10 ways to declutter in five minutes or less.

one of the reasons it took us so unnecessarily long to get onto the minimalism wagon is that i thought we just didnt have the time to do it. i thought the only way to really clear out our home was to do a giant, sweeping purge of the whole hose all at once which was obviously so overwhelming and terrifying so i never bothered to do it. 
well, these days im a lot older and wiser and more experienced in the field of decluttering. and one of the most important lessons ive learned through this whole thing is that you totally can make a huge difference in a small amount of time (especially if youre consistent about it). in fact, small, frequent purges are probably more effective than big drastic ones because they make decluttering a habit, rather than a single event. 
and it really doesnt have to take much time at all. i mean, there are tons of ways to take baby steps toward simplifying your life that take literally less than five minutes. and we all have five minutes, right? 
in five minutes you could: 
clean off one shelf. 
clean out one drawer. 
unsubscribe from 10 email lists. 
unfollow 10 social media accounts. 
set a timer and delete files from your phone of computer. 
toss expired foods/medicines. 
fill up one box/bag of junk. 
throw out old mail. 
toss empty/unsued bath + body products. 
clean out your purse/wallet/planner. 
see, these small steps are totally fast and easy (and i made sure to include some that help combat the "other" kinds of clutter that are just as problematic as junk) . while they may not seem like they accomplished a whole lot at first, over time enough baby steps will start to turn into big changes. 
how do you like to do some quick decluttering? 

nine great times to purge.

here we are in the middle of january and the meyers family is in the middle of what i am affectionately referring to as "purge 2.0", even though we spent basically all of 2015 cleaning, organizing, and downsizing in order to simplify our life and home. if we did all that, then why are we doing it all over again? well, as im pretty sure ive mentioned before, decluttering has a way of just uncovering an entirely different mess that was lurking below the mess you just cleaned up. also, between the new baby, alices birthday, and christmas, weve kind of had a little extra "stuff" coming in to our apartment lately. 

it seemed appropriate that with the new year, wed do a quick (but thourough) purge of the house in order to keep on top of the clutter situation. after we decided to do this, i got to thinking about how small, frequent purges are a lot faster, easier, and less emotionally draining than trying to do the whole house in one go. so i decided to come up with a handy list of great times to do some decluttering: 

after the holidays. holidays = presents, wrappings, decorations, and just, like, so much stuff. we chose new years for an annual (starting this year) purge to help us get out of "holiday" mode and back into "real life mode" as quickly as possible. 

after birthdays. birthdays are like mini-christmases that happen at all different times of the year, and it really helps to clear out the old to make room for the new (especially when you have kids. why do kids have so much stuff?)

before having a baby. not only do babies have a lot of stuff, but do you know whats really hard to do when you have a new baby in the house? clean. getting rid of as much as possible before the baby comes means youll have WAY less to clean (and more time to enjoy that new baby). 

when you move. if its not worth moving, its not worth keeping is what i always say. packing and unpacking forces you to see everything you have and you might as well get rid of anything youre not into while youre at it. 

before school starts. for us, things get really busy and hectic during the school year and it really helps to start the semester with a fresh, clean house. 

after school gets out. on the other hand, sometimes stuff piles up during the craziness and needs to be cleared out over break. 

after kids growth spurts. before i had kids i thought they grew slow and gradually, but apparently they dont grow at all for a long time and then SUDDENLY are an entirely different size. these times are great for getting rid of not just outgrown clothes, but also outgrown, broken, or unloved toys. 

when you have unexpected free time. sometimes youre just bored, and decluttering is a really great way to use that downtime productively. 

when youre stressed out. maybe its just me, but there is something SO calming and therapeutic about getting rid of stuff and making clean, empty spaces in my home. as i get older i realize how much clutter totally stresses me out, so when i get stressed, i get rid of stuff. 

basically, any time is a good time for some decluttering, but some times make a little more sense than others. after talking things over with james, we decided that it would be a good idea for us to do a quick purge at new years, and at each of our birthdays (which are in april, july, and october, respectively) so that we can all work together to keep clutter at bay. 

when do you like to declutter? do you do it on any kind of schedule? 

other kinds of clutter (+ why they matter)

