. It will also make it easier to organize and buy items, if you know what style you like and what doesn’t suit you anymore.

When you walk through your living room, your hallway, what do you see? What decor items are they that no longer represent you? What do you find in your closet that you haven’t used in years? Once you part with these items, you’ll see a fresh, lush picture of a home that represents your style. If something really stands out from the rest of your belongings, ask yourself if you really love it, or are you just keeping it because you bought it once and it’s still in good condition?

Steps to get started and get organized yourself

1. Identify the problem

• “I’ll do it later” attitude. Do you always have more important things to do than getting started? Don’t know where to start and it seems a lot of work? Take you time and plan it. You did not accumulate it in 1 week, you will need more time to declutter as well.
• “More of the same thing”: Have you ever found something you couldn’t find and had to buy a new one, only to find it later and have two of them? The same tins, tights or nail varnish? Probably the system you are currently organizing these things are clearly not working, try a new system!

2. Mindset shift

• Focusing on experiences: we can get excited about objects very quickly, then our enthusiasm wanes and we don’t even notice they are there. What experiences could we buy to replace our less useful, not really necessary objects? Where could we travel, with whom could we share the experience?
• Sometimes less is more: You have a bar of chocolate. The first bite still feels really good. The second bite is still relatively good, but you reach a certain amount when only your eyes want it and you’re long past the saturation point. There is also a point in the accumulation of objects in the home after which the home starts to feel cluttered. I wonder how far past that saturation point you are?

3. Know what has to go

• Do you use it a lot?: Do you have any old Christmas decorations that you haven’t used in the last two Christmases? Do you have an ice cream maker that you didn’t use to make ice cream last year? Electric car that your son hasn’t played with in 4 months? A bathing suit that’s no longer usable?
• For special occasions?: Last year, how many occasions have you pulled out your “set aside for special occasions” items? How many sets of these do you have? Do you often have guests over?
• Would you regret throwing them out?: Did you buy it recently? Did you get it from someone? Is it really not defective? What is the reason you still keep items that don’t bring you any particular happiness? Would you re-buy them?

4. Get rid of unnecessary belongings

• A one in – one out principle. When buying new items, try the ‘one in, one out’ principle. As soon as you buy an item that you feel you have more than you need, pick out the one you like the least, the one you made a bad choice with, or the one that doesn’t mean much to you anymore, and give it to someone who would appreciate it.
• Maximize: Try to set a maximum amount of the item. What is a reasonable amount of bags that you still use regularly? How many colours, functions, sizes do you need? Think about it, and be honest with yourself: how much do you like to constantly move from one bag to another?

5. Small steps a day

Even if you think you have too much stuff by the end of this article, it’s still not easy to get started, despite the organizing ideas, you still feel threatened by your space.  I know! But if you just take 15 minutes out of every day for the next few weeks to tidy up, declutter and rearrange your mindset, you’ve already started the process and made an effort to live in a more organized home.