Dear Sabrina Soto, what do I need to do to get you to visit my home and help declutter it?
The organizing queen of HGTV’s “Get It Sold” and “Real Estate Intervention,” is my dream weekend date. Don’t get the wrong idea; I just want her to come over for a couple of days and help me purge my home of its clutter and rearrange what’s left to make it look like as good as the ones on TV.
I’ve visited the HGTV site, but unless you are looking for help to stage your home to get it sold in record time, it doesn’t seem as though you can enlist Soto’s help. Wah!!
The good news (if you can call it that) is that Soto has posted tips on the HGTV website to help people like me cut down on clutter without her having to fly across the country visiting every home in America,
One of Soto’s tried-and-true organizing methods calls for three boxes and a large trash bag. The boxes serve to categorize clutter. Simply label the boxes, “Keep”, “Give Away/Sell” and “Storage.” Items to be thrown away go into the trash bag.
Once you’ve found the appropriate size boxes and bag, Soto says to head to a cluttered area of your home. Next, choose one item at a time and ask yourself, “Do I really need this, or can I donate it, sell it, or throw it away?” By forcing yourself to make a decision about a particular item, it will serve to reduce clutter in your home.
If you don’t have the time to complete the box and bag method, then you could opt for Soto’s box and banish method. The latter is a more drastic means to cut clutter. The aggressive approach has you attacking clutter without hemming and hawing about whether or not you could possibly use the item in the future. You must be brave when using the method as box and banish requires a full-on assault of clutter from counters, drawers, chairs, tables, floors, closets, under beds, etc. Simply place the clutter into boxes or bags, and stack them in your garage or attic. If you don’t use any of the items in a month’s time, then you must toss or donate all of the collected clutter.