through my series on minimal living, I've spent most of my time talking about stuff. you know, the physical clutter that fills up our homes and gets in the way of what we actually want to do in life. cutting back on clutter is a huge part of moving toward minimalism, but as weve made our transition, we quickly realized that it wasnt just stuff closing up our lives. as we purged and cleaned and learned to live with less stuff, it became apparent that in a lot of ways, this "other" clutter was just as, if not more, harmful than the physical clutter we were working so hard to fight against. 
so what exactly do i mean by "other kinds of clutter"? i mean things like: 
digital clutter. all the files, photos, emails, etc. that are filling up your computers/devices. not only do these things get in the way of you finding what you actually need, they also take up valuable memory that you could be using for something more productive. 
mental clutter. all the mental "lists" we tend to make to try and feel more organized (things we need to buy, things we need to get done, plans we need to make, etc.), have a tendency to do the opposite and make us stressed out and frazzled. making a habit of writing them down can make a huge difference in the stress/anxiety department (this has been a huge one for me personally. yes, i do spend way too much money on notepads and calendars). 
media clutter. this includes both media media (tv shows, news, and the like), as well as social media platforms/accounts that you follow/watch but arent getting any benefit from. im not saying that all media is bad and that you have to live in a cave, but what i am saying is that when you start cutting out the stuff that youre not really into, it frees up SO much time and mental energy. 
false productivity. by this i mean all the little things we do to check off boxes on our to-do lists so we feel like were doing something but arent really. for example, i used to do a LOT of internet surveys (for money): almost every day id spend at least half an hour clicking on things feeling SO productive when really all i did was make a couple of dollars in gift cards. for a time this was a good way to make a little extra money, but as time went on (and life got more complicated) i realized that i was using a LOT of valuable time on... well, nothing really. 
unfinished projects. this one is a double whammy: unfinished projects take up physical space just by existing, and also mental space by reminding us that theyre there and need us to finish them. when the unfinished projects start piling up, make the decision to either get rid of them or actually finish them. and dont start any new projects until every unfinished one has met one fate or the other. 
time sucks. you know, those dumb little things you get sucked into for no apparent reason that you dont even enjoy (im not talking about recreational activities, im talking about the ones that serve no purpose. entertainment is a very important purpose). this might be phone games or facebook scrolling or clickbait articles or whatever, but youd be surprised at how much smoother life can go when you let them (whatever they are for you) go. 
overcommitment. much like filling up your day with false productivity and time sucks keeps you from getting anything really important done, overcommitting yourself so that every day on your calendar is booked with something does the exact same thing, just on a bigger scale. i mean, theres nothing wrong with being busy if all that busy-ness is intentional and productive, but nothing good comes from being busy for the sake of being busy.  
taking the time to deal with the clutter in our home really opened our eyes to the other kinds of clutter in our lives, and it didnt take long for use to realize that these types of things had exactly the same nasty side effects as the "regular" kind of clutter. this may seem like a kind of negative revelation, however, just like the stuff in our home, as we identify and address these other sources of clutter, were seeing the same kinds of benefits to the decluttering all over again. 
what are your thoughts on these other kinds of clutter? how do you deal with them to simplify your life? 

why minimalism?

my series on minimalist living has probably been my most popular so far. and while that  probably has a lot to do with minimalism being kind of a hot topic in the blogosphere right now, i couldnt be happier about this. why? because learning to embrace a minimalist lifestyle has been a really awesome experience for us. its been challenging, for sure. but its also been rewarding. im planning on continuing my posts on minimal living on a weekly basis (like i was before my break), but since i was gone so long, i wanted to take a few minutes to back up and talk about why weve chosen to embrace minimalism: 
so why have we decided to make these changes? 
our tiny home is not as temporary as wed originally hoped. obviously nobodys planning on keeping all four of us in this one bedroom apartment forever, but its just not practical for us to move into a bigger place (which would require me bringing in a significant second income) until after i graduate with a degree in an employable field. which wont be happening for... (at least) three semesters. if were going to make this place work (which we need to) we need to clear it out. 
we need to let go of our past baggage. james and i both came into this marriage with a LOT of baggage (both literal and figurative) that had created really unhealthy relationships with "stuff". after getting married, we moved a lot, dragging all that crap around and not dealing with it. it took us way too long to figure this out, but the biggest thing we can do to get rid of that baggage is to literally get rid of the baggage. 
we want to make a home we love. because of the past baggage and the moving a lot and the being poor, our apartment was not only disorganized and cluttered, it was cluttered with my stuff, with jamess stuff with stuff other people gave us, and with stuff we bought super cheap because we needed it right now. we had very little stuff that was ours, that we liked and we wanted, to the point that (up until fairly recently) i never felt like i was at home at any of the places we lived. and while thats not the most important thing in life, its something we need as a family. 
we want to actually use our home. when our apartment was stuffed to the gills it was nearly impossible to do well, any of the things that we actually like doing. things like games, projects, having people over, heck, even normal CHORES were difficult before we got serious about de-cluttering (and being a stay at home mom was miserable). living with less stuff gives us so much more space so that i can work and the kids can play and we can actually use the (small) space we have. 
we want to focus on the important things in life. before we got on the minimalism train, almost every activity we did involved some kind of shopping, whether it was buying things or looking at things we wanted to buy or trying to figure out where to put all the stuff we just bought. i could go on and on about why this was bad but the worst part was it kept us from spending time doing the real important things in life, like spending time together, getting outside, going on adventures, and hanging out with our friends and family. 
we dont want to be enslaved by what we own. sure, we could keep everything we have (and dont use), and move in to a bigger place so that we have room for all of it, but then wed both need to get more jobs to have the money to pay for that bigger place, leaving us with little to no time to spend with each other, let alone the stuff that we werent using that we got the bigger house to have room for. people have literally suggested this exact thing to us, and honestly it sounds like my own personal hell. 
we want to teach our kids good habits. it took james and i 24 and 26 years (respectively) to get to the point where we were ok with getting rid of stuff (mind you, that we didnt need or use or even think about), and this was definitely not a good thing. so many parts of our lives would have been much easier if we had learned to be happy living simply. living simply ourselves (we hope) will set an example for our kids so that they dont grow up with the baggage that we had. 
im going to be honest, this whole minimalism thing doesnt come easily to me or james, and our slow transition has had more than its fair share of challenges. but as we move forward (and our apartment gets emptier), the positive changes were seeing in our home, our lives, and even in ourselves, have been more rewarding than weve ever imagined. 
much like my series on money, this ones still in the planning stages as well. do you have any questions youd like answered about minimal living? let me know in the comments! 

