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3 Places Clutter Is Hiding In Your Home

Organizing Tips to Combat Household Clutter:

Organizing can be tough when you’re blind to the clutter. A big reason clutter builds up around your home is that you have become accustomed to not seeing it. We walk past piles of papers or clothes so often that they morph into part of the furniture or blend in with the walls. In this post I will show you three places to look for clutter and how to get rid of clutter that’s been hiding in plain sight.

Organizing The Monsters in the ClosetOrganizing can be tough when you're blind to the clutter. A big reason clutter builds up around your home, is that you have become accustomed to not seeing it. We walk past piles of papers or clothes so often that they morph into part of the furniture or blend in with the walls. In this post I will show you three places to look for clutter and how to get rid of clutter that’s been hiding in plain sight.

Any large closet is susceptible to swallowing a fair amount of clutter, but the linen closet may be the worst offender. Collections of mismatched sheets, towels that are past their prime, musty blankets and clothes waiting to be repaired are all items that you likely push past every day to get to the linens you actually use. To organize your linen closet, start with 15 minutes and focus on one shelf. Pull everything out and short it into piles of similar items. Next, be brutally honest about what is truly useful to you. Move the sheets you’ll never put on your bed or the towels you’ll never use after a shower to a donation pile. We love taking towels, sheets and blankets to local pet shelters. If you’d like to do this, we recommend you call first to make sure they have room for more donations. Now that you’ve cleared the duds from this shelf, move on to the next shelf. We recommend you keep working until you have completely edited your entire linen closet. Once you’re finished, your linen closet will be organized and only the items you will use will remain.

Organizing The Highs and Lows of Clutter

Lower cabinets and top shelves can be the worst places for collecting clutter because we tend to hide things there intentionally. If you don’t know what to do with that giant TV stand you aren’t using but are hesitant to get rid of, you may have shoved it to the back of the top shelf in your closet and thought “I’ll deal with it later”… but ‘later’ has not yet come. The “out of sight, out of mind” mentality is faulty in that these items aren’t really out of sight. Every time you go into that closet, there is a subconscious sense of dread that comes from the clutter and disorganization that resides there. To organize these hiding spots, take some time – and a stepladder – and see what you can remove from top shelves and low cabinets around your house to reclaim your real estate, and your peace of mind. Use the same technique mentioned for the linen closet. Pull everything out and sort the items into “like with like” categories. Once all the clutter is sorted, now make decisions about what should go away and what should stay.

Organizing Junk in the Trunk 

Does the trunk of your car look like someone’s been living out of it for a few months? While it’s smart to keep some emergency items on hand in your car, they won’t do you any good if you can’t find them under all the clutter that lives in your trunk. Grab a box and a trash bag to begin organizing your car. Fill the bag with trash and put everything else in the box… yes, we mean everything! Next, only put back what belongs there and move everything else to its proper home –  likely in the house, garage, or the trash. Don’t have the time to do the entire car? Do the trunk today, back seats tomorrow, and the front seats the next day. 

Organizing Tips to Combat Clutter

Taking a few minutes each week is a great routine to uncover clutter that’s hiding around your home and to get organized. Remember, small efforts add up when it comes to decluttering so don’t pass up the opportunity to clear it out when you find it. So, where should you start? It may not be in the trunk of your car or your linen closet, but I bet you have a hiding spot. Please comment below and let me know where you’ll be starting. If you find anything funny, we’d love for you to post a photo on our Facebook page.

We’ll even help you if you get stuck with your declutter decision making.

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Written by

Certified Professional Organizer®, Scott Roewer is founder of The Organizing Agency, a professional organization and productivity company devoted to teaching residential and business clients how to increase productivity, save money, and how to live a more organized and abundant life.

An award winning company, in 2013, The Organizing Agency was once again awarded the Angie’s List Super Service award, in 2012 the National Association of Professional Organizers recognized Scott with its top honor, the Founders’ Award, and later the same year, the U.S. Air Force commended his volunteerism, naming him Joint Base Andrews “Hometown Hero.” For more information on Scott’s team and how they can help you, contact the office online or call us directly at 202-249-8330.

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