I’ve been helping my friend Nancy declutter. For some people, being organize comes naturally, others have to work at it. The most important thing is to make it easy on yourself. If you have a way to sort, get rid of and throw away things they won’t pile up.
Nancy’s laundry room is where everything ends up. Everything she doesn’t need goes there to die. First thing we have to do is set up some sort of system to get rid of it all.
Since her laundry room is so big we are able to use storage bins for discards. One bin for things to donate, every year her church has a huge yard sale, if she keeps the donation bin right there then as the kids outgrown things or something has outlived it’s usefulness she can toss it in the bin. A quick trip to the local thrift stores allows her to donate it and get it out of her house.
Clothing that needs repair will have it’s own bin. In today’s busy world she may find that she doesn’t have time to get to the repairs, in which case she can donate those and someone with more time can repair them.
Every laundry room has a trash can and Nancy’s is no exception so on that front she is fine, she is already throwing away what needs to be tossed. Sometimes the hardest thing is throwing something away. It’s necessary, there is no need to have things that aren’t useful cluttering up your life.
Since the laundry room is also where holiday decorations are stored it is important to have them all sorted and labeled so you know at a glance which decorations you need.
To keep the laundry from piling up on the floor we need to develop a system so it’s sorted as soon as it comes in the laundry room. If you have baskets and label them, even kids can sort clothes before they are washed.
A hanging rod will allow her to take clothes out of the dryer and immediately hang them up to prevent wrinkles and make it easier to put them away.
We still have to attack the shoes, but we’re talking baby steps here people!