you cant take it with you: what it means to downsize (guest post by j.h. moncrieff)

im still on my baby-break so today we have  j h moncrieff guest posting with her story about downsizing: 

photo credit

Not so long ago, I was the girl with over 170 pairs of shoes.

Yes, you read that right. Over 170 pairs of shoes.

What was I thinking? Instead of being a source of shame, this in-your-face conspicuous consumption was my trademark, even something to be proud of.

Coworkers challenged me to wear a different pair of shoes every day. I took pictures of my latest acquisitions and posted them online, to a flood of positive comments. Having the right accessory for every occasion became part of my identity.

To say this wasn't healthy is an understatement.

My giant shoe collection, as beautiful as it was, was also a symptom. A symptom of a much bigger problem. My long-term relationship--a relationship I was sure was going to end in marriage--was on the verge of collapse, and I felt very alone a lot of the time. For an extrovert, that has to be one of the worst feelings in the world--the feeling that no one else really gets you, not even your partner.

My shame of being unable to make yet another relationship work was so great that I couldn't even turn to my friends. In fact, my best friend had no idea things were as bad as they were until I asked her to go apartment-hunting.

Rather than deal with all these painful feelings and the fact that I was probably going to lose one of the most important people in my life, I turned to a welcome distraction--online shopping.

It started innocently enough, searching for just a simple pair of white sandals, and built from there. It quickly became an obsession, and soon living in my house was like celebrating Christmas every day, with new packages arriving all the time. Sometimes I didn't even bother to open them for weeks. It wasn't the shoes themselves, but the thrill of acquiring them that interested me. Somehow, having a lot of possessions made me feel safe.

But of course I wasn't safe. The inevitable happened. The relationship ended, and the little line of credit I'd been meaning to pay off just as soon as I got around to it exploded into an unmanageable mess as I struggled with being solely responsible for all of the household bills. I was in over my head.

Getting out of debt was one of the happiest moments of my life, but it required a lot of sacrifice, and online shopping was the first thing that had to go.

When I realized it was time to make my dream of moving to an island a reality, I knew I was in for some serious downsizing. Yes, you can take it all with you, but why would you want to? Why would anyone want to start a new life bogged down by so many possessions that they can barely move or breathe?

As I looked around my home, I realized I owned many things that I didn't really need or even like that much. Well meant but unneeded gifts from family and friends, letters and cards from people I hadn't spoken to in years, instruments I no longer played, and too much of pretty much everything.

A shopping addiction is hard to break, but I think I've come a long way. When I fill my virtual shopping cart with things I don't need these days, I'm a lot better at shutting down my computer and stepping away. 

I've spent the money I've saved on something I've always wanted to do more of--travel. Thanks to my shoes, I've seen Curacao, Bali, Lombok, China, and Maui. And those experiences are worth more to me than any pair of heels.

 Have you ever downsized? What was the item you had the most difficulty parting with? Have you ever used shopping as a way to avoid dealing with an issue or problem?

Thanks for reading!

J.H. writes scary stories that let her readers escape their everyday lives. She blogs about unsolved mysteries, the supernatural, haunted places, and spooky true stories—when she’s not busy being a journalist, editor, book doctor, and publicist. In her “spare” time, J.H. loves to travel to exotic locales, advocate for animal rights, and muay thai kickbox.

