The Best Way to Declutter

Get four boxes. Next, label them (or, for that matter just make space for four different piles on the floor). Each box (or pile) should be labeled: Keep, Donate/Sell, Recycle, Trash.

Get your timer set for one hour (or you can do it in smaller increments of time-perhaps 15 minutes at a time). Take the set time and do a small section of your closet or one drawer. Ask yourself which pile each item should be in. No procrastinating here. Use your gut intuition! Once you have a certain section cleared out, take the remaining time to put back all the "Keep" items neatly. Repeat this process each day. Before you know it, you'll have a big project you were quite frankly dreading completed!

AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS...

My mom (may she rest in peace) once told me this story of an elderly woman who was living alone and quite frail. She would frequently talk to her grandson on the phone and each time should would beg him to please come and visit. She told him she would make him lunch, and in return she ask that he move her china cabinet in the hall towards the front entry area. He always said, "Yeah, yeah, I'll come and do it soon."

Three months go by and this elderly woman's grandson finally came to visit. To his surprise the china cabinet she often nagged him to move was miraculously in the front entry hall! What?! "How did that get there grandma???"  The answer he got from his grandmother was that she did it herself. Every day she would muster up all her energy and give it a good push towards the front door. Now, it resides right where she wants it.