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The Bear Who Wouldn’t Leave: Amazon | Samhain | Kobo | B&N | Trailer

10 things weve learned from minimal living.

at the beginning of all of this, i talked about how our move towards minimalism was a big change, a change i never thought wed ever make. i also talked about how even in a short time, weve benefitted immensely from the changes were making. now today, i want to take a minute and talk about all the lessons that weve learned through this process, because this has been quite the learning experience: 
1. its hard. thoroughly purging as much as possible from our home (despite the fact that its already tiny) was probably one of the hardest things weve ever done as a family. i mean, just physically getting through all. that. stuff. and deciding what to do with it is a long and difficult process, but its hard in other ways too. its emotionally hard to go through all the memories attached to things and learn to let go when you realize they just arent needed, and to face the facts that our clutter problem was caused by our bad habits and we had to change them. having different parts of my house torn up for months on end, moving (and replacing) furniture and getting rid of such huge amounts of stuff was very hard on my psychologically and sent my anxiety through the roof multiple times. going through all of this together as a couple, and not always agreeing on what should stay/go/be replaced (especially coupled with my anxiety episodes/being hugely pregnant) was hard on our marriage. honestly, i cant think of a part of this whole process that wasnt hard. 
2. it gets worse before it gets better. not only was de-cluttering an overall difficult process, but we quickly learned that cleaning out one area meant making a mess in another area. we spent the majority of this year with an assortment of boxes and bins in our bedroom filled with junk waiting to go out, whether it was getting sold, donated, or picked up by a friend or relative and not only was it super discouraging to be doing all that work to still have a giant mess to look at, but also looking at that mess day after day stressed me the heck out. 
3. but oh, it gets better. yeah the mess totally sucked. but the feeling of freedom and relief that came with each load that went out? amazing. and the more we cleaned out, the easier it got, the faster we got at doing it and the more room we had to work in. now that weve gone over the whole house once, its not only a cleaner, brighter, more peaceful place to live, but its also no problem at all to get out a project or some of alices big toys. also, keeping up with de-cluttering on a smaller scale is SO much easier now. 
4. we had a lot of habits to change. rome wasnt built in a day, and neither was our apartment filled with clutter. our clutter was the result of years of bad habits, which was not really something either of us wanted to admit, and they were quite painful to un-learn. but as a result, weve replaced them with better habits and our home just keeps getting nicer and nicer.  
5. but we really dont miss any of that stuff. if i were to put a number on the percentage of our things weve gotten rid of in the past year, id say its creeping up on 50% (i say that because to this day were still taking out small quantities of stuff on the regular), and if i were to put a number on the times weve needed something and realized that we didnt have it anymore that number would be zero. yes, zero. not only had that crap been clogging up our home and our lives for all these years, we have literally not missed a single piece of it. 
6. so much of what we thought we needed was unnecessary. when you get move out/get married/have your first baby everybody comes out with these long lists of stuff you "need" and because you dont know any better you buy/ask people for all of those things. maybe you dont use all of them right away but you hang on to them because, you know, you were told that you need them. and when you make huge life changes like moving from a huge house in the mountains to a tiny city apartment your needs and priorities change drastically. and when you do all of that in a very short amount of time you end up with a huge amount of stuff that you thought/were told that you needed but then realized was just taking up space. 
7. there is no need to fill every empty space. im not sure why (im guessing its just human nature?), but ive noticed that people tend to feel the need to fill every available space in their home and not leave anything empty. i didnt even notice how much i did this until we had gotten to the point where there were empty (or partially empty) shelves and drawers opening up and i found myself trying to figure out what i should get to put in them. but then it hit me that they can just stay that way, just because a space exists doesnt mean that there has to be something in it, especially if we dont need it. 
8. clutter goes way beyond physical things. this was probably the most surprising lesson weve gotten out of this whole thing. as we cleaned out our house and examined our habits where buying/storing/organizing things were concerned, we also inadvertently started examining our lifestyle and habits elsewhere. as we removed the physical things that werent benefitting us, we also noticed the other things that werent benefitting us and started getting rid of those too: phone games, jamberry, netflix, hulu, unnecessary errands, etc. so not only have we freed up a huge amount of space in our home, but we also have much more time to spend together as a family doing the things we actually want to do. 
9. theres always more to get rid of. ive said it before and ill say it again: every layer of stuff we get rid of just uncovers another layer of things we realize we dont need. every time i clean out my closet i find myself getting rid of more and more whether i buy anything new or not, im constantly finding kitchen tools i dont remember ever using and im about to go through all my craft supplies again because i realized how little of it i actually use for work/making things i like. 
10. it feels SO GOOD to not have our lives ruled by stuff. nobody wants to admit that their life is ruled by their stuff, and honestly i never thought our stuff was that big of a problem. sure it was a mess, but certainly not a problem. but as we started hacking away at it, we quickly learned that it was a problem. actually, it was a huge problem that was getting in the way of basically every area of our lives. and as weve ditched the embarrassingly huge amounts of stuff we once had (and continue to do so on a smaller scale), its been amazing to see how much more freedom we have thanks to our emptier home, not having to clean, maintain, organize, and look at all those things that we werent even using. 
even though embracing minimalism was a surprising move for us, and it hasnt been easy, its definitely been a worthwhile experience. and as you can see, weve really learned a lot from it. 
have you made the move to minimalism? whats the most important thing youve learned from it? id love to hear about it in the comments!

what to do with all that stuff (after you purge).

when youre on a full-scale whole-house de-cluttering mission, sometimes the clearing out is the easy part, and the hard part is figuring out exactly where all that junk you cleaned out should go. i mean, this can be difficult enough when you have a few bags of things, but when you have multiple car loads of stuff going out the quantity alone is enough to make it pretty overwhelming. and the stuff adds up fast. 
over the past year or so, from our one bedroom apartment weve taken at least six full car loads of stuff to goodwill, and thats not accounting for any of the stuff that weve sold, given away, or trashed. after all this, i like to think of myself as a sort of expert in the art of getting rid of things, so ive put together a (hopefully) helpful list of where all that stuff can go and what exactly should go where: 
1. the trash. this should be the most obvious one, where anything broken, unusable, perishable, or, you know, just trash, should go. 
2. family and friends. anything that either a. actually belongs to someone else (im really bad at remembering to give back things that i borrow...), or b. is something that you know somebody else would really enjoy/be able to use, should definitely be set aside to be given to that person the next time you see them. 
3. for sale. bigger things (like furniture and appliances), nicer things (like collectables and higher end clothes), and more specialized things (like crafting or sports equipment) tend to be fairly easy to sell, given that you have the time and patience. this is great because you not only get to get rid of all that stuff, but you also get to make some money. and no, you dont have to have a yard sale, there are totally ways around that. 
4. specific donations. if your purge happens to turn up a large quantity of something that a particular charity may be looking for (for instance, after cleaning out my dresser i found a HUGE stash of old prescription glasses), then its definitely a good idea to get those things where they can best be used. 
5. general donations. everything else, provided that its not broken/still useful (clothes, toys, decor miscellaneous household stuff) can be dropped off at the local goodwill/salvation army/whatever thrift store to hopefully find a home with somebody else. 
i recommend sorting things into these categories as you clear things out (for example, for most of our purge i had bins for trash, stuff to sell, and stuff to donate around the house), so as to avoid sorting everything twice, but if you find that it gets in the way of your cleaning, then my all means, clean then sort. 
whats your favorite way of getting rid of stuff? let me know in the comments!

8 things that wont help you de-clutter.

ive spent a lot of time over the past several weeks talking about all sorts of things that can really help you in a quest for a minimal, clutter free home: ive talked about all the awesome benefits of purging, shared my method for de-cluttering without going insane, and even given you a handy list of easy places to start. but what about the things that wont help? 
since we have, oh, several years of very much unsuccessful de-cluttering attempts under our belts, i thought it might also be a good idea to look at things from the other direction. because, im just being real here: not only is there a lot of bad advice and misconceptions out there about living minimally, weve also made our fair share of huge mistakes in this department. so in an attempt to help you avoid unnecessary setbacks and the accompanying frustration, here are a few things that, as we have personally experienced, will not help you de-clutter: 
1. waiting for the right time. i hate to break it to you, but its never exactly the "right time" to do anything, especially big, not-entirely-pleasant projects like de-cluttering. if a big house purge is something you want to do, then you need to make it a priority, either by taking advantage of a chunk of free time (like a long weekend) or starting small and doing what you can when you can. if you try to wait until a time you think you can get everything done all at once, it will never happen. ask me how i know. 
2. unrealistic expectations. obviously everyone has a different clutter situation and a different vision for the end result. BUT no matter what those are, if you go in to things expecting your home to instantly look like a magazine spread, you are going to get discouraged and burned out when that doesnt happen. because thats not going to happen. because magazines are not real life and de-cluttering is kind of a lengthy process. because de-cluttering happens in stages and layers and there isnt always a "done". 
3. unrealistic timelines. much like unrealistic expectations, putting yourself on an unreasonable timeline is also a recipe for disaster. you have no idea how many times ive said "ill clean out my closet today" or "lets clear everything out this weekend" and ended up getting in over my head with a huge mess and not enough time to clean it up and more problems then i started with. it wasnt until we started breaking things down into small bite sized pieces that we had any success with de-cluttering. just think about it this way: the clutter didnt just appear all at once, so its not going to go away all at once either. 
4. more storage space. i used to blame a lot of our clutter on the fact that our apartment really doesnt have a lot of closet space and there arent a lot of places to put things away away. but the thing is, clutter doesnt come from the big stuff hanging out in closets, it comes from all the little every day stuff, and well, no amount of "storage space" is going to put that all away. 
5. cute little boxes and organizers. "a place for everything and everything in its place" is one of those things that really organized people say all the time, and i think a lot of us tend to interpret that as meaning each category of thing needs to be in its own container. which, in theory sounds really nice but in practice just means that youre going to end up with a lot of little boxes everywhere and in order to use anything you have to go find the right one...
6. "clutter catchers" ive mentioned these before, the letter organizers and trays and baskets that we leave around to collect things to put away "later". no, just, no. sure they make a nice receptacle for things you dont want to deal with, but they dont reduce clutter, they just displace the clutter by giving you an acceptable place to put it. 
7. books about organizing. books can be a wonderful resource when it comes to getting organized as far as inspiration and motivation are concerned, but i really, really dont recommend trying to follow one by the letter in an attempt to get organized. why? because every book, no matter how thorough, specific, or "life changing", is just one persons method. what works for them may not work (or even apply) for you, your situation, and your goals, and i can say from experience that trying to follow someone elses method for something as personal as de-cluttering is a sure fire way to drive yourself (and your family) crazy. 
8. not changing the habits that created the clutter in the first place. clutter isnt something that just happens out of nowhere, it builds up slowly as the result of bad habits. so even if theoretically you *could* instantly erase every speck of clutter and make your entire house perfect, if you dont replace those bad habits with better ones (dont worry i can totally help you here), everythings just going to go back to the way it was before. and faster than youd like to admit. 
long story short: paring things down and trying to live minimalistically is pretty awesome. but its hard work getting there. and like, well, most things, whether or not youre successful at it has just as much to do with what you dont do as what you actually do. 
have you survived a major home purge? do you have any advice on what to avoid? 

10 easy places to start de-cluttering.

in any big project or lifestyle change, getting started is always the hardest part. and de-cluttering your entire home is no different. when i talk to people in real life about our move towards a minimal home, the most common reaction i get is "wow thats so great i wish i could do something like that but i just cant find the time", and, i totally get that. i mean, that was one of the things that held us back from doing this for, oh, a few years. 

i think the reason for this is that we tend to think of de-cluttering as a single major event: you clean out the attic, the garage, the closets, and its a big deal and really hard and totally sucks so you avoid it as long as you possibly can. but it doesnt have to be that way, de-cluttering can also be broken down into small, bite-sized pieces that you tackle one at a time, when you can. actually, i already wrote a post about how to do this exact thing, and i recommend approaching it this way, because 1. who really has the time to do everything all in one go, and 2. starting small and moving quickly will totally motivate you to get even MORE decluttering done (have i ever mentioned that purging excess stuff is super addicting?). 

sounds great, right? 

if youre thinking that you want to take a dive into this de-cluttering business, but dont want to get in over your head, put together a list of ten places to get you started. ten places that (generally speaking) are quick and easy to clean out so that you can move right on to marveling at your progress, patting yourself on the back, and getting on with your life, inspired and excited to get to the next spot to de-clutter. 

ready to get going? here they are: 

1. the bathroom. bathrooms are a really great place to start because generally speaking, there isnt a whole lot in there. but empty/almost empty bottles, unused appliances (last time i cleaned out ours i found THREE curling irons. i never curl my hair...), and the like do tend to pile up. the good news is that since there usually isnt a lot to clean, it goes by really fast!

2. the fridge. the fridge is also a great place to start because every decision is super obvious: its either a food youre going to eat soon or its not. quickly tossing out old/expired/unwanted food takes just a few minutes and can make your fridge SO much tidier. 

3. the pantry. much like the fridge, if you arent going to eat/use it soon, it doesnt need to be there, so there arent any hard decisions to make. this can also be a really great way to save money on groceries, either by committing to use up whats in there before buying more, or noting the foods that you can stop buying because they dont get eaten (for example, i havent bought canned soup in at least a year because it just stays in our pantry forever). 

4. kitchen supplies. regardless of how you feel about cooking, everyone has to eat, and when it comes to kitchen supplies the gap between "things you use every day" and "things you never use/things you have way too many of" is usually pretty wide. weeding out extra/unused dishes, tools, and gadgets can make a huge difference and only takes a few minutes. 

5. junk drawers. everybody has them, and to an extent, theyre pretty necessary (i mean, whos house ACTUALLY has a proper place for every single tiny thing?). but, they also have a tendency to accumulate things that are essentially trash (ours always end up full of stickers and business cards and the extra buttons that come on clothes...). periodically cleaning these out is an easy way to make a big dent on some clutter, both by getting rid of trash and making room in the junk drawer for things from elsewhere in the house that really should be in there. 

6. bookshelves. since bookshelves by nature tend to be pretty orderly (i mean, they have a bunch of books lined up in a nice little row), taking note of and picking out anything that isnt useful or hasnt been touched for years to be tossed/donated/sold/etc. 

7. linen closets. linens are another easy purge, since (with the exception of holiday/special occasion items) you either use them or you dont. obviously theres no need to hang on to sheets sized for beds you dont even have (actual thing ive found in our linen closet) or an excessive amount of "extra" blankets or towels (really, unless you have a LOT of overnight guests theres no reason to have more than a couple). an extra bonus here is that paring down linens frees up a TON of space to use that storage for something more productive. 

8. cleaning supplies. unless youre SUPER organized (or i guess, really into cleaning) im guessing you dont spend a lot of time looking at/thinking about your cleaning supplies. but under the sink (or wherever it is you keep such things) is a great place to go through since you can make a HUGE difference by taking a few minutes to toss anything empty/gross/you dont like (and organize whats left). 

9. toiletries/beauty products. im going to go out on a limb here and assume that the majority of my readers are ladies (and please forgive me if i assumed incorrectly), but i think we can all agree here: this stuff just piles up no matter what we do. the good news here is that its also pretty easy (and feels SO GOOD) to sort out all the lotions and sprays and makeup that we dont (or wont, im looking at you all those bright colors of eye shadows i never used...) use regularly and scale down to the essentials. 

10. the medicine cabinet. medicine is another one thats easy-peasy: its expired or its not. and if its expired, then by all means it needs to be (safely) disposed of because safety is important. 

each of these little micro-purges wont take long, probably wont involve a lot of hard questions, and i promise, watching the progress build up as you tackle each one is SUPER motivating when it comes to de-cluttering the bigger stuff. i mean, i thought we were done but after writing this post im about to go over this list again at our place...

how do you like to tackle clutter: all at once or in little bites? let me now in the comments!

7 habits to stop clutter before it starts.

in our efforts to purge our home, we quickly noticed that getting the old clutter out was really only half the battle. the other (and apparently much harder) half, it seems, is breaking the habits that led to the clutter in the first place so that it doesnt just come back to fill the new empty spaces. i mean, if were being honest here, how often do you get things all neat and tidy only to have the same mess on your hands within the next few months/weeks/days? every time, right? 
well, it doesn't have to be that way. IF you work really hard at replacing the bad habits that created the clutter habits with good habits that stop clutter from happening in the first place. its not easy (especially in a house with multiple disorganized people), but its not impossible. i mean, for the first time, our place is staying clean, and thats saying a lot. 
so, after you make the BIG changes to de-clutter your home (the getting rid of things part), what are the small changes (new habits), that can help you keep it clutter free?
1. make a stuff in < stuff out rule. early on, i noticed that a LOT of our clutter came from overbuying: extra groceries, impulse purchases at target or the dollar store, and clearance rack "deals" that we just couldnt pass up. but i also noticed that curbing our shopping/spending habits was not alleviating the clutter. why? because even though we were buying less stuff, we werent getting rid of anything to offset what we were bringing in. so we made a rule: for every (non-essential, non-consumable) thing that we bring in to the house, we have to get rid of at least that many things that we already have. for example, if we find james two great new shirts, he has to get rid of a minimum of two old shirts, if we get some new coffee mugs, at least that many old coffee mugs have to go out. 
2. use things up and toss the empty containers/anything you wont use. kitchens and bathrooms get cluttered FAST with all the partially-used containers of things that tend to accumulate in them, and while some of that is necessary (i mean, you do have to have cleaning supplies and ingredients to cook with), it can be incredibly eye opening to say, round up all of the lotions in your entire house, throw away the ones you dont like (no sense in keeping anything you wont actually use) and not buy any more lotion until what you have completely runs out (this is a thing i actually did and i did not buy lotion for approximately two years). also, when things run out, throw the container away immediately. this will 1. free up a lot of space, and 2. stop the frustration of trying to figure out which shampoo bottle in the shower actually has shampoo still in it. 
3. deal with mail immediately (and go paperless if you can). bills, grocery store ads, coupons, newspapers, junk mail and the like can pile up and swallow whole tables if left unchecked. it happens to everyone, but who wants to spend forever sorting through all that mess? nobody, thats who. thankfully you can avoid this whole mess (and save a ton of time) by throwing away the mail you wont use before you even set it down (on tuesdays i literally pull the sprouts ad out on the way to the trash with the grocery circulars), and then on the off chance that theres a bill or form or something that needs paid/filled out, take care of that right away (this is also a great way to not get super behind/disorganized with important paperwork). 
4. never throw away an empty box (or bag).  no, im not saying hoard all your boxes and bags. what i am saying is that when you find yourself with a particularly large container thats getting thrown out anyway (like, say, when you receive a very large package or come home from a big shopping trip), take that as an opportunity to do a quick run through of the house to fill it up with any other trash and junk that can go out as well. we kind of order a lot of stuff online, so you wouldnt believe the difference this habit has made in keeping our house tidy.  5. banish clutter catchers. things like ring dishes, key holders, baskets, letter organizers, and decorative trays are all really good at tricking us into thinking that were being super organized, while all theyre really doing is giving you a place to dump things indefinitely and not deal with them or put them away. i used to love these kinds of things, but when i realized that whatever went into them just stayed in there forever taking up valuable space and making everything look messy i got rid of them. all of them. and things look so much nicer around here. 
6. master the micro-purge. obviously a big, dramatic purge is going to have the big, dramatic results we all hope for when we decide to do these kinds of things, but if you want to maintain a clutter-free space without having to go through the whole ordeal again, it really helps to periodically look through small areas of your home to see if theres anything else to get rid of. for example, every time i do laundry i look over our closets for things that are wrecked, worn out, or that we havent worn in forever, and pull out a couple things to get rid of at a time. i do the same thing when cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, and alices things too, and while it does add a few extra minutes of cleaning time, it definitely helps us avoid bigger clutter problems in the future. 
7. put things away. several months into this process, weve reached the point where the source of our clutter isnt coming from having too much stuff, or not having proper places to put it, or even not dealing with messes as they come in. the remaining clutter that we have sticking around is mainly the result of simply not putting things away when were finished with them. im not going to pin the blame on anyone in particular because all of us need to work on this: some of us are really bad at throwing our trash away, some of us have a tendency to start projects and get distracted before cleaning up, and some of us are three and just dont have a great grasp of where things belong. this may be the hardest habit to master. for us, at least. 
dont get me wrong, changing habits is hard stuff. but the reward of not having the house fall back apart to its pre-purge state as soon as we thought we were "done" has been oh, so worth it. 
do you have any rules, habits, or routines to help keep your living space clutter free? id love to hear about them in the comments!

6 ways weve turned our clutter into cash (without having a yard sale).

one of the things that has surprised me most with this whole de-cluttering situation is how weve been able to turn quite a bit of our old junk into actual money, especially considering that we live in an apartment on a major boulevard and having a yard sale is completely impossible for us. its not just that we were able to bring in some money that surprised me (though that was a really nice side effect of this big purge), but also just now many yard sale alternatives there are out there. which is great, because, frankly, yard sales are basically the worst thing ever. i mean, theres all the prep work and the obscenely early mornings and the haggling and the still having to take 95% of that crap down to goodwill anyway... but i digress. 
my point here is that there are tons of ways you can make money from your old junk without having a yard sale. honestly, this may have been one of the most important things ive learned through this whole process. now, i do need to put a little disclaimer here and point out that we havent exactly been raking in the dough this way, and this is by no way implying that you (or anyone) is sitting on a fortune and can solve all your financial woes by selling junk (unfortunately ive seen this attitude a few too many times on personal finance blogs), and really letting go of the junk should be a reward in and of itself. the extra money is just icing on the cake.
so how exactly can one go about doing this? well... here are a few suggestions to get started (though, i feel like i should point out that this is nowhere near an exhaustive list, and some suggestions may not be available to you locally). 
1. craigslist. this one is the most obvious, but also my least favorite. if you live in a major city (like we do) you probably have access to a pretty large and active craigslist community ready and willing to snap up whatever it is you post for sale. provided that you manage to get it in the right category at the right time on the right day of the week so that it actually gets seen. craigslist seems to be the best way to get rid of big-ticket items like furniture and appliances (this is how we were able to FINALLY get rid of the old dressers), however, theres also the downside of dealing with crazy lowball offers and flaky people. 
2. local resale groups. this is something i JUST learned about, and i REALLY wish i had known about it sooner. these local groups usually exist on facebook, and are typically a closed group for a very specific area. because the pool of people is smaller, its a little easier for people to see what youre posting for sale, and (at least in my local group) there has been a LOT less haggling and flaky buyers than on craigslist. also, i have been very surprised at the things people are willing to come pick up that wouldnt have even gotten a second look on craigslist. 
3. book off. book off is a local (southern california) chain of used bookstores, that buys your old books (and video games, dvds, etc.) for cash on the spot. obviously theyre turning the books around to sell at a profit so they payout isnt great, BUT theyll take almost any book in decent condition with a valid ISBN number. if you have a lot of books (like we did, 4 or 5 large bags at one point) to get rid of, this is a great way to make a few bucks, AND hopefully get your old books into the hands of someone who will actually use them. 
4. thredup. thredup is basically a HUGE online consignment store, meaning, theyll buy your old clothes (as long as theyre in great condition and meet their strict brand guidelines), and pay you a portion of the selling price. but unlike typical brick and mortar consignment stores, they take womens, kids, AND baby clothes and you dont have to take anything anywhere. you just order a clean out bag, and send off your goods (its completely free!). whatever they decide to sell, they pay you for, and whatever you dont, they donate. also, if you order anything through my referral link, we both get $10 to spend. just saying. 
5. half.com. if you dont live in an area with a book off store, have a lot of texbooks or bestseller-type books to get rid of, or dont mind taking a bit of extra time to get rid of your old books, selling them on half.com is super easy and can bring in a surprising amount of money. you can search your books by isbn, price your books a little lower than what theyre currently selling for, and after you ship them off, half.com will pay you (the sale price, plus a shipping fee, minus a little commission) via direct deposit. 
6. instagram. recently, when we were having a hard time getting rid of the huge mirror from our bedroom set (no one on craigslist OR the local resale group was interested), i decided to put a post up on instagram to see if any local friends or followers could use it. i figured, what could it hurt, especially since i only have about 250 facebook friends (and nobody sees anything i post because of how choosy facebook is with what they show people), and about 700 IG followers (some of which HAVE to be local, right?). so i took a couple minutes to put up a post, and it turns out my cousin (who doesnt have a facebook) wanted the mirror and picked it up a couple days later. so, long story short, even if you DONT have the time/energy for a full blown instagram shop or closet sale, instagram can totally be a valuable way to sell things quickly. 
do you have a favorite way to sell things you no longer need? let me know in the comments!